Week in Clubhouse – 2.5.21
Unreleased transcript of Elad Gil, Naval Ravikant, and Dan Romero on crypto, longevity tech, and education
In this week’s edition, we’re including the full unreleased transcript from a chat between Naval Ravikant (@naval), Elad Gil (@eladgil), and Dan Romero (@dwr) from this past week. Their impromptu chat covered topics ranging from cryptocurrencies to longevity tech to the future of education and credentialism. Enjoy.
@naval: Crypto democratizes retail investors. More retail investors in crypto than any other market. It's why I have a hard time getting worked up about WallStreetBets. They are fighting on Wall Street's territory to begin with.
@dwr: Crypto is also way more global. More action in Asia than the USA.
@naval: Stocks are fundamentally broken, like the fact that I can't trade on weekends. Compared to DeFi, Wall Street feels antique.
@naval: I've decided to devote the rest of my career to crypto.
@naval: Most large tech companies – Apple, Google, Clubhouse – are just networks. And we're going to replace those centralized networks with our own, decentralized network. Every centralized institution eventually becomes corrupt.
@naval: 3 unique features of crypto: permanence (can't be censored or de-platformed), open payments, and permission-less programmability. The whole of the sum becomes greater than each of the parts.
@dwr: Crypto is to finance what Linux was to computing.
@naval: Crypto is good at payments and programmability, and anything digital. Offline stuff like managing Airbnb rentals will come later.
What's exciting in crypto? @dwr: StarkWare, Cairo, zero-knowledge proofs. @naval: Decentralized stablecoins. NFTs. Social protocols (e.g. RSS as a stateful-protocol). Gaming protocols (e.g. Dark Forest).
@dwr: Blockchain is a database with censorship-resistance and open programmability out of the box.
@naval: The most important part of blockchain is permissionless and open programmability. Don't need to wait for tech companies to add the right APIs.
@eladgil: Governance in crypto is still the biggest unsolved problem. No clear winner for which way for these decentralized teams to work together.
@naval: In the long-term, all governance will take place on-chain. Just like how prices are determined by free markets, governance too will be ruled by markets.
@naval: The original name of Clubhouse was Alpha Exploration Co. Started with the assumption that success requires lots of experimentation, failure, and humility.
@naval: Space is one of the most fascinating non-crypto industries. Just like when you stare into the ocean, when you stare into space you realize how small you are. Very thankful Elon is pushing the frontier here.
@naval: I want innovation in aging that extends the prime of our lives, not extending the end of lives. I want to extend my healthy years, not my unhealthy years.
@naval: Technological innovation happens on the frontiers where there isn't a lot of competition and very little regulation. Today's frontiers are crypto, space, and medicine.
@naval: I'm surprised how much control the FDA is extending beyond just the vaccine, like the airtight control over testing kits.
@eladgil: When we focus on politics instead of science, we do things like delay vaccine trials to focus on the diversity of the participants rather than the efficacy of the vaccine.
@dwr: Marginal Revolution is one of my favorite sources of information. Tyler and Alex should have more power to run society than they do.
@eladgil: Covid is mostly aging-related as it affects elderly the most. This is why NY's decision to send covid patients back to nursing homes was so deadly.
@naval: The old divide was left vs right. The new divide in 2020 is people who still believe in institutions vs those who don't.
@naval: We're entering the era of the sovereign individual. I recently turned down a bunch of podcasts and I couldn't figure out why then I realized it was because I could just go direct with Clubhouse.
@naval: The modern definition of a journalist is someone who can't make it on their own with an independent media platform like Twitter or Substack.
@naval: If tobacco companies get in trouble for selling products that give people cancer, then universities should get in trouble for selling student debt to students with worthless degrees.
@naval: Education isn't broken. It's credentialing and degrees that need to be fixed. Today, the credential in Silicon Valley is YCombinator and Twitter followers.
@eladgil: A lot of political conflict comes from mixing equality of opportunity with equality of outcome. I think equality of opportunity is important, but equality of outcome seems inevitable due to differing human nature.
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