AMA 03/07/2021

Open today's AMA live from Colorado, choosing to schedule it in advance instead of going impromptu.

Frames Alonzo as the defining 2021 release since it brings full smart contract programmability via the ocean, island, and pond strategy for Plutus and Marlowe.

Announces the Plutus Pioneers Program, a four to six week hands on training run by Lars to get 500 to 1000 community members writing Plutus code.

Teases Alpha Frontier news, a reshoot of the ocean island and pond video, and the ACID framework for developer acquisition, incentives, and app curation.

Admits some February deliverables slipped into March and ask for patience, comparing it to the iPhone shipping without 3G or an app store.

The community's unifying philosophy as freedom versus authoritarianism rather than left versus right politics.

Work toward real blockchain government with a coalition of over 30 companies, ten new research labs, and an extra 30 million dollars in R and D spending in 2021.

Argues crypto lets people opt into a social contract they actually chose instead of the credit scores, passports, and banking rules handed to them.

Hopes the project's legacy is sound money and peace instead of the endless money printing and wars inherited from the current system.

Uses the today money versus 2140 money thought experiment to argue for long term thinking and sustainability.

Promises a lot of Alonzo related announcements are queued up for the coming weeks and months.

Expand the People of IOG interview series, with upcoming talks featuring Duncan Coutts, Phil Wadler, and Dan Friedman, plus Tamara Haasen joining as a second interviewer.

Scammer channels ask for ADA while the real channel never does.

Gives a quick update that Freyja the dog is big and still not house trained.

Confirms Gavin Wood reached out and call Polkadot what Ethereum 2 should have been.

Nick Szabo never replied but still respects him as a crypto OG who can do whatever he wants.

Cardano is looking at CARA ID and other programs that could eventually extend to Haiti.

Reveals the Ethiopia deal is stuck in an independent three person board review, with anti corruption bureaucracy slowing an already agreed deal.

Admits written assurances from the Ethiopian counterparty in February did not pan out, calling it Africa time and staying patient.

Frames Cardano in Africa as giving people self sovereign control of their economic identity instead of leftover capital controls from 20th century regimes.

Cites his own two year fight for a Boulder County solar and building permit as proof bureaucracy strangles good projects everywhere, not just abroad.

Once people have a digital identity in Africa it unlocks reputation, trade credit, payments, and fraud free property records.

Predicts Africa will produce the most economic growth and new billionaires over the next 30 years, more than China or the US did before it.

Reveals talks with a major telco whose clean slate infrastructure and lack of legacy issues make it a strong crypto partner.

Confirms non native tokens like ERC20 will work on the Ethereum devnets, letting the market choose between that standard and native multi asset.

Offers to point an AI researcher toward the right area of Cardano once they share more about their background.

Shares that Endor put his advisory contract on pause when they could not afford him, and he is still waiting for that callback.

Chalk up friction with Coinbase to the growing pains of a complex company racing toward its IPO.

Confirms fee free transactions are possible through delegated fees, but someone in the value chain always pays the underlying resource cost.

Corrects the misconception that IOTA has no fees, noting its costs are just subsidized a different way.

His RATS stake pool's 10 percent fee funding land purchases and his own shenanigans, proving small pools can survive on higher fees.

Dirt bikes for young kids depend on how a family raises them, pushing back on over protective helicopter parenting.

Confirms the country of Georgia strategy is progressing, starting with a credential system that should grow into a payment system.

Reveals an unannounced game development company and a new biotech company launching with his brother and eventually his father.

Confirms a Lex Fridman interview in Austin is booked, with hopes of connecting with Joe Rogan or Elon Musk while there.

Hong Kong's new national security laws have caused no trouble for the project.

Admits he bought his Pink Floyd poster online like most people do.

Welcomes a proposal to bring a Haskell and Plutus class to a Romanian university, pointing the organizer to Grigore and Lars.

Something with Celsius's Alex Mashinsky is likely eventually, calling him a fellow AMA lover.

Dismisses fears that scammers dumping stolen ADA could move the price given roughly five billion dollars in daily turnover.

He is not yet vaccine eligible and, after reviewing the data, currently leans toward Novavax for its protein based, non mRNA design.

Expects vaccination will become a travel prerequisite for his job, comparing it to the yellow fever shot he got before going to Africa.

Praises Harmony One's rapid chain and fountain code design as genuinely clever, saying EOS should have followed its lead.

Takes a quick pass at questions on South Africa plans and his thoughts on VeChain.

Admits he has no DeFi book recommendations yet since the space is still too new, and asks the audience for suggestions.

Shares that Ethiopia keeps its best coffee for export, so the Ethiopian coffee sold in America actually tastes better than what is drunk locally.

Update that Cardano Rust is still maintained in part by Emurgo, with the Yeoman team, now folded into Catalyst, closest to carrying it forward.

Plans to pair community members who want an NFT marketplace with internal resources and an external dev firm, launching as native multi asset first and moving on chain once Plutus ships.

Crown a viewer the resident paint chip eater as a running community joke.

He will never understand the appeal of proof of burn as a consensus mechanism.

Confirms Artano reached out about the NFT marketplace and a meeting is scheduled for the coming week.

Reports Catalyst Fund 3 voter numbers rising sharply despite a heroic voting configuration snafu that will get fixed.

Names the Shelby and the 1955 Ford T-Bird as favorite vintage supercars from the 80s or older.

Confirms he is left handed.

Jokes that a special earpiece service costing nine million dollars a week feeds him AMA questions.

Trying photobiomodulation headsets and occasionally taking Alpha Brain for a cognitive boost.

Names Girard Perregaux and Jaeger LeCoultre as favorite watchmakers, loving their tourbillons and automatons.

UTXO like cash register accounting, where every input and output has to match.

Answers the god question by quoting Einstein's reference to the god of Spinoza.

A mix of irrevocable trusts, retirement accounts, and spending cash, saying estate planning is on his mind lately.

Expects a firmer range for full smart contract support tied to the end of month Cardano360, leaving the exact announcement to the teams.

Performs his Skeletor laugh on request.

Picks the Eldar over the Tau in Warhammer 40k, praising the farseers.

Is excited about VR and AR, testing Hololens 2 headsets and Microsoft Mesh for executive meetings that feel like Star Wars holograms.

He does not own a Ford GT since he is a Lamborghini man.

Plans to bring SingularityNET's Ben Goertzel on a future Cardano360 partners segment.

Dodges Thundercats versus Voltron by naming Samurai Pizza Cats as the real favorite.

Still rates Pulp Fiction as his favorite Tarantino movie.

His first post COVID travel destination depends entirely on when travel restrictions lift.

Confirms he has had several near death experiences.

He is not a weirdo and does not put mayonnaise on french fries.

Is not worried about quantum computing since it will be solved well before it threatens Cardano, folded into the 2025 research agenda.

Admits he has looked into flat earth claims after visiting the EOS subreddit.

Ties simplified wallet addresses to getting DIDs into Daedalus so people can send money to a friend's name instead of a raw address.

Reveals the PRISM team is backlogged with over 50 potential deals and plans to grow headcount by more than 130 percent.

Proposes a CIP to shorten displayed addresses to a prefix plus eight characters with an ellipsis under Bech32.

A viewer their AR glasses NFT GPS assistant idea sounds like a Catalyst proposal waiting to happen.

Confirms he drives a Huracan LP610 that is about to be upgraded to the new Evo.

Argues DIDs do not harm privacy since a use case specific DID never has to link back to a master identity.

Is thrilled that full decentralization lands on March 31st.

Expects proto dApps to hit the devnets soon, with dApp growth hitting a hockey stick curve through April and May.

Defends eating meat against vegan critics, noting animals eat animals in nature too.

Prefers succulents over aquariums for the home.

Picks Donatello as his favorite Ninja Turtle and uses the Calm app to meditate.

Names Dave Chappelle as his favorite comedian.

Calls letting things go, having empathy, and elevating others the greatest leadership lessons he has learned.

Closes the AMA with the usual Kiva microfinance loan, funding a Senegalese women's group buying fresh fish and sheep to resell.

Gets the stream back up after a browser crash interrupted the Kiva checkout, confirming the loan went through.

Restates his long term goal of seeing something like Kiva running natively on Cardano once identity, stablecoins, and liquidity are all in place.

Thanks the community for a fun, if shorter, AMA and signs off until the following week in March 2021.