‘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.

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‘The TAO of the DAO Pt. 2’ with Chris Beams of Bisq

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This is the second part of our interview with Chris Beams, founder of the decentralised cryptocurrency exchange, Bisq. We discuss the inner workings of the Bisq service, how it compares to the widely used platform Local Bitcoins, and the intricacies of designing decentral P2P systems for financial operations. From there, we move into some of the political/philosophical implications of Bisq as a Distributed Autonomous Organisation (DAO): are we evolving, with Bitcoin and other P2P networks, functionalities which parallel certain present-day institutions, and which could one day eliminate the need for  establishment altogether? And could a future democracy be composed of "opt-in" components that actually do better at providing for our basic human needs?

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.

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‘P2P Money: The End Of Big Government?’ with Paige Peterson of ZCash

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In this episode we meet ZCash's Paige Peterson. ZCash is a privacy-enhanced fork of Bitcoin that can provide fully anonymous transactions using zero-knowledge cryptography. We discuss ZCash's relationship to Bitcoin and why Bitcoin could use a community manager; how the first P2P revolution in filesharing is segueing into the P2P money revolution - even bringing along some of the same developers; the role ZCash could play in hyperinflated economies like Venezuela's, and even closer to home; how (and if) government can continue after a general shift to using crypto as money; and finally we delve into New Hampshire's libertarian Free State Project, whose participants are doing a kind of 'live philosophy' on how future communities run on Bitcoin or ZCash might work. Could we have socialism without centralisation or 'big government'?
Paige has been immersed within the peer-to-peer technology world for 5 years and counting. Through roles with mesh networking startup Open Garden, P2P torage and communications company, MaidSafe, and as Co-organizer for the San Francisco Bitcoin Meetup, she has gained appreciation for the diverse applications of decentralized networks. She is interested in a wide variety of digital media and tech entrepreneurship and is an advocate for open standards, user privacy and decentralized technologies. After receiving a BFA practicing experimental tech art with a strong focus on complexity in nature, her interest was drawn towards political and technological activism centering around concepts and tools for individual empowerment.

Showrunner & Host Jamie King | Editor Riley Byrne Original Music David Triana | Web Production Eric Barch

Presented by TorrentFreak

Sponsored by Private Internet Access & Premiumize

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

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The Future Of BitTorrent, with Bram Cohen

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In this episode, we hang out with Bram Cohen, the inventor of BitTorrent, to discuss the origins of BitTorrent in the Mojo Nation project, why BitTorrent is still relevant given our increasingly low-cost bandwidth environment, how Big Content could have competed with Free, but chose not to - and the bumpy last years at Bram's company BitTorrent Inc., including a near-death foray into content licensing and production. And for those of you following cryptocurrencies: stop the press - Bram is starting his own bitcoin competitor.

Showrunner & Host Jamie King | Editor Riley Byrne Original Music David Triana | Web Production Eric Barch

Presented by TorrentFreak

Sponsored by Private Internet Access & Premiumize

Executive Producers: Mark Zapalac, Eric Barch, Nelson Larios

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‘How P2P Will Save The World’, with Samer Hassan

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In this episode we meet Samer Hassan (@samerp2p) researcher in decentralized collaboration, activist and Berkman Center fellow. We discuss why the swarm is safer than the cloud, the new decentralized tools powering resistance movements, and how and why the centralization of online services is a threat to our freedom.
With a background in Social Sciences, Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Samer is passionate about how to build free/open source privacy-aware decentralized systems (e.g. blockchain) to facilitate collaborative communities and social movements. He led the technical team that built the backend-as-a-service for collaborative apps SwellRT; the app for collaborative communities Teem, used by a diversity of social collectives; and the real-time collaborative editor JetPad, which aims to provide a fully-fledged free/open source alternative to Google Docs, and which is privacy-aware and decentralized/federated.

Showrunner & Host Jamie King | Editor Riley Byrne Original Music David Triana | Web Production Eric Barch

Presented by TorrentFreak

Sponsored by Private Internet Access & Premiumize

Executive Producers: Mark Zapalac, Eric Barch, Nelson Larios

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The Information Apocalypse, with LBRY’s Jeremy Kauffman.

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This episode features LBRY's founder and CEO, Jeremy Kauffman. Jeremy introduces us to the soon-to-be-launched, blockchain-based, P2P content platform LBRY, and discusses the excitements, challenges and potential threats to liberty of running a completely decentralized, out-of-control platform. We take on a variety of topics: upstart 'shitcoins' and their similarities to currencies in the US before the Federal Reserve; whether the era of "too much information" is causing social instability - and if we need to rethink starting projects like LBRY as a consequence; the libertarian idea of 'free anarchy zones' and Jamie's idea for a Robot Slave Party; and whether Julian Assange's problems are mostly a result of Wikileaks' centralized information infrastructure.

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

Presented by TorrentFreak

Sponsored by Private Internet Access & Premiumize

Executive Producers: Mark Zapalac, Eric Barch.

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The Digital Underground, with The Grey Lodge’s Joe Matheny

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The Grey Lodge was an underground private torrent tracker used by millions of people per month in their quest to uncover the esoteric, strange and the downright weird. In this episode we hear from Joe Matheny, one of the founders of the site, about how it kicked off in the very early days of BitTorrent, online culture in the early days of the Internet, proto-copyright trolls, how even weirdos eventually get pursued by the MPAA, and how the demise of indie trackers from Grey Lodge to What.CD mean a net loss for our culture. Coming soon: the second part of this interview, in which Joe discusses his work as an early creator of "this is not a game" ARG experiences and his well-known work Ong's Hat, The Incunabula Papers. We'll be making that available for supporters on the Patreon (and maybe more widely) in due course. In the meantime, if you're curious to take a look at some of Joe's work, he's been kind enough to give us a free pack including Ong's Hat and some samples from his ARG! Enjoy.

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

Presented by TorrentFreak | Sponsored by Private Internet Access

Executive Producers: Mark Zapalac

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‘The Platform Is You’ – With Fight For The Future’s Holmes Wilson

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Returning guest Holmes 'I'm on a boat' Wilson (Fight For The Future) checks in from... a boat in the harbour of Rio de Janeiro to discuss the ongoing attempt to extradite Megaupload's Kim Dotcom to the United States, why Creative Future is publicly dissing his organisation, and what (if anything) should come after big torrent sites. We then took another twenty minutes to discuss how decentralisation of media is contributing to the rise of the kek-worshipping alt-right. How does P2P affect political power in general? And what's the importance of meme-creation in a distributed media environment? All this and more in a bumper episode of STEAL THIS SHOW!

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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