Soapbox Sessions

How Bitcoin & Nostr Fix Life & Death Problems

How Bitcoin & Nostr Fix Life & Death Problems Derek just got back from Nashville, where he attended an AI hackathon at Bitcoin Park sponsored by HRF. His team of four built an app called Zuka for a human rights activist whose family survived the Rwandan genocide. The catalyst: a Rwandan YouTuber with 60,000 followers was jailed and died in custody for speaking out against the government. They wanted a tool that keeps speaking even when the human behind it is silenced. The solution is an AI influencer that lives on Nostr. Operators build a persona with a name, voice, and backstory, feed it research through a wizard, and publish videos to legacy social media and Nostr in one click. Everything is encrypted. Wallets are tied to personas so the AI influencer funds itself through Bitcoin zaps. Derek and Heather then covered a DDoS attack a pro-Iran hacking group launched on Spotify on May 12, alongside attacks on Goodreads and eBay. Heather used it to talk about value for value music and the independent ecosystem on Nostr, Wavlake, and Fountain as an ethical alternative to algorithm-driven streaming, including what yoga teachers deal with around PROs and music licensing. They closed with GM laying off 600 legacy IT workers to hire AI native engineers, and whether prompt engineering still matters on frontier models. Derek says it does not. Turner the dog closed the show. Chapters: 00:00 Intro and Nashville recap 00:31 How Agora was born 01:27 A Rwandan journalist killed for his YouTube channel 03:25 Building Zuka: an AI influencer that cannot be jailed 05:23 Encryption, Bitcoin wallets, and activist security 10:52 Second place and other standout hackathon projects 14:39 The shoe sale protest app 16:34 Lillian Lopez and the Museum of Venezuela 18:05 Tech privilege and explaining the ecosystem to normies 33:02 Iranian regime DDoS attacks Spotify 36:05 Value for value music vs the streaming model 44:33 Bitcoin musicians coming out of the woodwork 48:00 GM fires legacy IT and hires AI native engineers 51:00 Prompt engineering is dead on frontier models 54:32 Is Nostr more reliable than centralized platforms

NosVegas - Our Bitcoin 2026 Recap

Soapbox Sessions: NosVegas - Our Bitcoin 2026 Recap Derek and Heather just got back from Las Vegas and they have a lot to say. This week is a full recap of Bitcoin 2026, covering the panels, side events, music, zaps, and what it all means for where Nostr is headed. Heather started the week at the Women's Bash, where Bitcoin women packed the room, Natalie Brunell hosted, and Senator Cynthia Lummis received an award. Derek spent Sunday at the HRF Reception on the 64th floor of Mandalay Bay, talking Nostr and Agora with developers and freedom fighters, including a filmmaker couple already familiar with Agora through Leopoldo Lopez. Monday brought the expo floor. Derek added a surprise sixth panel on the spot when Justin Moon asked him to cover OpenClaw on the Freedom Go Up stage. Heather spent three hours with David Strayhorn of NosFabrica talking Web of Trust (WoT) and how it can filter the Ditto music feed automatically without manual curation. Check out brainstorm.world. Tuesday night was Las Vegas 2.0, the V4V music side event. Four artists performed and got paid in Bitcoin live on stage. Noah Gruman opened with a half-hour set and earned nearly 400,000 sats. Higher Low followed with 130,000 sats. Abel James pulled in half a million. Sarah Jade closed the night with over half a million sats. Total artist earnings across in-person and remote zaps on Tunestr hit around two and a half million sats. PubPay ran the leaderboard and made zapping competitive in the best way possible. Before the music, six speakers did 10-minute talks. Heather and Sarah Jade opened the night, with Heather spotlighting how Sarah brought four other San Diego women artists into the V4V space and helped clean up how local venues treat independent artists. Derek talked about Ditto and making the internet weird again. Three people pulled out their phones and scanned the QR code on the spot to download the app. Eric Blackstone from Bitcoin is for Everyone talked grassroots meetups. David Strayhorn did a live Web of Trust demo. Paul Keating previewed Primal 3.0. Open Agents closed with a talk on selling compute for Bitcoin. Wednesday Derek moderated a conversation on Nostr beyond social media with Jeff Gardner, Will Casarin, and David Strayhorn on the open source stage. He joined Alex Li and Will Casarin on the Freedom Go Up stage to talk free speech and code as speech, including Nostr Git as censorship-resistant code hosting. He closed the day on the Genesis stage with Justin Moon, Jesse Posner from Vora, and Mark from Maple AI, making the case that Bitcoin plus Nostr plus privacy AI equals the Freedom Tech Stack. Nostr showed up across the conference like never before. The open source stage streamed live on Nostr. The conference app ran on Nostr. A photo app ran on Nostr. Reverend Hodl ran a pirate stream on Nostr. Zapping went live at the open source stage for the first time. And people kept telling Derek that Shakespeare was their first ever vibe coding experience. Nashville 2027 is on their minds. Heather wants music on a bigger stage. Derek thinks Nostr is exactly where it needs to be and gaining ground every year. Both agree the flywheel is turning. Find Derek's full day-by-day recap: https://soapbox.pub/blog/conference-recap-bitcoin-2026 Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:11 Is Nostr Infrastructure or the Main Event? 04:28 We Deserve a Bigger Footprint 08:50 The Case for a Nostr Stage in 2027 10:14 Sunday: Women's Bash 12:00 Cynthia Lummis Award and What Comes Next 14:02 Sunday: HRF Reception at Mandalay Bay 16:17 Filmmakers Already Know About Agora 17:27 Bitcoin Kids Table 19:14 Monday: Expo Floor Opens 20:24 Derek's Surprise Sixth Panel on OpenClaw 22:53 The Bitcoin Bazaar 25:22 Club Orange and the Calendar Consortium 27:27 Hot Style Takeover with Matt Odell 27:55 Noah Gruman Performs Live 31:30 Heather and David Strayhorn on Web of Trust 31:47 Jeff Gardner Launches the Internet Privacy Foundation 33:38 The Beefsteak Dinner 38:55 Lee from Bitcoin Jungle Built Tubester 40:38 Tuesday: Vibe Coding on Bitcoin Panel 44:54 Tuesday Night: Las Vegas 2.0 Side Event 46:06 PubPay Makes Zapping Competitive 47:29 Noah Gruman Earns 400K Sats 48:00 Higher Low, Abel James, Sarah Jade Perform 49:06 Two and a Half Million Sats Total 49:44 Six Speakers Before the Music 52:29 Eric Blackstone on Grassroots Bitcoin Meetups 52:58 David Strayhorn Web of Trust Demo 54:01 Derek: Make the Internet Weird Again 55:44 Paul Keating Previews Primal 3.0 57:41 DJ Tatum Turnup Closes the Night 58:48 Wednesday: Three Panels 59:13 Nostr Beyond Social Media 1:01:03 Freedom Go Up Stage: Code Is Speech 1:03:05 What We Built in Under a Year 1:04:13 AI Plus Bitcoin Plus Nostr Equals Freedom Tech Stack 1:07:13 Now Is the Time to Decentralize Everything 1:08:14 Nostr's Footprint at the Conference 1:09:23 Nashville 2027

Too Hot for TikTok and Reddit

Heather got restricted mid-live on TikTok. Derek deleted his 17-year Reddit account after getting banned for recommending Ditto.pub. Both in the same week. Nostr fixes this! In This Episode: Heather joined Morgan's 400K-follower TikTok live and got the stream restricted for 10 minutes mid-broadcast. Her account was already flagged from a previous video mentioning Ticketmaster. AI moderation connected her to the stream and throttled their reach. Morgan refused to kick her off. Viewers dropped in real time. Derek replied to a Reddit post about the internet not being fun anymore by mentioning Ditto. A mod banned him. He replied WTF. Reddit banned him for three days. He deleted his 17-year account on the spot. The conversation goes deeper into black and white thinking, the death of civil disagreement, and how TikTok has assigned Heather a personality. Nostr lets users control their own feeds without a mod team or government deciding what they see. Next week: the full Bitcoin Conference and Vegas recap. Chapters 00:00 Heather Gets Restricted on TikTok 02:37 TikTok Is State-Controlled Media 10:41 Derek Gets Banned from Reddit 16:16 Account Deleted 21:07 Nostr Has Never Censored Either of Us 22:07 We Lost the Ability to Disagree 27:20 TikTok Has Heather Figured Out 32:04 Why People Stay on the Algorithm 38:19 Web of Trust Hackathon 44:00 TMZ Is Doing Journalism Now 50:16 Next Week: Vegas Recap

Spend Your Bitcoin

Heather Larson and Derek Ross make the case that HODL culture is killing value for value, trace how music and money got separated over the past 25 years, and share breaking news about PubPay bringing real-time zaps to speakers on the Bitcoin Conference open source stage. NosVegas is April 28! In This Episode NOS Vegas April 28: We All Scream nightclub, 517 Fremont Street, Las Vegas. Tickets $21: https://nosvegas.shakespeare.wtf/ Stream live at tunestr.io PubPay (pubpay.me): zaps for conference speakers, now on the open source stage Podster (podster.org): Derek's Nostr-native podcast hosting The current class of Bitcoiners came for number go up, ETFs, and politician simping. They did not come to spend. Spend and replace is not a radical idea. Laszlo had to spend 10,000 Bitcoin to kick this whole thing off. HODL culture has held value for value back. Derek spent a year walking up to Bitcoiners at events and explaining zaps. They thought it was cool. They did nothing. The music industry broke over two decades. Cassingles were a dollar at Tower Records. Napster happened. Spotify arrived. Streaming separated music from money and made it seamless enough that no one thinks about what artists earn. Sara Jade made $700 in 30 minutes at a Phoenix show in 2024, paid in Bitcoin over Lightning. If she never touched it, the money doubled by year end. Eliza MacLamb broke the Chaotic Good story before Wired. An independent musician beat the gatekeepers at their own game. Live Nation and Ticketmaster will not be fixed by the government. The open source fix is already built. Heather got shadowbanned on TikTok for using the hashtag Ticketmaster. TikTok has a deal with them. None of this happens on Nostr. Breaking news: PubPay is bringing zaps to the Bitcoin Conference open source stage. Every speaker received a step-by-step guide to submit to the PubPay dashboard. The audience can zap speakers in real time. PubPay will also be at NOS Vegas on the 28th for musicians. NOS Vegas is April 28 at We All Scream, 517 Fremont Street. Talks at 7pm, live music, DJ Tatum Turnup upstairs. $21 tickets. Stream on tunestr.io. There is a rumor about a special guest at the Bitcoin Conference. Contact has been made. Chapters 00:00 Bitcoiners Came for the Wrong Reasons 01:52 Spend and Replace 03:34 HODL Culture Has Held Value for Value Back 04:50 Why We Hate the Term Value for Value 06:28 Proof of Work Applies to Musicians 07:08 From Cassingles to Spotify 09:44 Bitcoin Fixes the Music Industry 10:07 FM Rodeo and Stats by Southwest 11:29 What Bands Do to Make Money 13:45 Sarah Jade Is Playing with Jason Mraz Before Vegas 14:43 Streaming Won Because It Was Seamless 17:59 People Are Starting to Ditch Spotify 18:55 Eliza MacLamb Broke the Chaotic Good Story Before Wired 20:19 We Need Our Own Psy-Op 23:41 Why Supporting Content Feels Foreign 25:44 The Government Will Not Fix Live Nation 29:00 Bitcoin and Nostr Give Artists a Platform No One Can Take Down 30:41 Podstr and Radio Detox on Fountain 40:20 Heather Got Shadowbanned for Mentioning Ticketmaster 42:08 Why Decentralized Networks Fix This 43:38 Breaking News: PubPay Brings Zaps to the Bitcoin Conference 45:39 NosVegas Is April 28 51:37 Go to the Smaller Stages 54:01 Derek and Heather Have Not Seen Each Other Since Nashville 56:19 Derek's Vegas Plans and the Women's Bash 59:18 Bitcoin Is Trying to Hit 79K

AI Music, NosVegas & Broke the AI Budget

Soapbox Sessions Episode 33: AI Music Contra-Versy, The NosVegas Show, and the Week Derek Broke the AI Budget Heather Larson and Derek Ross are back with a packed episode covering NOS Vegas, Tunestr.io 2.0, AI music, the new Ditto features, and a dive into the latest AI workplace stats. Plus: Right Said Fred joins Nostr, social media detox science, and a debate about whether AI-generated music needs a warning label. In This Episode NoSVegas April 28: tunestr.io Buy tickets! https://nosvegas.shakespeare.wtf/ Maggie Mae's Austin: https://maggiemaesaustin.com/ Derek's Nostr Resources: https://nostr-resources.surge.sh/ Ditto: try on web, Google Play, Zapstore, and now iOs! KC Bitcoiners Block Party RSVP: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeOK7RiAhAhYqsKIYqNjI_mep9io8Gwbt-uNbhi_9tW6I0XIA/viewform AI has replaced work for 20% of full-time US employees: https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/rcna267238 #NosVegas is April 28 at We All Scream nightclub (near Fremont St). We'll have talks in the Grow Nostr room to kick off the night at 7:00 with the party running from 7pm to 1am. Talks from Heather, Derek, Paul from Primal, Eric from Portland, and new talk from Car from Pleblab and Christian from OpenAgents. Live music from Sara Jade, Abel James, and The Higher Low, then DJ Tatum Turnup upstairs. One confirmed special guest, second still in the works. Tickets are $21. Stream live at tunestr.io. Tunestr.io 2.0 is dropping. New features, bug fixes, social content on events pages, and updated copy about what the platform is and why it exists. Derek and Claude coded it together, Tunestr Founder OpenMike approved it, and it goes live this week. Maggie Mae's in Austin rebuilt their entire website using Shakespeare and added a Nostr-powered events calendar. Every musical act, almost every day of the week, all on Nostr. The site is at maggiemaesaustin.com and it is a case study in how a non-developer small business can go full Nostr without starting from scratch. Annonymal is a real band. Six members, all anonymous by choice, writing and recording their own music. They did a Geyser Fund campaign to cover studio time. People assumed they were AI because there are no faces. They are not AI. Contra makes music with his son. His son plays drums and studies music theory. They use Logic Pro and some AI in the process. Contra has been taking heat for AI slop but the father-son angle has never been on the Geyser Fund page. It should be. Heather interviewed him on Radio Detox, episode out within 24 hours of this one. Should AI music have a label? Heather and Derek debate the line between AI-augmented and AI-generated, how Spotify has created fake AI playlists to cut royalties, and whether a song you genuinely enjoyed becomes less valuable once you know it was machine-made. No clean answer reached. 20 percent of full-time US workers say AI is already doing part of their job. 50 percent of adults used AI at least once in the past week. Only 8 percent are using autonomous agents. Half of workers using AI at work are paying for their own subscriptions, not using company-provided tools. Anthropic changed the Claude Code subscription model, blocking access to third-party tools like OpenClaw. Derek tried Gemma 4 from Google (did not go well), then switched to GLM 5.1 from Z.AI at $80 per quarter. It works but requires more prompting. Paying per API token for one week cost $200. Ditto launched new features including Blobbi virtual pets, Letters (decorated personal messages with 3D envelope animations), a full in-app article editor, badges, custom emoji packs with drag-and-drop, and the ability to run Nsites directly inside the app. Head to Ditto.pub, or get it in the App Store, Google Play, and ZapStore! Derek updated his Nostr resources guide. Videos, podcasts, articles, and guides all in one place for anyone new to the space. Nostr Nights Nashville is May 11. DM Derek Ross if you want to speak or just show up. Heather is speaking virtually at the KC Bitcoiners Block Party this Sunday, April 19. Chapters 00:00 Intro and Vegas Hype 01:15 QW Update: Where Has He Been? 02:33 NOS Vegas April 28 Details 05:40 Tunestr.io 2.0 Is Dropping 08:43 TikTok vs Tunestr Live Streaming 10:50 Maggie Mae's Austin Built on Nostr 13:02 Anyone Can Do This (Open Source Moment) 19:17 Is That Band Actually AI? 23:32 Contra Makes Music With His Son 26:27 Should AI Music Have a Warning Label? 31:57 AI Is Doing 20% of People's Jobs 36:30 Anthropic Killed OpenClaw Access 41:28 Only 8% Use Autonomous Agents 44:01 Gen Z Hates AI and Honestly Fair 47:48 Half of Workers Pay for AI Themselves 52:33 Don't Paste Patient Data Into Claude 57:03 Derek's Updated Nostr Resources 59:45 Nostr Nights Nashville May 11