First episode of 2026 and we’re setting the frame for what matters this year: AI is hitting escape velocity, “creation” is getting commoditized, and that changes everything from business models to the metaverse thesis.

We talk through the cultural shift (the 2025 existential turn), why low-sentiment periods are when you should be paying the most attention, and how social media incentives reward overreaction. Then we zoom out to the macro: metals ripping, Bitcoin lag dynamics, and what a “real” 2026 setup could look like.

On the crypto side, we dig into the creator coin debate and why the fan-to-investor switch breaks expectations, using the Nick Shirley Zora post as a live case study. Finally, we share our north star: a world where CoinGecko has an “NAT” tab, non-arbitrary tokens become a real market category, and miners distributing NAT becomes the moment the market can’t ignore.

2025 wasn’t a failed bull market. It was the start of a structural bear.

In this episode, we break down why Bitcoin holding the “blue zone” may signal maturity rather than weakness, and why that shift breaks many of the assumptions crypto has relied on for the last decade. Slower upside, collapsing speculative volume, and pressure on miners aren’t anomalies — they’re consequences.

We revisit the biggest signals from this cycle: Trumpcoin, treasury-company leverage, crypto AI hype, and why on-chain activity quietly evaporated. Then we pivot into AI-generated content, dissecting a viral video that fooled millions and what it reveals about authenticity, persuasion, and trust in the AI era.

From there, we look ahead to 2026: – Miner revenue compression and Bitcoin’s security budget problem – Why “fees will fix it” isn’t enough – Neobanking + stablecoins as the real onboarding wave – Regulation turning crypto into structured internet capital markets

We close with the NAT thesis: Bitcoin’s long-term sustainability depends on a second subsidy. NAT is explored as a non-arbitrary, miner-aligned solution with a clear catalyst timeline (V1, V2, adoption, flywheel).

This isn’t about hype. It’s about whether crypto becomes infrastructure — or breaks under its own assumptions.

We break down the viral “crypto is dead” take and what it actually means: the industry can’t rely on hype, memes, and casino mechanics forever. We talk about why stablecoins may be crypto’s biggest real-world win, how speculation still funds infrastructure, and why this cycle feels different as AI pulls capital (and attention) into a new “imagination phase.”

We also cover why builders need to ship real products (not just tokens), how authenticity becomes the new premium in an AI world, and why every project may end up running a podcast as the best distribution engine.

Plus: updates on NAT and Bitcoin’s long-term miner security budget problem, including a recent Twitter Space conversation with Cinco and what miner adoption signals to watch next.

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In this episode, we break down why Bitcoin feels range-bound despite massive macro shifts happening in the background. We explore whether the traditional 4-year cycle is breaking, how Fed policy and liquidity signals are changing the game, and what a potential U.S. Strategic Bitcoin Reserve could mean if the government begins accumulating BTC at scale.

The conversation then expands into tariffs, UBI experiments, and how society might transition into an AI-driven future without destabilizing everything in the process. From there, we connect the dots between emerging military AR systems, space-based compute, and why energy, security, and infrastructure are becoming the defining narratives of the next decade.

In the final stretch, we go deep on Bitcoin’s long-term security budget problem, why fees alone may not be enough, and how NAT introduces a sustainable second subsidy for miners without changing Bitcoin’s consensus rules. We also cover miner adoption, hash-power tipping points, and why this could be one of the most important developments in Bitcoin’s history.

Bitcoin’s biggest risk isn’t the SEC, ETFs, or alt-L1s… It’s the shrinking security budget nobody wants to talk about. We break down why treating Bitcoin as “digital gold” creates the Empty Castle Effect: a multi-trillion dollar asset sitting on-chain with collapsing fees and a weakening incentive for miners to defend it long term.

We walk through the timeline of miner adoption of NAT (Non-Arbitrary Tokens) and why having ~60% of Bitcoin hash rate already touching NAT matters for security. From COVID and the failed “metaverse pivot,” to AI eating all jobs, to tiny homes and Ready Player One, we zoom out on how economic incentives are shifting and why Bitcoin’s fee market can’t be left to vibes and rainbow charts forever.

We also react to an AI-generated explainer built with NotebookLM, talk Jensen Huang, reusable rockets, and first-principles thinking, then deconstruct Michael Saylor’s latest “Bitcoin rocket” diagram and the pyramid accusations around it. Finally, we go deep on why “Bitcoin will just keep doubling” quietly violates basic physics, how that ties into the security budget problem, and where Digital Matter Theory (DMT) and NAT fit in as a potential answer.

If you care about Bitcoin’s long-term security, miner incentives, and what a post-halving world looks like when block rewards fade, this is the episode you shouldn’t skip.