The Network State Podcast

Latest Episodes:

#7 - Bryan Johnson's Blueprint for Longevity Jan 28, 2024

Show notes

Bryan Johnson founded Braintree and sold it for $800M. Then he plowed the proceeds into eternal life. He turned himself into the world's most measured man, got completely jacked, wrote a book, and just launched the Blueprint store (https://blueprint.bryanjohnson.com) for the world to copy what he's done. Now Balaji and Bryan talk about how we can extend lifespans through better technology. OUTLINE 0:00 - Bryan Doesn't Skip Leg Day 5:46 - Witnessing Brain Surgery 9:31 - Measuring the Brain 18:26 - How Bryan Got Into Longevity 22:27 - Bryan's Algorithm for Health 27:21 - Every Calorie Had to Fight for Its Life 32:16 - Measuring Intervention 37:26 - Blueprint for Nutrition 42:11 - Don't Die 48:55 - No One Paid Attention Till Proof of Workout 52:05 - The Five Stages 1:03:53 - What Do Ideologies Have to Offer 1:14:12 - Spoilers for Bryan's Book "Don't Die"

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/YvSX0rLyERs SOCIAL https://protocol.bryanjohnson.com/ https://linktr.ee/bryanjohnson__ https://www.amazon.com/DONT-DIE-Zero-ebook/dp/B0CNDDHR79 https://thenetworkstate.com/podcast https://twitter.com/bryan_johnson https://twitter.com/balajis

#6 - Chris Dixon on Read Write Own Jan 28, 2024

Show notes

Read Write Own (readwriteown.com) is a new book by Chris Dixon, general partner at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and founder of the largest crypto fund in the world. It's an important work that is simultaneously the best crypto tutorial for newcomers and an accessible reference for experts. Balaji and Chris are long-time friends and worked together at a16z for years. Here they discuss Read Write Own and the state of crypto in 2024. OUTLINE 00:20 - Chris Introduces Read Write Own 05:04 - Why Books Are Harder than Essays 11:43 - Overview of Read Write Own 18:01 - The 2000s: Open RSS vs Proprietary Social 25:36 - Every Protocol Now Gets Global State 31:29 - Web3 Versions of Web2 Apps 35:10 - Proprietary Networks Are Locking Down 38:30 - Crypto Subsidizes Creatives 42:34 - Virtual Goods and Online Status 43:56 - Own Usernames Like Domain Names 47:35 - What Digital Ownership Means 48:32 - Tech Giants' Power and User Leverage. 58:08 - Collaborative Storytelling 01:01:07 - Digital Identity and Work with Web3 01:09:16 - Conclusion

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/_nIQztk5KWY SOCIAL https://readwriteown.com https://thenetworkstate.com/podcast https://twitter.com/cdixon https://twitter.com/balajis

#5 - India's Largest Exit Jun 30, 2023

Show notes

The $16B acquisition of Flipkart was the largest in Indian tech history. Balaji speaks with Flipkart founder/CEO Binny Bansal on how he built the company from scratch when Indian startups weren't even a thing — and how Flipkart's rise parallels the rise of India itself.

#4 - The Winklevoss Twins and Balaji Jun 22, 2023

Show notes

Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss talk with Balaji about how Washington, DC is losing crypto, while other countries like the UAE and Japan are winning web3.

OUTLINE

0:00 - I'm 6'5", 220, and there's two of me!

0:58 - Crypto flippening from America to Asia

7:15 - Crypto-friendly jurisdictions in the US: Wyoming, Tennessee

8:10 - The SEC is a failed regulator

18:45 - Crypto-friendly jurisdictions worldwide: Japan, Hong Kong, Dubai, El Salvador

27:31 - Winklevosses expanding in India

33:25 - What comes out of crypto?

35:45 - Flashback to 2013 TechCrunch Disrupt

37:01 - Crypto and AI, without the buzzword bingo

44:14 - The Winklevoss city

LINKS

1) Gemini: https://www.gemini.com/careers

2) Wyoming DAO law: https://legalnodes.com/article/wyoming-dao-llc

3) Tennessee DAO law: https://www.natlawreview.com/article/beyond-reasonable-daoubt-tennessee-s-limited-liability-statute-decentralized

4) UAE Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority (VARA): https://www.vara.ae/en

5) Japan Web3 support: https://www.coindesk.com/policy/2023/04/06/japan-releases-web3-white-paper-to-promote-industry-growth-in-the-country

6) 2013 TechCrunch with Balaji, Naval, Winklevosses: https://techcrunch.com/2013/09/10/disrupt-sf-13-bitcoin-panel

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/STbYujxjk1E

SOCIAL

https://twitter.com/cameron

https://twitter.com/tyler

https://twitter.com/balajis

https://thenetworkstate.com

#3 - The President of Palau Feb 24, 2023

Show notes

The President of Palau and Balaji discuss how the tiny island country is becoming a digital leader, experimenting with everything from on-chain identity to drone delivery.

Despite having less than 20,000 citizens, Palau is a full UN member state. Its path to diplomatic recognition holds many lessons for aspiring founders of new communities. Joining Palau President Surangel Whipps Jr. in this chat is William Wang, founder of rns.id, the Palaun government’s crypto identity partner.

OUTLINE

0:00 - Intro

2:03 - The Republic of Palau

6:18 - Palau's path to sovereignty

8:35 - How Palau is using crypto

10:40 - The President's background

16:51 - Returning to Palau

18:42 - What is RNS.ID?

25:08 - Palau's government structure

27:23 - Partnerships in Palau

34:15 - Diplomatic relations

36:29 - The advantages of small countries

42:00 - Palau's developing technologies

45:04 - Gaining diplomatic recognition

48:59 - Outro

VIDEO

YouTube: https://youtu.be/3FuQvG2dmM4

CREDITS

Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep

Images: twitter.com/elijah10t

SOCIAL

twitter.com/Surangeljr

rns.id

twitter.com/balajis

thenetworkstate.com/podcast

#2 - Tobi Lütke & Kaz Nejatian on Shopify's Country-Sized Economy Feb 15, 2023

Show notes

Tobi Lütke (Shopify Founder & CEO), Kaz Nejatian (Shopify COO), and Balaji review how Shopify rose from tiny startup to $180B+ global economy, with an annual GMV on par with the GDP of New Zealand. In the process they touch on Hayek, the Hanseatic League, merchant cavemen, the history of the corporation, and the optimal level of platform decentralization.

OUTLINE
00:00 - Introduction
02:39 - Shopify has the scale of a small country
08:49 - Lifestyle businesses take up your whole life
20:52 - SMBs can be harder than startups
27:13 - Shopify could invest in its merchants
32:23 - Shopify's economy is on par with Greece or New Zealand
38:40 - Money, time, risk, attention
39:55 - Is all retail a form of arbitrage?
47:14 - The history of the corporation informs the development of smart contracts
56:57 - Founders start as lead engineer, end up as chief psychiatrist
1:00:27 - Shopify is not just technology but community
1:06:26 - The concept of computational context
1:14:34 - Shopify as a dashboard for the global economy
1:22:48 - Atoms are so much more complex than bits
1:28:41 - Balancing centralized vs decentralized at Shopify
1:43:26 - If they could start a new country, what would Tobi and Kaz build?
2:03:28 - Kaz on working at Shopify
2:04:31 - Tobi's parting thoughts

LINKS
1) 100 true fans: kk.org/thetechnium/1000-true-fans/
2) Gobekli Tepe: smithsonianmag.com/history/gobekli-tepe-the-worlds-first-temple-83613665
3) Shopify active merchant: github.com/activemerchant/active_merchant
4) Fall of Civilizations: youtube.com/@FallofCivilizations
5) Founding vs Inheriting: thenetworkstate.com/founding-vs-inheriting
6) Shopify careers: shopify.com/careers

VIDEO
YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=DfrhCGpRCPI

CREDITS
Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep
Images: twitter.com/elijah10T

SOCIAL
twitter.com/tobi
twitter.com/CanadaKaz
twitter.com/balajis
thenetworkstate.com

#1 - Vitalik Buterin on Starting New Countries, Upgrading Ethereum, and Improving Yourself Feb 07, 2023

Show notes

A discussion between Vitalik Buterin and Balaji Srinivasan on starting new countries, improving yourself, and upgrading Ethereum.

OUTLINE
00:00 - Introduction
01:27 - A brief history of Ethereum
16:54 - The DAO hack
20:32 - The Devcon 2 attack
33:24 - The Merge
35:52 - Ethereum Roadmap
47:41 - The de-OFACization of Ethereum?
1:06:18 - Starting new countries
1:22:20 - Svalbard
1:27:29 - Network effects
1:33:12 - Regulation as a bounding box
1:35:42 - What new country would Vitalik start?
1:39:39 - Network states and social networks
1:43:19 - Advice on leveling up
1:51:17 - How Vitalik learned Chinese
1:55:14 - Learning by doing

LINKS
1) Ethereum Average Block Time: https://ycharts.com/indicators/ethereum_average_block_time
2) What is EIP-1559: https://consensys.net/blog/quorum/what-is-eip-1559-how-will-it-change-ethereum
3) Quadratic Hash problem: https://bitcoinclassic.com/devel/Quadratic%20Hashing.html
4) The merge: https://ethereum.org/en/upgrades/merge
5) MEV watch: https://www.mevwatch.info
6) Sousveillance: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sousveillance
7) Best weather cities to live in the US: https://wired.com/2014/02/see-u-s-cities-get-least-days-pleasant-weather
8) Global passport ranking: https://passportindex.org/byRank.php?ccode=cn
9) Longyearbyen: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Longyearbyen
10) Demography of the Roman Empire: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demography_of_the_Roman_Empire

VIDEO
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1xhPqZZYJSE

CREDITS
Editing: twitter.com/DholakiaJaydeep
Images: twitter.com/elijah10t

SOCIAL
thenetworkstate.com
twitter.com/VitalikButerin
twitter.com/balajis

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected