TechBros Sam Altman, Elon, Zuck and Jeff (hey, wigs are in fashion).
Hey hey, we are the TechBros
Here they come, walking into DC, laying down their billions, willing to pay off any Trumper they see. They are the TechBros, and they got something to say. They include Jeff Bezos, born-again Gangsta Zuck, litigation Piñata Sam Altman of OpenAI, and the other half of the Google Evil Twins, Sergey Brin, and they all have three things in common. None of them ever voted for the Bogeyman, they all recently dined with Trump at the Mar-a-Lago Estate, and they are all acquiescing to their long-time nemesis, Elon Musk, the enshrined gatekeeper to the billions the tech world will haul in reinventing and downsizing government for the better. Three of them—Zuck, Sam, and Mr. Bezos are also contributing $1 million to the Trump Inauguration fund. But hey, hey, they are the TechBros, and there are billions to rake in and quarterly earnings to blow out so it’s time to kiss the Boogeyman's ring.
We are not completely cynical about all this because we are all about seeing the DOGE initiative leverage Web3 innovation to eliminate unnecessary regulation, lower deficits, curb inflation, and create new jobs and wealth in the free market.
'‘All the people in social media and the Internet knew what was going on. Look, there was nothing that was happening at Twitter in The Twitter Files that was not happening at all of the social media sites. If we had the YouTube Files, the behavior patterns would look exactly the same. The Biden White House was directly exerting pressure on companies to censor US citizens, which I believe is flatly illegal. Members of Congress were doing the same, and there were a lot of outside 3rd party groups funded to pressure for censorship. As an example, right next door to us at Stanford, there was a government-funded Internet censorship unit that exerted tremendous pressure on companies to censor. The same Internet censorship units exist at Harvard and other colleges.’
Perhaps the TechBro Lovefest at Mar-a-Lago and showering Trump with million-dollar bills like he's a high-class stripper will make everyone behave, cooperate, and focus on creating a better world. Who knows, Democratic Capitalism can be a uniting power when it works right. We remain optimistic in the long term but with some caution.
Hey, hey, we're the TechBros And people say we monkey around But we're too busy hustling To put anybody down
We go wherever we want to Do what we like to do We don't have time to get restless There's always something new
Long-term, the TechBro mistrust and backlash will be driven less by fear of censorship (this is being fixed by Web3 innovation), and more about a perception of too much political power in the hands of a few, who will clearly benefit disproportionately in government contracts.
This billionaire and corporate buy-off of political candidates must stop! Note * indicates donations to fund Trump’s inauguration and does not indicate public support for the Bogeyman as a candidate.
To outflank the ensuing TechBro backlash, we highly suggest helping support reforming the campaign finance laws to limit political contributions to $100 per eligible US voter per candidate. We can also provide the smarts and Web3 technology to make it happen.
Our various levels of government could issue tokens to qualified voters to contribute to validated local, state, and federal candidates, who could, in turn, redeem them for cash for campaign expenses. Every transaction could be stored on the blockchain to provide immutability, transparency, security, and privacy. [Hey Elon, Vivek, add deleting the FEC to the list 😭.] Whatever amount of their pot of tokens voters contribute could then be deductible from their taxes as long as they also vote on another new blockchain system we build.
Other than these limited individual contributions, it would be unlawful for candidates to accept Elon's $277 million or the Big Boy Reid Hoffman’s $34.8 million as an example. It would also eliminate corporations, PACs (which should be made illegal), political parties, or non-US citizens from donating to candidates. Eliminating these outsized individual and corporate donations— made purely for political gain, would curb corruption, even the playing field for every US citizen and, we believe, dramatically increase voter engagement. Isn't this what Web3 is all about?
In our state of California, under the direction of the very savvy former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (prayers for Ms. Pelosi's for her full recovery from a broken hip she is suffering from a fall on a recent trip overseas), she created such a powerful and elite fundraising juggernaut, that it is impossible for a Democratic candidate to win without their endorsement. This fundraising Cabal sounds impressive, but it has naturally led to hugely mediocre candidates that have ruined our state.
‘Based on the available information, it is difficult to identify any public officials in California who can be definitively credited with either lowering the state's homeless population, reducing crime rates, decreasing taxes, and improving regulations for new businesses and job creation over the past 25 years.’
Championing campaign donor reform is a humble and gracious thing for the TechBros to spearhead; it is what is right and fair, and it is what is best for our country (and the desperate State of California in particular). This initiative and proposing other more egalitarian changes in government might help demonstrate that the TechBros are not entirely self-serving and curb the ensuing backlash that is upon us.
2024—The year Citizen journalism blew out corporate media
As much as we like to call out the old Twitter, Zuck, and Google for being too cozy with the Deep State, Twitter, along with Facebook and YouTube and others, completely and totally rewrote how we access and interact with our personal and special interest news, features and entertainment content. Save for the creating social media junkies and trolls, the Web2 networks put the bow around the democratization of the information revolution by giving us more power and choice, and nobody's going back to Old Media.
During the Web2 era, individual citizens began using the new highly accessible social media platforms to circumvent government censorship (imagine that! 🤔) and report on events as they happened, often providing crucial information before traditional media outlets could respond.
Iranian Presidential Election Protests (2009)—Twitter became an emerging outlet for disseminating information during the protests following the Iranian presidential election in June 2009.
Arab Spring (2010-2012)—Twitter played a crucial role during the Arab Spring uprisings, becoming a primary source of information for journalists covering the events in Egypt, Tunisia, and other countries.
Tunisian Revolution (2010-2011)—When Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in Sidi Bouzid, Tunisia, was captured and shared on social media, including Twitter, it became a catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution. The viral spread of this information also played a significant role in sparking wider unrest and uprisings in the Middle East at large.
London Riots (2011)—During the 2011 London riots, citizens used Twitter to share information and updates with both the media and other citizens. This allowed for a more comprehensive and immediate coverage of the events as they unfolded across the city.
Hurricane Sandy (2012)—Twitter became a vital tool for reporting on Hurricane Sandy, with both journalists and citizens sharing real-time updates about the storm's impact and aftermath.
Boston Marathon Bombing (2013)—During the Boston Marathon bombing, Twitter user Kristen Surman tweeted about explosions near the finish line, becoming one of the first to report the incident online. For nearly ten minutes, regular citizens provided the only information available to the public, demonstrating Twitter's power in breaking news situations.
"I sold my users' privacy to a larger benefit. I made a choice and a compromise. And I live with that every day."
—Brian Acton, WhatsApp cofounder, also later tweeted: ‘It is time. #deletefacebook’
The irony bells are ringing so loud Old Media can't hear them
Lesley Stahl, long-time 60 Minutes reporter: ‘I'm extremely worried about [the state of] the press. Our trust [rate] is down there with the lawyers and hobbling right now. The press is fraying, and I don't know how it recovers. I'm very dark about it. If America lost freedom of the press and freedom of speech, it would be the beginning of losing everything.'
Megyn has just a few tips for Lesley.
Megyn Kelley responds on her popular podcast: So Lesley doesn't know how Legacy Media recovers? I have a lot of suggestions for you, Lesley. Maybe don't say the [Hunter Biden's] laptop can't be verified when it can. And when your own organization finally verifies it, come out and do a Mea Culpa and admit that you embarrassed yourself. Maybe don't stealth edit the presidential candidate [video clip] on the Democrat's side in the interview with 60 Minutes—your Flagship program—without telling us, and then when it becomes a controversy, refuse to release the transcript because you're more interested in running cover for the Dems than you are in honest reporting. Maybe don't host a vice presidential debate where you fact-check only one side, and then when your fact-check gets fact-checked by the vice presidential candidate on the Republican side, and you cut off his mic. Just a few thoughts off the top of my head on what you can do about it.
Note: Ms. Stahl is referring to an October Gallup poll that found that Americans had a historically low view of the press, with only 31% expressing faith in the media to report the news fairly and accurately, and 69% of Americans had 'no trust' or 'not very much' confidence in the press.
We will always honor Jack for his many contributions to free speech, citizen journalism, and early Bitcoin advocacy. Jack is on our starting 5 entrepreneurs representing Silicon Valley’s greatest of all time for sure.
The point of all of this is that the global Silicon Valley community remains the Athens of the Innovation Age, but there are good things we do and bad things. Our default motive must remain individual empowerment and freedom. We must resist the temptation to think that just because we invent insanely cool shit that changes the world, we know what's better for everybody than they know for themselves. To think so is arrogant; it gets us in trouble, and it is not good for our brand. Trust us.
Cryptonite Weekly Rap’s paid members gain access to company and investor lists and analytics and enjoy invitations to private events and global summits. 💪🏼😎
Funding of new VC funds raised in 2024 consolidated into the coffers of the most proven funds. Thirty VC funds raised 75% of the $70 billion raised, with ten name-brand funds taking in $35 billion and the VC kingpins at Andreessen Horowitz grabbing 11% of the total capital raised.
$2.3 billion valuation in just two years! The founders of Liquid AI, an MIT spin-out (left to right), are chief technical officer Mathias Lechner, chief scientific officer Alexander Amini, MIT professor and technical adviser Daniela Rus, and CEO Ramin Hasani.
Cryptonite 300 top company Liquid AI, raised $250M last week, led by the semiconductor giant AMD, at a $2.3 billion valuation. The Cambridge, Massachusetts-based company, founded in 2023, has created liquid foundation models — lightweight, general-purpose AI models that need less data and compute power. See more information about the Cryptonite 300 top Web3 private companies at the bottom of this post.
Big Bang Business
Hartmut Neven, the founder and head of Google Quantum AI, claims that the recently unveiled quantum computing chip 'Willow' solved a computational problem in under five minutes, which would take one of today's fastest supercomputers approximately 10 billion years. Mr. Neven has further suggested, with much controversy, that the chip's astonishing speed 'lends credence to the idea that we live in a multiverse,' referencing a prediction first made by physicist David Deutsch. Wishful thinking? Cryptonite will be all over this fascinating breakthrough in 2025.
"The local laws of physics and chemistry can differ from one pocket universe to another, which together would form a multiverse. But I have never been a fan of the multiverse. If the scale of different universes in the Multiverse is large or infinite, the theory can't be tested."
As we venture into the holidays, we would like to remind our cherished members of the advice from our beloved wellness guru, Dr. Frank Lipman, regarding the detrimental effects of alcohol. Here are 7 ways the good Doctor shoes how alcohol consumption negatively impacts our hearts, not to mention every other bodily system we're supposed to protect.
Smoking and drinking with the Rat Pack is no longer in fashion.
Increases Risk of Heart Disease
Boosts Blood Pressure
Adds inflammation and oxidative stress
Increases triglycerides and altered lipoprotein composition
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Silicon Valley ‘25 is a gathering where entrepreneurs and risk investors share how emerging Web3 innovation will create new prosperity and address the world’s most pressing issues. We also celebrate the Cryptonite 300 top Web3 companies in the world. See the current program and other SV ‘25 details here.
Silicon Valley ‘25 is presented by Voting Block USA (VB USA), a 501 c3 non-profit, nonpartisan, grassroots project dedicated to educating the public on how Web3 innovation—including blockchain, AI, crypto, robotics, metaverse, and Greentech—can help create a more private, secure, efficient, and sustainable private and public sector.
Somewhere between the raw startups and the Unicorns are the blockchain, AI, and metaverse companies pioneering Web3 and offering the best equity investment ROI potential in the global Silicon Valley.
What you get behind the ‘paywall’ as a paid Cryptonite member
List and data profiles on 3,500 venture capital-backed AI/ML companies and blockchain/crypto companies, over 240 of which have made the C300 nomination list thus far.
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The ability to nominate companies to the Cryptonite 300 competition for 2024!
