Podroll Show
No Solutions
No solutions; only trade-offs. Walking towards a better internet. Est. 882,690. Inspired by Sovereign Engineering https://sovereignengineering.io/podcast
Recent Episodes
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27: Separation of Business from State w/ gsovereignty
"It’s the people who receive Bitcoin as payment for something who decide what Bitcoin is." gsovereignty & Gigi take a walk. Listen on sovereignengineering.io Recorded in May 2026. They explore what it would take to separate business from the state, why a Bitcoin economy still depends on fiat imports, and how Nostrocket might route human energy into Bitcoin-native production. Along the way they get into circular economies, merchant adoption, stablecoins, organizational design, application-specific agent harnesses, …
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26: Zapstore w/ Franzap
"The user joins the community, and the community does a lot of the heavy lifting." Franzap & Gigi take a walk in Oslo. Listen on sovereignengineering.io In this dialogue: How Zapstore grew out of the first Sovereign Engineering cohort in Madeira, earlier experiments like ZapThreads, and Franzap's frustration with closed mobile app stores Why Ninite, app stacks, and curated discovery mattered as much as the raw "permissionless app store" idea What it means to run Zapstore as a real marketplace: breaking the chicke…
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25: White Noise, MLS, and marmot w/ Jeff G
"What we're actually building is an unstoppable messenger." Jeff G & Gigi take a walk in Oslo. Listen on sovereignengineering.io In this dialogue: Jeff G explains how White Noise started as an attempt to build the most private messenger possible, then slowly mutated into something else: an unstoppable messenger that can survive ugly network conditions and hostile environments Why MLS on Nostr is mostly an ordering problem: identity and delivery are the easy parts, group-state evolution is where everything breaks …
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24: Building FIPS w/ Johnathan Corgan
“Don’t be afraid of going your own way.” Johnathan Corgan & Gigi take a walk in Madeira. Recorded during SEC-07. Listen on sovereignengineering.io In this dialogue: Why FIPS started with Arjen asking for networking that does not depend on registrars, central authorities, or yankable domain names Johnathan disappearing for a month after Costa Rica, then returning with a protocol design that scratched the itch FIPS as a self-organizing peer mesh: no privileged coordinator, only what each node can enforce locally Tr…
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23: Shipping Violently w/ Justin Moon
“I want to optimize for hackability and customization.” Justin Moon & Gigi take a walk in Madeira. Recorded during SEC-07. Listen on sovereignengineering.io In this dialogue: Justin’s new obsession: building Shadow, a hackable mobile operating system for people who want full control over the stack Why Android is interesting again: not because it’s clean, but because it is at least open enough to fight with Android file chaos, and the immortal “file saved successfully” meme One wallet, one relay connection, one sh…
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22: Sovereign Engineering w/ Yo
“Permissionless, permissionless, permissionless.” Yo & Gigi take a walk in Madeira. Recorded during SEC-07. Listen on sovereignengineering.io In this dialogue: Gigi’s AI setup: voice prompts via vibeline to brainstorm, brainstorm to implementation plan, cron job that tackles one to-do every 20 minutes, builds overnight One agent per project: dergigi.com/projects, each agent spins up with an nsec and gets to work Nihao: Gigi’s skill for spinning up Nostr identities from the terminal Claude Code “Mythos” codewords …
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21: Hashtree, Nostr VPN, and Iris w/ Martti Malmi
"We have this window of opportunity to steer the LLMs and the future of technology into a freedom-tech direction." Martti Malmi & Gigi take a walk in Madeira. Recorded during SEC-07. Listen on sovereignengineering.io In this dialogue: Martti's GitHub annoyance spawned Hashtree: a content-addressed file system on top of Blossom that adds directories, file chunking, and encryption. Everything encrypted by default using content hash key encryption (inspired by Freenet), so Blossom server operators have cryptographic…
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20: Archipelago Meshtadels w/ Shadrach
"Bitcoin doesn't need more believers. Bitcoin needs more understanders." Shadrach & Gigi take a walk in Madeira. Recorded during SEC-07. Listen on sovereignengineering.io Projects & tech mentioned: Archipelago (sovereign home node and mesh network platform) Archipelago Foundation Archipelago promo video AtoB (interoperable service protocol, co-authored with Gzuuus) Angor (Bitcoin-native crowdfunding; Archipelago placed 2nd in the Angor pitch contest) Podcasting 2.0 (open podcast ecosystem) #DeMu (decentralized mu…
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19: Romantically Shitting on Paywalls w/ Pablo
"I need to build something to test the thing." Pablo & Gigi take a walk. Recorded December 2025. Projects & tech mentioned: TENEX (multi-agent coordination on Nostr) Agora (Nostr client for local communities, by Pablo & Leopoldo Lopez) NDK Swift & NDK Kotlin (native ports of NDK) nostrdb (embedded Nostr database) NIP-60 (Cashu wallets on Nostr) Podcasting 2.0 (open podcast ecosystem) #DeMu (decentralized music on Nostr) Olas (rebuilt with TENEX agents) castr.me (Nostr-to-RSS podcast feed) ants (Nostr search) Bori…
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18: Rewriting TENEX w/ Pablo
"You're yelling at someone who is lying to you." Pablo & Gigi take a drive. Recorded December 2025. Listen on sovereignengineering.io Projects & tech mentioned: TENEX (multi-agent coordination on Nostr) NDK (Nostr Development Kit) NDK Swift & NDK Kotlin (native ports of NDK, vibe-coded) nostrdb (embedded Nostr database) Negentropy / NIP-77 (efficient event sync) NIP-60 (Cashu wallets on Nostr) Vercel AI SDK (multi-provider LLM abstraction) Notedeck & Nostur Olas (rebuilt with TENEX agents) In this dialogue: Bit…
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#17: Organic Tech w/ Arjen
"Nostr is organic tech. Data will flow more naturally instead of going out and fetch, going out and coming back, going out and coming back." Arjen & Gigi take a long walk. Recorded October 2025. Projects & tech mentioned: Blossom (self-healing links) noDNS Tollgate (router-to-router payments) Wally (Cashu wallet connect) innpub (positional audio, innpub.dergigi.com) Citrine (Android local relay) Amber (Android signer) nostr-relay-tray Applesauce (code snippets) Wingman (remote dev assistant) CDK (Cashu dev kit) N…
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#16: One Click and Run w/ SEC-05
"You have a roaming army of servers." The crew continues on the pirate boat. Recorded October 2025. Projects & tech mentioned: Paygress (VM provisioning over Nostr) Error 402 (HTTP payment required) nostr-relay-tray Pyramid Relay castr.me PM Tiles (offline maps) In this dialogue: The dream: press record, press save, everything auto-publishes to Nostr Zero post-processing, zero editing Error 402: endpoints that can be paid over the protocol level nginx 402 module: it takes lightning, it takes e-cash Paygress: bu…
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#15: Make Localhost Great Again w/ SEC-05
"127.0.0.1 -- that's the only IP address we're gonna need." The crew passes the mic around on a pirate boat. Recorded October 2025. Projects & tech mentioned: Beacon noDNS innpub MOQ (Media Over QUIC) ContextVM Chrysalis (self-replicating Cashu mint) Paygress (VM provisioning over Nostr) BloVM (blossom server monitor) HyperNote In this dialogue: "How was Sovereign Engineering for you?" -- "Inspiring. Stressful." Most exciting demo? Beacon has been trending noDNS mentioned by basically everyone Mapping projects:…
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#14: Building Browsers w/ Justin
"I want Nostr to be the perfect thing just for me." Justin & Gigi drive to the airport. Recorded October 2025. Projects & tech mentioned: Blitz (Rust HTML/CSS renderer) QuickJS (lightweight JavaScript engine) Dioxus (Rust UI framework) Iroh (peer-to-peer networking) MOQ (Media Over QUIC) White Noise (MLS-based private messaging on Nostr) Ladybird (independent browser by Andreas Kling) VRChat In this dialogue: Driving to the airport "Don't say anything that could be used against you" The low quality of this podc…
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#13: The Linux of Social Media w/ hzrd149
"The identity should be outside of the computer." hzrd149 & Gigi contemplate local relays. Libraries & apps mentioned: Applesauce Boris Citrine nostr-relay-tray In this dialogue: Automation & robot armies If this than that (IFTTT) Permissioned vs permissionless automation Self-hosting and the local-first people "The identity should be outside of the computer" Private vs public, local vs remote DRM and other nonsense Private means encrypted with my key Nostr apps should be local-first, thanks to local relays All…
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#12: The Windy Lawnmower Stuff w/ Pete
What does it mean to build something "in the spirit of Bitcoin"? Pablo and Gigi want to encourage you to apply for SEC-05. Books & websites mentioned: Stackoverflow is dead by Gergely Orosz Sovereign Engineering by Gigi and Pablo In this dialogue: Gigi's vibeline & vibeline-ui Pubcastr aka castr.me Pablo's thread about TENEX Alex Gleason's MKStack What is the essence of nostr? What are nostr's values, and can LLMs extract them? Agents and workflows living on nostr Agent specialization and Roo code “What …
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#11: 10x Less Productive w/ Pablo
What does it mean to build something "in the spirit of Bitcoin"? Pablo & Gigi want to encourage you to apply for SEC-05. Books & websites mentioned: Stackoverflow is dead by Gergely Orosz Sovereign Engineering by Gigi and Pablo In this dialogue: Gigi's vibeline & vibeline-ui Pubcastr aka castr.me Pablo's thread about TENEX Alex Gleason's MKStack What is the essence of nostr? What are nostr's values, and can LLMs extract them? Agents and workflows living on nostr Agent specialization and Roo code “What wo…
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#10: Walking with Jesus w/ gzuuus
"It's gonna be permissionless or hell." Gigi and gzuuus are vibing towards dystopia. Books & articles mentioned: AI 2027 DVMs were a mistake Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams Takedown by Laila michelwait The Ultimate Resource by Julian L. Simon Harry Potter by J.K. Rowling Momo by Michael Ende In this dialogue: Pablo's Roo Setup Tech Hype Cycles AI 2027 Prompt injection and other attacks Goose and DVMCP Cursor vs Roo Code Staying in control thanks to Amber and signing delegation Is YOLO mode here to s…
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#09: No Strudelutions w/ hzrd149
"It isn’t obvious that the world had to work this way. But somehow the universe smiles on encryption." hzrd149 & Gigi take a stroll along the shore of cryptographic identities. This dialogue explores how cryptographic signatures fundamentally shift power dynamics in social networks, moving control from servers to key holders. We discuss the concept of "setting data free" through cryptographic verification, the evolving role of relays in the ecosystem, and the challenges of building trust in decentralized systems. …
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#08: Navigating the Vibe w/ Pablo
"With the shift towards this multi-agent collaboration and orchestration world, you need a neutral substrate that has money, identity, cryptography, and web-of-trust baked in, to make everything work." Pablo & Gigi are getting high on glue nostr. Books and articles mentioned: Saving beauty by Byung-Chul Han LLMs as a tool for thought by Amelia Wattenberger In this dialogue: vibeline & vibeline-ui LLMs as tools, and how to use them Vervaeke: AI thresholds & the path we must take Hallucinations and grounding i…
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#07: Zig Multiplatform w/ Justin
“The age of the idea guys has begun.” Justin & Gigi vibe about Zig. Articles mentioned: LLMs as a tool for thought by Amelia Wattenberger Micropayments and Mental Transaction Costs by Nick Szabo How our interfaces have lost their senses by Amelia Wattenberger Talks mentioned: The Art of Bitcoin Rhetoric by Bitstein Books mentioned: Human Action by Ludwig von Mises Working in Public by Nadia Eghbal In this dialogue: nak Files SyncThing (and how it BitTorrent Sync became Resilio Sync) Convention over config…
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#06: The Winds of AI w/ Pablo
“The human spirit should remain in charge.” Pablo & Gigi talk about the wind. In this dialogue: Wind More Wind Information Calories, and how to measure them Digital Wellbeing Rescue Time Teleology of Technology Platforms get users Hooked (book) Feeds are slot machines Movie Walls Tweetdeck and Notedeck IRC vs the modern feed 37Signals: “Hey , let’s just charge users!” “You wouldn’t zap a car crash” Catering to our highest self VS catering to our lowest self Devolution of YouTube 5-star ratings to …
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#05: Prompt & Pray w/ Paul
"What should the next iteration of the internet look like?" In this dialogue: Paul and his awesome nostr t-shirt Are we all just nostalgic? Where did the optimism of computing and the information superhighway go? We went from interop to pay-to-unlock. Do we have to live in the digital gulags forever? Homecooked meals and homecooked apps Paper straws and the downfall of Western Civilization "You need to be okay with people getting rekt" If the car would be introduced today, it would be illegal Bravery and persona…
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#04: Ecash Fixes 402 w/ Calle
“I don’t believe in Utopia anymore. I’m too old for that.” In this dialogue: Where is the Utopia that the internet promised? “Neither nostalgia nor utopia” Net Neutrality is a moral stance Where did the internet go wrong? Tech as a tool; is tech always neutral? Technology that increases agency VS tech that enslaves Competition vs Symbiosis “Who will run the mints?” “Anyone” can use it vs “everyone” can use it Centralizing vs. Monopolizing Bitcoin has an ethos baked in (You Shall Not Steal) Passive internet vs act…
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#03: Data Ownership is a Lie w/ Pablo
“You’ll get all that for free if you build it right” In this dialogue: 01: Start Ugly 02: There is No Global Concept of ownership & “Read, Write, Own” Shamir Secret Sharing and Timelocks “No amount of violence will ever solve a math problem.” You can’t prove deletion of a key (or anything, really); best you can do is “burn” bitcoin Data is information, which behaves like an idea (not like an apple) “If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple…
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#02: There is No Global w/ Pablo
“We do not have the answers." In this dialogue: What is this No Solutions thing anyway? Why dialogue and distributed cognition is so important Why is nostr exiting for developers? Evolution, Life, and nostr What is the perfect nostr app, and why can’t there be THE perfect nostr app? Why there is no “global” view in nostr Impossible problems vs. possible (but still hard) problems Blossom, blossom, and more blossom Zooko’s Triangle Freedom Tech Building Blocks NIP-60/61, NIP-89 Email vs ICQ Accepting constraints & …
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#01: Start Ugly w/ Pablo
“We have the chance of building the next iteration of the internet, and hopefully, not repeat the mistakes of the past." In this dialogue: Why starting ugly and shipping early is hard The ugliest thing that Pablo ever shipped “Happiness is shipping” Make it real first, you can make it pretty later Getting into the habit of shipping Highlighter and the hang-up of shipping something big How nostr allows you to have cash flow from the get-go #value4value for artists and devs What DHH & 37Signals got right People an…
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