Welcome to Dev-Talks, where HaCKBee (Discord link) hosts interviews and discussions with blockchain developers, tech enthusiasts, and experts. Uncover the latest in blockchain technology, innovation, and tech trends through engaging conversations. 

In this talk with Larry Salibra, we covered his Bitcoin journey. From tackling payment issues with PayPal to advocating for versatility in Bitcoin's development, Larry shared insights on mass adoption, scalability challenges, and the cultural shift needed for projects like Stacks. We also delved into his motivations for choosing Nostr, his thoughts on decentralized social networks, and the intriguing intersection of decentralization and AI. 

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Larry Salibra's Bitcoin Journey 

• Background

  Larry, founder of New Internet Labs, co-founded the Hong Kong Bitcoin Association and worked with Stacks.

• Motivation for Bitcoin:

  Initiated by payment issues with PayPal for his startup, Larry found Bitcoin's potential to separate money from the state and increase transparency compelling.

• Scaling Challenges, Technical Complexities, and Importance of Versatility

  • During the 2017 run-up, Larry observed challenges and emphasized the need for layer scaling, acknowledging limitations in increasing the block size or using alternative blockchains.
  • Larry discussed delayed adoption of features like Taproot and SegWit in Bitcoin Core, citing the intricacies involved in understanding the code.
  • Larry highlighted the importance of making Bitcoin versatile and user-friendly to encourage widespread adoption, ensuring sustainability through easy usability and continuous innovation. 

Bitcoin’s mass adoption and potential use cases 

• Bitcoin Usage Philosophy:
  • Emphasizes the need for people to use Bitcoin actively.
  • Questions the notion that "hodling" alone constitutes meaningful use.
• Hodling as Saving:
  • Views hodling as a form of saving eventually for future spending.
  • Envisions scenarios such as buying a house, paying for education, or even building a citadel as potential uses for hodled Bitcoin.
• Competitive Advantage on the Internet:
  • Supports efforts to get physical spaces to accept Bitcoin.
  • Recognizes the competitive advantage of Bitcoin in physical spaces but sees its strength on the internet. 

Scalability, perspectives on different approaches 

• Multiple Scaling Approaches:

  Advocates for trying different solutions, praising Liquid's trust model, Stacks' open network, and Lightning's unique approach

• Complexity of Lightning and Its User Experience Challenges:

  • Describes Lightning as complex, citing challenges in user experience due to its synchronous nature.
  • Notes difficulty in achieving a smooth user experience with Lightning compared to asynchronous systems.

• Encouraging Exploration:

  Emphasizes the importance of supporting experimentation with various technologies within the Bitcoin community.  

Stacks’ challenges and the culture shift involved 

• Challenges in Stack’s Adoption:
  • Enthusiasm for Stacks but notes limited adoption. Attributes challenges to cultural factors among developers.
  • Attribtues Ethereum’s prosperity to deeper cultural leaders and the projects they’ve been working on have attracted a large amount of money.
  • Calls for a shift toward building in Bitcoin. 

Why Nostr 

• Motivation for Choosing Nostr:
  • Tactically attracted to a diverse group of building-focused Bitcoiners.
  • Enjoys collaborative problem-solving in early new systems.
• Issues with Nostr's Naming System:
  • Recognizes a problem with Nostr's naming system and aims to contribute to resolving it.
  • Highlights the challenge of explaining Nostr's naming conventions with complex numbers.
• Approaches to Software Development:
  • Acknowledges the forking trend in Noster clients.
  • Questions whether the decentralized approach of diverse client development is preferable to a more standardized path. 

Thoughts on building own clients 

• Centralization Risks in Client Development:
  • Discusses the tendency for technologies to centralize around one or two dominant clients.
  • Cites Email and Jabber XMPP as examples where a few clients dictated the protocols.
• Benefits of Diverse Client Development:
  • Advocates for a decentralized approach in client development.
  • Emphasizes the advantage of having multiple servers, clients, and relays in the Nostr ecosystem.
• Concerns About Potential Centralization:
  • Acknowledges potential centralization in Nostr, particularly around popular relays like Damus.
  • Highlights the risk that a dominant client may make protocol changes or decide on server usage, impacting the broader network.
• User Preference for Convenience:
  • Users choose a reliable and functional application that works best for them, without ongoing assessment on whether it’s still decentralized or not. 

Should ranking algorithms or recommendation be brought into decentralized social networks 

• Debate on Web 2 features in Web 3:

  Discusses integrating Web 2 features into Web 3, specifically recommendation systems.

• Importance of Recommendation Systems:

  Views them as crucial for usability and adoption, citing Web 2's successful features.

• Challenges in Noster:

  Expresses dissatisfaction with Noster's lack of algorithms, impacting user experience.

• Solutions Proposed:

  • Suggests a marketplace for ranking algorithms for user customization.
  • Discusses the potential of users choosing or developing algorithms for personalized experiences.

• User-Driven Censorship:

  • Explores the shift from platform-driven censorship to individualized user preferences.
  • Acknowledges trade-offs between user simplicity and content customization complexities. 

Build developer communities 

• Building Developer Communities:

  • Discusses experience in building Bitcoin community, reaching 6-7k members through active engagement.
  • Highlights efforts to organize impromptu meetups with visiting personalities, providing value on the ground.

• Challenges in Virtual Settings:

  Acknowledges difficulty in replicating the organic nature of in-person meetups in virtual settings. Expresses limited use of platforms like Discord and preference for face-to-face interactions.

• Content and Virtual Community:

  • Commends the interviewer's approach of bringing interesting content to the community.
  • Advocates for asynchronous communication in chat groups to accommodate varying participation levels. 

Insights on Decentralization X AI 

• AI Decentralization Exploration:

  Conducted a recent deep dive into AI, exploring ways to decentralize it.Motivated by concerns about centralization of AI tools, citing recent issues with OpenAI.

• Local Compute Empowerment:

  • Recognizes the potential of local machine capabilities as a decentralizing force.
  • Optimistic about the ability to run AI models locally, breaking away from cloud dependence.

• Future AI Landscape:

  • Envisions a future with multiple AI models, varying in size and specialization, and the possibility of transacting between models, raising interesting scenarios.
  • Emphasizes the importance of individual empowerment in the AI landscape.

• Privacy and Localized AI:

  • Acknowledges the significance of privacy in AI interactions, preferring local execution.
  • Highlights tools like LLM that enable running AI models locally on personal devices.
  • Discusses potential integration of AI models within communication protocols like Nostr.

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  Links:

  • Larry Salibra: larrysalibra.com
  • New Internet Labs: newinternetlabs.com