AMA 08/01/2021

Open a surprise AMA broadcasting live from Colorado, fresh off a first ever rodeo experience in Wyoming and weeks of travel for smart contract and dApp progress.

Reflects on the six year journey to Goguen, including more than a dozen rewrites of Plutus, and celebrates the community growing from a handful of people to over a million.

Cardano fell short of a July prediction for dApp numbers but point to tens of thousands of native assets and a community that never abandons the ecosystem.

Highlights Catalyst's rapid funding growth, more than 50 funded ventures per round, alongside the expanding Plutus Pioneers and SPO Pioneers programs with over 3000 stake pools.

Thanks the community for making Cardano's growth possible and predict tens of millions, then billions, of users, even nations, running on the network.

Answers why he looks tired, describing exhaustion from a brutal 60 days and plans for a two week break at the ranch followed by an Africa tour.

Addresses a plea for help with Ethiopia's inflation and notes growing concern about rising US inflation driven by money printing.

Answers a question about magic mushrooms by recommending Michael Pollan's book How to Change Your Mind and the documentary Fantastic Fungi while noting psychedelics are only one part of the fungi kingdom.

To get involved building on Cardano through Catalyst's IdeaScale portal, cardano.org, Stack Exchange, and the Cardano Forum.

An appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast is up to Joe and hasn't been arranged yet.

Thanks a fan for a Colombian poncho gift and recommends checking out the Veracity proof of view project.

Argues that ADA's high 70 percent staking ratio is healthy since staking never locks or bonds funds, keeping it liquid while boosting network security.

Criticizes the infrastructure bill's crypto tax provisions as broker misclassification and argue the industry's weak lobby is being unfairly singled out compared to oil and pharma.

Agrees that Catalyst proposals should be more public and suggests a short weekly video roll up of project progress.

Pushes back on accusations of lying about his age, pointing to his public 1987 birth date and attributing his mature look to lifestyle rather than deception.

Responds to a question about the SEC treating cryptocurrencies as stocks, saying synthetic stock like assets should be regulated as such but not everything is a security.

Confirms he grew up on Maui, born in Wailuku and raised in the small town of Makawao.

Declines an opinion on the Internet Computer as too early, wanting at least a year of track record first.

Confirms smart contract development remains on schedule, pointing to a recent status update video.

Endorse blue cheese with bone marrow on steak, naming 316 in Boulder as a favorite steakhouse for it.

To win the mental game of fasting through gradual habit change, avoiding social triggers, and getting keto adapted before attempting extended fasts.

Broaden the discussion of discipline to techniques like self hypnosis, glove anesthesia, neuro linguistic programming, and flow states for building willpower generally.

Details how the Djed stablecoin's peg target, whether the dollar, euro, or SDR, will be set by an oracle, and floats a CBDC style sovereign wealth fund idea discussed with Andrew Yang.

NiPoPoWs alongside Mithril make sense once Cardano is multi chain, enabling trust minimized proofs for wrapped assets like Bitcoin and Litecoin.

Reaffirms his continued admiration for the Ergo project and its community.

Owning about 500 bison on the ranch, managed day to day by a longtime ranch hand since he's new to bison ranching himself.

Gives an update on Runtime Verification's K framework projects, including IELE, KEVM, and Yeli, expecting news by month's end.

Responds to a viewer complaining about not getting picked, explaining questions are chosen live from thousands of simulcast viewers.

Addresses whether he and Vitalik will ever collaborate, saying the hostility comes from repeated personal attacks by the Ethereum community rather than from him.

A Toronto print shop owner there's no official Cardano merchandise since no one owns Cardano, so anyone is free to design and print their own gear.

Names giving people control over their own economic and financial life as cryptocurrency's single greatest global benefit.

Argues crypto could regulate commercial activity better than government but can never replace government's monopoly on the legitimate use of force.

Calls a proposed Federal Reserve digital coin a positive development rather than a threat, expecting it to be wrapped and run on chains like Ethereum and Cardano.

Acknowledges his raspy voice after a grueling few weeks of nonstop travel and work.

Names learning how to learn, note taking methods like Zettelkasten, memory techniques, time management, and deep work as the most important meta skills to develop.

Encourages journaling, lamenting that his own hasn't kept pace with six years of incredible moments he'd like to draw on for a future book.

Finding joy in people, work, and hobbies, then launches into how a rare book on the 1883 Krakatoa eruption has captivated him lately.

Details how Krakatoa's eruption was tracked worldwide by telegraph, unlike the larger but earlier Tambora eruption, and links Norwegian red sunsets from the ash to Munch's painting The Scream.

Names black, the absence of color, as his favorite color.

Confirms Cardano hires political scientists to help design its governance structure.

He doesn't dwell on whether he's changed the world, framing crypto as a collective enterprise of tens of millions of people that will transform lives over the next 30 to 40 years.

Dismisses Peter Brandt's technical prediction that Cardano could crash 90 percent as a hatchet job headline, calling technical analysis voodoo unsuited to modern, information asymmetric markets.

He believes aliens exist somewhere in a universe big enough for many different kinds of life.

Picks giraffe over gorilla, noting he actually owns a giraffe.

Discuss the Delta variant, citing vaccination statistics on infection, hospitalization, and death rates, and argues personal accountability matters for the unvaccinated.

Argues growing evidence points to a Wuhan lab leak origin for Covid and criticizes the suppression of that theory along with unregulated gain of function research.

Distinguishes criticizing the Chinese government's dishonesty from hating Chinese people, comparing it to criticizing Israeli or Saudi politics without hating those populations.

Pushes back on being called confused, pointing to widespread American distrust in elections, institutions, and expertise as the real crisis underlying Covid discourse.

Recommends Harvard's CS50 on edX as the best introductory computer science class.

Agrees that communism is evil, arguing its core flaw is destroying objective truth to justify a small elite controlling all production.

Praises the honesty of people who say I don't know and let's find out together over those who claim certainty.

Calls SEC chairman Gary Gensler, whose MIT class he once took, the commissioner who understands crypto best.

He'll soon be working alongside longevity researchers Aubrey de Grey and David Sinclair through a new business venture.

Argues that solving climate change means changing the incentive game, not the natural world itself, since nature can be transformed but never truly destroyed.

Proposes inventing a future money currency that only rewards actions benefiting future generations, arguing this could align capitalism with long term environmental stewardship.

Frames Cardano as building a systems level financial operating system for economic identity and incentives that could eventually support alternate currencies like this future money concept.

Rules out a surviving megalodon shark or Bigfoot, noting large creatures leave datable remains.

He's excited for Denis Villeneuve's Dune, having loved his work on Blade Runner 2049.

Defends his eulogy of Rush Limbaugh against a viewer's accusation of praising a liar, arguing acknowledging someone's political influence isn't the same as endorsing them.

Rush Limbaugh's effectiveness came from connecting with people who felt abandoned by the political establishment, the same dynamic that later fueled Trump's rise.

Argues against running for president himself, instead calling for a rewritten 21st century bill of rights and modernized constitution.

Calls for formalizing today's unaccountable bureaucratic fourth branch of government under real constitutional and legal constraints.

Identify the gold framed painting behind him as a reproduction of Klimt's Freya's Tears, alongside a Waterhouse reproduction and an original Gerome as his favorite.

Praises Erik Voorhees' decision to decentralize ShapeShift as a principled and pragmatic move he's eager to discuss with Erik's team.

Cardano's near absence from crypto ATMs, citing regulatory hurdles like Japan's FSA whitelist, and plans a major ATM push across Africa.

He collects original paintings from lesser known artists, while favoring museum quality reproductions of masters like Waterhouse and Klimt over owning the originals.

Confirms he has been skydiving many times and hopes to do more.

Recommends Python and R for data literacy, praises Wolfram's language, and suggests programmers pick up a functional language like Haskell.

He'll study Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse framing before commenting on what role Cardano should play in it.

Confirms he's visited China many times, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong.

ADA's hard cap can't be changed without overwhelming consent, since altering monetary policy after launch risks forking off a Cardano Classic.

He'd love to try painting himself someday, calling it one of the most therapeutic things a person can do, citing Bob Ross as inspiration.

He'll likely fund an evidence based policy research institute at some point, especially once he starts proposing policy of his own.

Jokes that he, like Bezos, lost his hair from too much testosterone.

Gives an Ethiopia update, noting a million of five million students are already onboarded ahead of a September launch, while declining to confirm any stablecoin peg to the birr.

Confirms the September conference is free with registration and encourages viewers to attend.

Pushes back on being called a manipulative liar, asking for specific evidence and pointing again to the Ethereum crowd's role in derailing productive conversation.

Declares himself a Vim user in the Vim versus Emacs debate.

He thinks he'll fly to space around 2025 if given the opportunity.

A new Lex Fridman podcast episode with prominent string theorists that he plans to watch.

Advises an aspiring Cardano developer to join the Plutus Pioneer Program, pointing to Lars Brunjes' lecture series on YouTube.

Riffs on a Warhammer 40k style joke in response to a question about IOHK's massive staff growth and where all the new hires go.

Shares a favorite quote that an open mind is like a fortress with its gates open and unguarded.

He doesn't have beehives on the ranch yet but plans to get into apiculture.

Confirms a dedicated team works on Ethereum Classic through the Mantis client, separate from the Cardano team.

His continued support for Ethereum Classic as honoring the original Code is Law social contract that Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation abandoned in favor of World Computer.

He's repeatedly turned down invitations from Republicans and Libertarians to run for office, since entering politics directly would cost him influence.

Reveals his game studio's first title, Crypto Bison, coming at the conference, and lists Pathfinder Kingmaker and Baldur's Gate among his favorite RPGs, dreaming of remaking the Baldur's Gate trilogy.

Recommends Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor Frankl as the one book everyone should read.

Shares he was listening to Hot Chocolate's Everyone's a Winner before the AMA and marvels at how certain guitar and bass lines from bands like Boston stick with him.

Says why choose between the Beatles and the Stones, then recounts Sean Lennon following him on Twitter and messaging about crypto.

Admits he still gets starstruck meeting people, amused that fans often treat him like the famous one when he sees himself as the fan.

He'd welcome a conversation after hearing Elizabeth Warren asked about Cardano.

Recounts meeting Herschel Walker at Cheyenne Frontier Days, marveling at how fit and humble the 60 year old former football star looked.

Predicts Tom Brady will become president one day.

Riffs on a joke question mixing Pink Floyd style synchronicity with Fibonacci retracements in crypto charting.

Names the Denver Broncos as the team he used to follow, though he hasn't kept up with football much lately.

Admits he's been knocked out before and deserved it.

Jokes that asking who John Galt is will unleash a full libertarian monologue in the spirit of Atlas Shrugged.

Points to the satirical Fed Ass Printing music video as summing up his thoughts on Modern Monetary Theory.

Humans won't literally travel faster than light but could bend space, like an Alcubierre style drive, to cover great distances.

Recalls always playing the turtle in Super Nintendo Mario Kart while his brother mastered Rainbow Road as the princess.

Self driving cars are needed and could save 50000 lives a year.

Fields a quick joke question about mushrooms versus microgreens.

Reminisces about late nights listening to Art Bell and George Noory discuss UFOs and figures like Bob Lazar.

Confirms he owns two Lamborghinis, an Aventador S and a Huracan Evo, and has put 22000 miles on them.

Answers with a Winchester 1873 for the Wyoming ranch and an FN SCAR for the farm instead of picking between an AR-15 and AK-47.

Dismisses an accusation that he avoids acknowledging a coming financial crisis to protect ADA's price, saying markets sort themselves out regardless.

Debates whether a hot dog counts as a sandwich, concluding it technically satisfies the definition.

Time travel seems physically possible since nothing in the laws of physics rules it out.

Riffs on a Thunderdome style meme pitting him against Celsius's Alex Mashinsky, two men enter, one man leaves.

Jokes about whether people wash their hands or the hands wash themselves.

Lex Fridman as a genuinely great guy in person after spending five and a half hours together, joking that Lex wore no shoes under his suit.

Compares Covid to the Hotel California of pandemics, something you can check into but never check out of.

He never played World of Warcraft, only EVE Online and EverQuest.

Denies using a CPAP machine, joking about being accused of sleep apnea.

Deflect a question about his favorite porn star with a joke about a story behind it.

Riffs on a joke about running for a fictional presidency and bringing back the capital, referencing John Henry Eden.

He'll eventually appear on Crypto Banter as he ramps up interviews closer to September.

He owns no Novavax stock, criticizing its management for failing to secure partnerships and get its vaccine to market despite strong data.

Points to John Conway's free will theorem paper as an answer to whether mathematics can define free will.

Fields a joke question about helium-3 mining on the moon with clones.

He wears boxer briefs.

Confirms he has taught mathematics before, one of his favorite things to do, while declining to unblock a stranger on Twitter.

Dismisses applying Godel's incompleteness theorem to blockchain as sophisticated sounding word salad.

Estimates his net worth at around 2.5 billion dollars.

The stoned ape theory that psychedelic mushrooms may have driven the cognitive leap to abstract thought in early hominids, noting there's no hard evidence for it.

Jokes that he sleeps like a baby, waking up crying every two hours.

Fields a crude joke question with a one word answer.

Encourages everyone to have fun and not take life too seriously.

Names George Carlin and Dave Chappelle as his favorite comedians.

Picks Path of Exile over Diablo 3, naming Grim Dawn as Diablo 2's true spiritual successor.

Confirms he's hiring an executive assistant and invites applicants to apply.

Argues mathematics is both discovered, when mapping physical reality, and invented, when built as a self contained formal language, citing the Banach-Tarski paradox.

Distinguishes science from religion by reproducibility, since science can always be rediscovered from observation while a lost religion's teachings vanish forever.

Declines a barber's offer for a free haircut, wanting to keep what hair he has left.

Wraps up the AMA, promising more streams throughout August and more interviews as the September conference approaches.

Closes out with the recurring Kiva microfinance tradition, funding a loan for a mother of four in Bethlehem and reflecting on everyday people driving global change.