China’s humanoid robots are leveling up 🔥 An AgiBot... Lingxi X2 robot pulled off a silky-smooth dance to a Chinese pop hit in Guangzhou, China. 🤖 From tech to rhythm—innovation meets fun. Video from Marco叔叔🫠 @AgiBot_zhiyuan AgiBot Research CyberRobo tphuang Chris Paxton Tuo Liushow more

At CES 2026, the world’s largest annual consumer electronics... show in Las Vegas, USA, Booster humanoid robots K1 from China took the stage with a lively lion dance performance, blending robotics, rhythm, and cultural flair. 🤖 A moment where technology meets tradition and steals the spotlight! Chinese firms accounted for the vast majority of the roughly 13,000 humanoid robots shipped globally in 2025, according to research firm Omdia. Zhang Heqing tphuang Li Zexin 李泽欣 Olala🇻🇳 🇨🇳 🇷🇺show more

RoboMaster 2026 is here! 🤖⚙️ Founded by DJI, the... world’s largest consumer drone maker based in Shenzhen, this is a global platform for robotics competition and academic exchange. From March to April, university teams across China are putting their engineering skills to the test. Video from RoboMaster机甲大师 DJI RoboMaster Tuo Liu tphuang Chris Paxton Ma Wukong 马悟空show more

China is scaling humanoid robotics at an insane speed.... Super realistic robots from Ex-Robots are now reportedly entering mass production 🤖 - Not prototypes. - Not lab experiments. - Actual production. The biggest shift happening in robotics isn’t just intelligence anymore. It’s making robots look and behave socially acceptable around humans. And honestly… we’re reaching the point where some people may not immediately realize they’re talking to a robot. Exciting future or uncomfortable future? Media : Ex-Robots ⚠️ This content is shared for informational purposes only. CTO Robotics Media is a media platform and does not own or develop the technology shown. Credit belongs to the original creators.show more

This is bullshit. China never imposed this so-called "beauty... standard" on the public. Most footage is cobbled together from Chinese social media: model training, fitness influencers showcasing their bodies, model street photography... None of this represents the true aesthetic of China’s 1.4 billion people. P1 is from Douyin: the girl in it is actually an online clothing seller. Most commenters are sharing selfies, not criticizing. P2, as stated in the account’s profile, is from a model training facility on Douyin—posted specifically for recruitment. People who barely understand China’s society and online ecosystem constantly fabricate narratives with such clipped-together content, deliberately stirring up gender divisions just for clicks. If these are requirements for top models, standards like the "A4 waist" might be plausible—but they’re far from unique to China. In fact, a cultural revival of traditional Chinese dance (the last video) is sweeping social platforms right now. Originating from ancient China over 2,000 years ago, it’s being learned and imitated by countless Chinese women on Douyin. That’s true charm recognized by the public.show more

It's 2030 and you are reviewing humanoid robots. A... Tesla. A Google. An Apple. An OpenAI. A Meta. A Figure. And a bunch of Chinese-made ones. Which one is best, and why? I think the Tesla understands the world much better. Why? There were eight Teslas around me on the freeway today. Start there. No other robot company has that data. But my robot is parked at the local high school twice a day. Its cameras see humans in all of our weirdness. How we move. Where we go. Where we walk. Who we talk with. What you are wearing. Whether your hair was combed this morning. That data will lead to robotics breakthroughs. Apple might keep up with its Vision Pro data, but it is too freaked out by the privacy implications of using said data. (On the front are six cameras and a couple of TOF -- Time Of Flight -- sensors that can see everything in your home in great detail). Google has a lot of data, for sure. All my: 1. Email. 2. Calendars. 3. Photos. 4. TV watching behavior. 5. Contacts. 6. Documents and spreadsheets. 7. Files. 8. Location data. So I expect Google's robot will be attractive to many. But how do you see the others shake out over the next five years? Make some guesses. But remember what an AI pioneer told me years ago about AI: it's all about the data. The Chinese ones have huge advantages: the Chinese have more data on their citizens, and many more citizens to boot AND they can make robots cheaper than we can. But now that you know OpenAI is building its own robot you have caught wind of what I've heard from many in San Francisco and Silicon Valley: that humanoid robots are the real prize of AI and will be highly profitable for those that can make them and find customers willing to buy them. Here, too, I learned long ago never to bet against Elon Musk. Will you?show more

Agility Robotics and Boston Dynamics to Unitree: “Go back... to China!” Leading US robotics companies have expressed support for the restrictions. Agility CEO Peggy Johnson issued a statement endorsing the GUARD Act, saying it “sends an important market signal as US robotics companies continue investing in resilient supply chains, domestic manufacturing capabilities, and trusted technologies.” In a recent interview with futurist Peter Diamandis, she said the Oregon-based robotics firm has been working with the Trump Administration. “We have an administration that’s very focused on the humanoid robots not going the way drones did,” she said. “We used to actually have a drone industry in the US and it’s largely gone offshore. They’re trying to prevent that same thing from happening to humanoids.” Earlier this year, Boston Dynamics sent its VP of software, Matthew Malcano, to Washington to testify before Congress about its biggest overseas rival. “Unitree is rapidly capturing market share in the US university, research, and law enforcement markets,” he said. “Researchers have reported crucial Unitree cybersecurity vulnerabilities. Unitree’s robots have also been seen in PLA military exercises and its ties to Chinese military have been noted by the House Select Committee on China as well as the Department of War.” Back in 2021, Unitree joined Boston Dynamics, Agility, ANYbotics and others in signing a pledge to not weaponize its autonomous machines. The company insists that its robots, including its new $650,000 rideable Mecha, are for civilian use only.show more

Something big is happening in robotics - and it’s... hiding in plain sight. This post is not about dancing robots but in the data that powers them. Open robotics datasets have exploded this year, turning the field into a more scalable and collaborative ecosystem. In just two years, Hugging Face datasets grew from 11k to over 600k - and robotics is by far the fastest-growing segment. We went from 1k robotics datasets in 2024 to 27k in 2025! For comparison, text generation, the second-largest category, has only around 5k datasets in 2025. That gap is massive. Open datasets are important because robotics lives and dies by real-world robot data - video, actions, sensors, failures. By making this data easy to upload, reuse, and benchmark, researchers, startups, and large players are now releasing real-robot datasets that would have stayed locked inside labs just a few years ago. Major contributors include NVIDIA, LeRobot initiative, and a rapidly growing maker community. This surge is also enabled by cheaper video storage, better tooling, and an open-source AI culture now spilling into the physical world. And it really matters: open robotics data dramatically lowers entry barriers, accelerates learning-by-doing, and speeds up progress toward generalist and humanoid robots. Robotics won’t scale through hardware alone - but to a large extent through shared data. Viz below from AI World - link to the story and more viz/filters in comment.show more

🧵🚨 MAJOR BREAKING: Exposing “Professor” Jiang Xueqin as a... U.S.-linked anti-China regime-change operative — a Sinophobic dissident weaponizing religious manipulation and sabotage from “inside” Beijing. This is not speculation. It’s straight from his own words, leaked history, and the exact playbook the U.S. DoD and regime-change think tanks (NED, Freedom House, Hudson Institute, USCIRF) have run for decades against China. Jiang poses as a neutral “predictive historian” on YouTube, but his track record screams ex-NED-adjacent activist, now dropping black-pill rhetoric designed to spark domestic unrest via education/religion. My research connects every dot. Jiang isn’t “pro-China” — he’s the controlled opposition seeding a color revolution by framing the CCP as an “evil religion” destroying Chinese souls. Millions of views on his channel = algorithmic boost for the narrative. This is textbook regime-change ops turned inward. 🔥🎙️🔥I will simply show what he talks about, and how it aligns perfectly with the U.S. Department of Defense’s (DoD) anti China strategy. How his tactics mirror the same DoD Sinophobic playbook to justify containment, sanctions, tech wars, and proxy unrest I will show how Jiang’s predictive history functions as a cover for religious propaganda and positions him to be weaponized the same way the Falun Gong, Uyghur Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists, underground Christians are portrayed as“persecuted spiritual resistance.” Instead of religion he teaches “eschatology,” instead of prophecy he teaches “predictive history.” This isn’t geo political analysis — it’s cultural demolition to incite youth revolt! 🔎Leaked clip from 14 years ago show him pushing education “reform” as an existential battle against the “unconscionable” system. This is straight from the regime-change manual: frame the CCP as the enemy of the people’s soul. 🚨Here are just a few anti-China statements Jiang has made: 1. “China’s state-sponsored media [is] what enables the corruption and tyranny that’s decaying the nation’s soul.” (2017 CNN) 2. “The Chinese government uses the media as its mouthpiece, perpetuating whatever lies are necessary to keep its tyrannical hold on society.” 3. China’s education system is “unconscionable.” 4. “Most kids in China have no freedom or happiness and the vast majority will develop depression by fourteen and commit suicide.” 5. The education system is an “insane evil religion.” 6. “We have combined Communism and Capitalism to create the worst possible society.” 7. Chinese bureaucrats derive power from a “monopoly over literacy” that stifles true innovation (framing CCP rule as anti-progress slavery). 8. China’s system turns truth into “farce” via Communist Party doctrine. 9. Secret police/arrests prove the regime fears real reporting and will imprison truth-tellers for 20 years. 10. The entire post-1949 project is a dystopian experiment in soul-crushing control (implied across his “worst society” + education rants). 🚨This isn’t neutral analysis. This isn’t teaching creative or critical thinking, it’s Sinophobic poison designed to erode legitimacy from within — exactly how DoD/think tanks describe “asymmetric” regime pressure. 🚨This is the mastermind of the Asian Alex Jones! 🤯🤯🤯🤯 The Bottom line: I can’t prove for certainty Jiang Xueqin is the regime-change agent the U.S. deep state wishes it had in every Chinese city. But I can prove he skillfully peppers his content with the exact same rhetoric regime-change agents use against CHINA regularly! Watch the full 𝐒𝐇𝐎𝐖𝐓𝐘𝐌𝐄 🇨🇳🇺🇸⚜️ thread with clips below— the evidence is damning. Like and share if you want the real “predictive history” of how color revolutions start. I know the playbook. You should too. 🚨 Please contribute your research in the replies. ReTweet! This needs to go mega-viral. Consider giving my previous tweets and research a review and my account a follow! Thanksshow more

For the first time in the history of automation,... the people most likely to be replaced are the ones building their own replacement, frame by frame, for a few dollars an hour. Across India, Nigeria, China, and Argentina, workers are strapping cameras to their heads and recording every fold of laundry, every stitch, every washed dish, and that footage is training the robots designed to do those exact jobs. This is documented, not rumor. No jokes! Garment workers in Tamil Nadu, India have been filmed wearing head-mounted cameras on the factory floor, sending point-of-view footage to data firms whose clients include Fortune 500 companies. One US company alone has hired thousands of workers across more than 50 countries to record themselves cooking, cleaning, and folding clothes. More than 6 billion dollars poured into humanoid robots last year, and the one ingredient every maker is starved for is precisely this: real human hands doing real human work. The endpoint is stated plainly by the buyers. In China, one supplier said his pitch to factories is to let workers wear the cameras now, because trained robots will eventually work there instead. The quiet part is the exchange itself. The worker is paid for the hour and keeps nothing after it. No share, no royalty, no ownership of the movements their own body is teaching the machine. The skill leaves their hands and becomes someone else's product, and almost no one along the chain sees the full shape of the trade, not always the person filming, not the millions who watch the clip and scroll on. One scene holds all of it. A humanoid robot spent an hour folding three shirts while a human housekeeper, hired to guide it, quietly finished the rest of the chores. Every automation before this arrived from the outside. A machine showed up and took the job. This one is being built from the inside, by the workers themselves, handing over the last thing they had left to sell. UBI ? or something totally else should pave the way in the future? Thoughts?show more

🧵 Why China Does Not Want War With the... United States—Even If It Has Military Supremacy It is becoming increasingly clear that China now holds a decisive military edge in many areas over the United States. It has built a war machine optimized for network-centric warfare, outpacing the U.S. in electronic jamming, long-range missile precision, radar integration, and regional air dominance. It can deny access, blind satellites, and overwhelm fleets. But military supremacy doesn’t mean recklessness. China has the ability to win battles. But it has no interest in starting a war—because it understands the cost of victory might be national suicide. Let us begin with a basic truth. China is not self-sufficient when it comes to economic demand. Its internal market is still maturing. Who feeds the Chinese people economically? The answer is: the world—especially the rich, Western world. China’s total foreign trade in 2024 hit 43.85 trillion yuan (~US$6 trillion), with exports accounting for 25.45 trillion yuan (~US$3.47 trillion). This figure is often downplayed by critics who claim “exports only represent around 18–30% of China’s GDP.” But such figures miss the structural importance of exports: they power the coastal provinces, which in turn power the entire nation. The bulk of China’s industrial and export muscle is concentrated in six coastal provinces: 1. Guangdong (~US$888 billion exports) 2. Zhejiang (~US$532 billion) 3. Jiangsu (~US$518 billion) 4. Shandong (~US$272 billion) 5. Shanghai (~US$255 billion) 6. Fujian (~US$167 billion) Together, these provinces account for the majority of China's exports. They are also home to China’s largest ports—Shenzhen, Shanghai, Ningbo, Qingdao—which function as lifelines for both imports and exports. Once war breaks out, these ports will shut down—either by enemy blockade, missile strikes, or insurance collapse. That means factories stop, logistics freeze, and tens of millions are thrown into unemployment. Some believe China can pivot to trade with the Global South—BRICS, Belt and Road nations, Africa, Latin America. It’s a comforting illusion. Here’s the problem: China mainly imports resources from the Global South—oil, gas, lithium, bauxite, copper, iron ore—not finished goods. It uses these to manufacture high-end products. But who consumes these products? The West. In 2024: Exports to the United States totaled 3.73 trillion yuan (approx. 514 billion USD) Exports to the European Union: 3.68 trillion yuan (approx. 508 billion USD) Exports to Japan and South Korea: over 1.5 trillion yuan combined (approx. 207 billion USD) - ASEAN nations were the top partner bloc, but much of this was processing trade with end-markets in the West This adds up to nearly half of China's total exports going to Western or high-income markets. These are the only markets with the income level and consumer appetite to absorb the full output of Chinese industry. Remove them from the equation—and the entire chain collapses. Here’s how a war, or even a serious blockade, would detonate the economy: 1. Western demand disappears 2. China stops exporting to Europe, the U.S., Japan, South Korea. 3. China no longer needs to import energy, iron ore, or copper from BRICS and the Global South 4. Global South trade drastically drops—because there’s no downstream use 5. Coastal factories go silent 6. Wealth stops flowing inland 7. Domestic consumption drops 8. Local governments collapse under fiscal pressure 9. Unemployment skyrockets 10. Social unrest erupts That’s the chain reaction. It would a few months, not years. Despite all efforts to de-dollarize, to promote RMB trade, to build an alternative system—this is still a Western-centric global economy. Even in 2024, over 59% of Chinese exports were mechanical and electrical products—designed for Western consumers, not subsistence economies. 👇show more

We have released Seedance 2.0. Due to the 2500-character... limit, please translate the following prompts into Chinese before use. [Technical Specs] Generate a 10-second, 16:9, 720p cinematic video. Smooth continuous camera motion with no cuts. The overall pacing is fast and tightly compressed, with rapid escalation from start to finish. Audio evolves quickly from a high-performance engine idle into intricate mechanical shifting and clicks, culminating in a soft electronic chime and the distinct sound of a "mwah" blowing kiss. [Global Constraints] Only the evolving mechanical character appears; no other humans or characters. All transformations must follow physical logic and maintain structural continuity. No object should pass through or intersect with other solid objects. Every robotic component must originate from visible parts of the Porsche 911 (doors, hood, wheels, chassis) through unfolding, splitting, or reconfiguration. [Scene Setup — 0:00–0:01] A sleek, metallic silver Porsche 911 sits on a rain-slicked futuristic city street at night, neon lights reflecting off its polished surface. The camera starts at a low-angle front-quarter view and begins a fast, smooth tracking-arc towards the side. [Rapid Transformation Initiation — 0:01–0:03] Transformation triggers instantly. The car’s suspension drops, and the frame begins to fracture into a complex grid of panels. The doors swing open and begin to segment into articulated arm structures. The front hood splits down the center, folding inward to reveal a glowing internal core. The headlights flicker and start to reorient as the "eyes." [Accelerated Feminine Reconfiguration — 0:03–0:07] The mechanical action is dense, overlapping, and fluid, emphasizing graceful but powerful motion. Lower Body: The rear wheels and wheel arches split and rotate downward, reassembling into slender, high-heeled mechanical legs. Torso: The roof and rear engine cover slide and compress, forming a sleek, curvaceous hourglass torso that retains the car’s aerodynamic lines. Arms & Hands: The side mirrors and door panels unfold into delicate but strong hands and fingers. Head: The front bumper and emblem area segment and rise, folding into a feminine-shaped head with a sleek metallic "helmet" visor. [Logical Transformation Constraints — No Spontaneous Appearance] The robot’s "skin" is composed of the car's outer silver panels. The internal frame and wiring emerge from the engine and undercarriage. No parts appear out of thin air; every joint is a reconfigured automotive component. [Transformation Completion — 0:07–0:08.5] The robot stands tall and elegant. The silver panels lock into place with a satisfying "click," revealing glowing blue LED accents in the seams. The silhouette is clearly feminine, humanoid, and sophisticated, reflecting the premium design of the original vehicle. [Final Hero Ending — 0:08.5–0:10] As the robot stabilizes, the camera performs a rapid, smooth zoom-in (Dolly-In) directly to her face. The robot tilts its head slightly, and the optic sensors (eyes) brighten. It brings its mechanical hand to its metallic lips and performs a graceful blowing kiss (fly-kiss) gesture toward the camera. The video ends with a close-up of the face, capturing the reflection of neon lights in its visor just as the kiss is released. [Cinematography Notes] Continuous Motion: No cuts or fades; the camera must transition from the car-tracking shot to the face-zoom seamlessly. Material Consistency: The robot must maintain the exact metallic silver paint, texture, and reflections of the Porsche. Energy: The transformation should feel high-energy and "force-driven," while the final gesture is soft and charismatic.show more

Some news: after four wonderful years at UC Berkeley... Haas, I'm heading to Columbia Business School this fall as an assistant professor in the Decision, Risk, and Operations Division. I'm incredibly excited to be joining a division full of brilliant colleagues studying marketplace design, online platforms, business analytics, and data-driven decision-making -- topics that perfectly complement my own research. And I can't wait to re-embrace NYC life – pizza at all hours of the day, grimy music venues in Bushwick, and a robust public transit system! At the same time, I'm also sad to be leaving Berkeley. Haas has been the perfect place to launch my academic career. The brilliant colleagues, engaged students, and collaborative atmosphere here have helped me grow as both a researcher and teacher over the past four years. I'll also deeply miss the Bay Area's amazing nature and weather, as well as its unique blend of innovation and idealism. When I joined Haas, I announced it with a cameo from Chris Diamantopoulos (AKA Silicon Valley's Russ Hanneman). I considered doing the same now—maybe getting Eric Adams, Jalen Brunson or James Murphy for a proper NYC welcome—but the timing feels off. As excited as I am about my new job, this career move comes at a complex time when universities across the US, including Columbia, are navigating challenging tensions between government pressures and academic independence. I believe in the importance of maintaining both institutional autonomy and protecting all members of our academic communities. Despite the challenges at hand, I remain hopeful about Columbia's future and its enduring mission. As Columbia's motto reminds us, "in lumine tuo videbimus lumen" — "In your light we shall see light" — suggesting that through education and collective wisdom, we find illumination and a path forward. I'm excited to join this historic institution during a pivotal moment and to contribute to Columbia's long tradition of creating positive change through knowledge and research. See you in New York! 🗽show more

NEW ALL IN*: $NVTS @ 13.95. FIRST ENTERED &... ALERTED TO SUBS LAST FRIDAY. THESIS ACTUALLY PRETTY BIG BRAIN. NO TLDR. --- # WHAT DO THEY DO They make a critical chip to convert 800V to 6V directly skipping the 48V intermediary. $3.8B market cap down -57% from ATHs with $557M cash and no debt. Formerly known for GaN mobile chargers (cute), they're pivoting entirely to higher-margin AI and power infra. Showcased an 800V-to-6V board inside NVIDIA’s MGX AI Factory ecosystem (aka the standard for data centers) that's targeting 97.5% peak efficiency and 2100 W/in power density. Stock price shot up to $34 after that btw. Now it's at ~$14.50 after bouncing off strong support line. # WHAT IS 800VDC AI racks are getting extremely power hungry. NVIDIA is moving toward 1MW+ AI racks in 2027, and getting power efficiently into those racks is becoming a serious bottleneck. This is MISSION CRITICAL for unlocking the next 10x in AI compute and NVIDIA is pushing this hard Jukan reports timeline moved up to 2H26 800VDC feels a lot like CPO ~12 months ago: the ramp up is coming, and the stock price usually moves first. # POTENTIAL CATALYSTS Several potential dates, all coming soon: - Aug 18 Rosenblatt Technology Summit - Aug 25 Jefferies Semiconductor Conference - Aug 26 NVIDIA earnings - Aug 27 Deutsche Bank Conference They also said its 6.5kV SiC tech will be unveiled “very soon” and a 10kV SiC device announcement with a lead customer “in coming weeks.” I have no idea what that means but I like the sound of it. # THE PLAY My favorite swing trades are entering near support and let it bobble for a bit until some good news makes it pop. $RAM I entered on 8/7 and it was essentially flat until explosion on 8/12. Feels like there could be an announcement around 800V any day now, especially with $NVDA earnings on Aug 26 (only 9 days away). So the play is to chill here until the market realizes the opportunity. --- *As a reminder: this is my challenge account where I restarted with $45k to go all-in swing trading 1 stock at a time to $10M again. Important disclosure: I currently own 4,611.980599 shares of NVTS and wrote this after establishing the position. I may buy or sell at any time without updating this post. This is not investment advice or a solicitation to trade securities. NVTS is highly speculative, and you could lose your entire investment. Any forward-looking statements or scenarios are speculative and may not occur. Do your own research and review company filings. Video from last Friday. Screenshot from just now.show more

THE DREW PAVLOU ORIGIN STORY: My haters only know... me from my past year of tweeting. You have no idea how funny my actual origin story is. This is the story of how I accidentally caused an international political incident between China and Australia at the age of 20. I recorded that video of my Dad yelling at me the night before my first ever anti-CCP protest back in 2019. My Dad had just learned dozens of Chinese guys on Facebook were promising to kill me if I held a pro-Hong Kong protest at my university. So my Dad was yelling: “DREW, KEEP A FARKING LOW PROFILE!!!” I am a great son but I admit I am one of the most annoying people in the world today (top 0.0001 percentile). So the next day my Dad opened Facebook to find me giving interviews to international press as police helicopters flew over my university campus in midst of major standoff between our group of 30 anti-CCP activists and 500 pro-CCP thugs. This was June 2019. My 20th birthday marked the 30th anniversary of Tiananmen. Hong Kong was kicking off. I’d been reading about the persecution of Uyghurs and Tibetans. I became obsessed. I didn’t even know a single Uyghur or Hong Konger at first, I was just having orientalist white boy/autistic political fixation moment. I would read articles about it every day for hours and ultimately decided I had to do something. I had completely pure, noble intentions. No money, no CIA/State Department backing, just extremely enthusiastic white boy political autism. Like, I had taught myself 20 words in Cantonese so I could sing the Hong Kong protest songs. I even called it the “FREE HONG KONG FREE XINJIANG RALLY” because at this time I didn’t know Uyghurs hate the term “Xinjiang” (it means “New Territories” in Chinese) 😂 I had no experience with media, no experience protesting. I just knew how to be annoying. So I organised 20 of my friends and planned campus protest for Market Day, the busiest day of the year at the University of Queensland (UQ), the biggest uni in our state. I picked the busiest walkway at UQ and decided we would hold 30 minute sit-in chanting protest slogans against Xi Jinping. We didn’t know this at the time but UQ had perhaps the deepest economic and political ties with China out of any university in the English speaking world. 20 per cent of UQ’s budget came from Chinese international students. 9000 Chinese international students paying approximately $300 million a year. The Chinese government directly funded courses on campus through the UQ Confucius Institute and these courses taught that Hong Konger protesters and Uyghurs were terrorists. We had Chinese academics affiliated with the UQ Confucius Institute studying high tech weapons technologies, we had research institutes on campus helping to develop engines for PLA fighter jets. The Chinese government gave a medal to our university president Peter Høj for promoting Confucius Institutes worldwide and we later found out he was receiving a secret $200K bonus each year for deepening ties with China. And this wasn’t even scratching the surface. The youngest guy ever appointed professor at UQ was a bloke called Heng Tao Shen and he used Australian government research funding to develop AI technology that he then took to China to be deployed against Uyghurs in surveillance. So this was the combustible environment we were unwittingly stepping into. Chinese ultra-nationalists found our protest event on Facebook a couple nights before and started bombarding us with hundreds of death threats. They said they would rape my mother and kill me. I am Greek Australian man with hot Mediterranean blood, I couldn’t take this lying down. I searched “insults in Mandarin” on Google, I sent back the Chinese characters for “Fuck your ancestors to the 18th generation.” I think this was the point at which my Dad started yelling at me. The next day 500 Chinese ultranationalist counter-protesters rocked up. You can watch what happenedshow more

10 things I can’t quit thinking about after ETHDenver:... 1. Convergence = here. Devner didn’t feel like an ETH conference, but more like an AI + crypto + TradFi + techno-philosophical conference. The convergence is true and real and accelerating. 2. Most corporate jobs suck ass. 40 years at a desk working on the same thing? Pure dystopia. We need fluid movement between passions, projects, people. DAOs are a massive step in that direction, but now AI is giving individuals the means to spin up their own massive businesses… there’s also this notion floating around that we can launch a product or contribute to a protocol or a DAO in a way that sets us up for life rather than slaving for decades at the golden teat of a paycheck. It's a massive win for human flourishing, passion and excitement. 3. oRaNgE cOIn. Bitcoin came up far more than I thought it would. Even $ETH ICO buyers/gigawhales talked about how bullish they are on it. The question is no longer whether $BTC will survive but rather how much exposure you should have. Orange coin has truly “up-leveled” or “transcended” to become something people simply can't ignore. 4. Founder quote that hit me like a truck: "We overengineered our project and under-engineered our story." In a world where AI flattens the app creation process, only your mindshare matters. (forgot to write down who said it 😅... chime in in the comments if you see this) 5. “Keepers of truth.” AGI will be able to fake literally anything. In such a world, blockchains become the “keepers of truth” bc they can be used to indisputably verify anything. This isn't just another use case. It means crypto will one day touch everything on earth. h/t Sreeram Kannan's talk at Open AGI. 6. Conference model = broken? Empty mainstage talks were the result of hundreds of side events that siphon off attention. This is happening more and more at every conf I go to. Not sure what the fix here is? Maybe the organizers should be way less centralized… rent a massive venue with tons of flexible spaces that can evolve in real-time… more Zuzalu, less CONTROL and top-down decisions. 7. Current blockchains r too dumb. AI must integrate more directly into the crypto tech stack. Ultimate vision is every hominid should be able to deploy whatever app they can dream up using natural language… this could lead to an giga-explosion of innovation and cool-ass experimentz. h/t Ritual and others 8. Crypto vs. Stripe API. Will we just give agents credit cards or will they prefer crypto wallets? One payment method can be censored. One cannot. Guess which wins? 9. $$$$ infusion. Dozens if not hundreds of projects around the world r sitting on massive treasuries bc they needed it as an insurance policy in case they had to do battle with the SEC. With the changing regulatory sitch, hundreds of millions of dollars (probably billies) can now be used to ship, build and accelerate. 10. Robots in chains? IRL robots made appearances at several events (one was drawing caricatures of passersby). Talked with frens about how we’ll bring them into our homes soon. That leads to crazy questions like “how do we keep them from getting hacked and killing us or blowing up like pagers?” “Will we be ok sleeping in the same room with them? Or will we lock them in the shed with chains?” Absolutely insane to think about… but productivity gains will overshadow all those doubts and human fears imo. De bots are coming whether you want them or not. I for one can’t wait to see zerebro embodied… in the meantime, I got to see him DJ his first show 👇🔥 Anyway, I'm sending love to all of you denverites, futurists, builders, dream dealers, and merchants of hope. Build something that makes this world better, freer, more beautiful and true✊show more