snglsDAO: How To Decentralize The Video Economy, with Troy Murray

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In this episode, we talk to Troy Murray about snglsDAO: a BitTorrent and blockchain-based system for distributing and monetizing video content, the crazy amounts of money SingularDTV raised in their ICO, and why the ICO system seems to have provided a bad incentive to develop actual products. Find out how snglsDAO is intending to take power away from centralized services like YouTube, why that goal suddenly seems incredibly urgent, and why a Distributed Autonomous Organization is the right way to go about it.

Rabble: Decentralisation & Disaster

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In this episode Jamie talks with Evan Henshaw Plath, aka @rabble, about how he sees the world during and after Covid-19 - and the role for decentralised technologies, bitcoin, and survivable communication systems in whatever comes next. Evan's currently building Verse, a social network built on the Scuttlebutt protocol.

Into The Fediverse, with Sean Tilley

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In this episode we meet Sean Tilley (aka @deadsuperhero) of We Distribute (and formerly the Diaspora project) to discuss: early days at Diaspora, the first Facebook alternative to really reach critical mass; the steady rise of Mastodon and why the Fediverse its gaining traction; some surprising factors pushing people to move from Big Social to federated social media networks; and whether technologists could (or should) move beyond de-platforming to begin refusing use of their technologies to those whose political ideas they disagree with.

‘Enter The Periphery’: Regulation & Decentralization

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In this episode, I reflect on STEAL THIS SHOW episode S04E03, with Cory Doctorow. One of the big themes to come up in the conversation was the European Copyright Directive -- which, if passed early next year, will threaten the future of the Web as we know it. But does this threat to the future of the the traditional Web mean the moment of decentralized services like IPFS and Blockstack has finally come?

‘Solarpunk Social’, with Scuttlebutt

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In this episode we meet Zenna, Andre and Zack from Scuttlebutt, a P2P-based social 'network of networks' based around a BitTorrent-like distribution technology. 

After figuring out what Scuttlebutt is (and is not) we discuss: the roots of Scuttlebutt in New Zealand, the system's politically anarchist/libertarian ethos, how Scuttlebutt survived (or shrugged off) a right-wing deluge; and how SSB's technical architecture eliminates the need for moderators.

With social networks like Facebook, Twitter and 4Chan increasingly becoming propagation tanks for viciously partisan net cultures, we talk about what makes Scuttlebutt different: it's a network that resists aggregation, massification,  and centralisation. Scuttlebutt is succeeding where Diaspora failed precisely because it doesn't seek to replace the social media behemoths: Scuttlebutt is tiny by design, happy to be human, and based around the ethos of 'solarpunk' -- a vision of a future we actually want, where high technology is put in service of humans and the environment.

Showrunner & Host Jamie King | Editor Lucas Marston (Hollagully)
Original Music David Triana | Web Production Eric Barch

Presented by TorrentFreak  | Season SponsorPrivate Internet Access

Episode Sponsor ZCash Company

 

Executive Producers: Mark Zapalac, Eric Barch, Nelson Larios, George Alvarez, Adam Burns, Daniel, Grof.

Sponsorship slots are currently full. For future sponsor opportunities, please email info@stealthisshow.com

‘Crypto & The Beyond’, with Primavera De Filippi

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In this episode, we meet Primavera De Filippi, author of the recently published 'Blockchain and the Law', from Harvard University Press (co-authored with Aaron Wright). Primavera is interested in how the law will change to accommodate blockchain -- and how blockchain might replace parts of the law. We've already seen how P2P filesharing strained the world's copyright law: what changes will be ushered in by P2P money? We discuss the future of blockchain-based technologies, and whether decentral systems are doomed to create new incumbents and new forms of centralisation; whether (and how) forking could be a solution against this 're-centralisation'; and how Ethereum's smart contracts may have a fatal flaw that the philosophy of law already knows about.
Primavera De Filippi is a permanent researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, a faculty associate at the Berkman-Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. She is a member of the Global Future Council on Blockchain Technologies at the World Economic Forum, and co-founder of the Internet Governance Forum’s dynamic coalitions on Blockchain Technology (COALA). Her fields of interest focus on legal challenges raised by decentralized technologies, with a particular focus on blockchain technologies. She is investigating the new opportunities for these technologies to enable new governance models and participatory decision-making through the concept of governance-by-design.

Showrunner & Host Jamie King | Editor Lucas Marston (Hollagully) Original Music David Triana | Web Production Eric Barch

Presented by TorrentFreak

Sponsored by Private Internet Access

Executive Producers: Mark Zapalac, Eric Barch, Nelson Larios, George Alvarez.

For sponsorship enquiries, please email info@stealthisshow.com

STEAL THIS SHOW S01E14: Kickass Down – with Peter Sunde, Gary Fung and Andrew Norton

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The alleged owner of KickassTorrents was arrested last week, to be extradited from Poland to the United States. The site - at least the original version - remains offline. In this episode of STEAL THIS SHOW, we invite Peter Sunde, co-founder of The Pirate Bay, Andrew Norton, chairman of the US Pirate Party, and Gary Fung, founder of Isohunt, to discuss this critical event, its significance for the torrent community, and implications for the world of P2P. We discuss the propriety of extraordinary rendition for copyright crime, the question of how much money pirates are really making, and how the anti-P2P agenda is leading to further decentralisation. Kickass Torrents, we learn, is just one head of the many-headed hydra.

Showrunner & Host Jamie King | Editor Riley Byrne Original Music David Triana | Web Production Siraje Amarniss

Presented by TorrentFreak | Sponsored by  Private Internet Access

For sponsorship enquires, please email info@stealthisshow.com

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