Dave Troy :toad:
1/IMPORTANT thread about Bluesky funding and origins. Many folks know that it was seeded by Jack Dorsey around a libertarian vision of a magical network that wouldn’t need moderation because it would be decentralized and baked into a protocol (somehow).
The people who aided Dorsey in pursuing this vision were other libertarian/post-rationalists connected with effective altruism and other online anarchist movements.
Dave Troy :toad:
4/🚨It gets worse. Blockchain Capital LLC was co-founded by Steve Bannon pal Brock Pierce, a major crypto advocate, perennial presidential candidate, and close friend of Eric Adams. Pierce has dozens of other shady MAGA/Russia ties as well.
https://universeodon.com/@cryptadamist/113472115447080382
Dave Troy :toad:
2/One network called TPOT (‘that part of Twitter’) was instrumental. It carried over into Bluesky’s founding DNA.
Someone made this visualization in 2023, showing the TPOT/EA network quite clearly. EA as you know is part of TESCREAL and the belief systems that have driven Sam Bankman Fried and Elon Musk. SBF also put money into Musk’s Twitter buy.
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/subcultures/tpot-postrat
Dave Troy :toad:
3/Now that Dorsey has bailed as a board member and principal funder, Bluesky’s DNA is basically TPOT people. Who is going to win in that scenario? I don’t know, but I’m not putting money on the users. The most recent funding came from Blockchain Capital LLC...
https://www.theverge.com/2024/5/5/24149543/jack-dorsey-gone-bluesky-board
Moss Wizard
@davetroy This is all good for people to know, but *please* don’t call these jerks “anarchists” or call it an “online anarchist movement”. They don’t want to be regulated *themselves*, but they are actively trying to subjugate and exploit others, which is anathema to anarchism.
Dave Troy :toad:
8/From Bluesky's press release:
"[Blockchain's] Kinjal Shah will join our board. Kinjal shares our vision for a social media ecosystem that empowers the people who use it, and we are glad to have her support as we invest in driving the adoption of decentralized social."
Dave Troy :toad:
9/The company should try to address this by publishing a clear and convincing "trust story" that offers assurances about its funders and their motives, similar to an S-1 prior to an IPO. Creators deserve to have a clear picture so they can decide whether and how to invest. Basic transparency.
Dave Troy :toad:
7/And the next investment they took was from anarchocapitalist cryptobros with ties to Russia? Doesn't add up.
For those interested, here's the original post I shared here back in 2023 re: the TPOT DNA and origins of the network.
https://www.easyzoom.com/imageaccess/884cb1c001cd48e79aca92232bd24a04
Dave Troy :toad:
6/Possibly Bluesky can address this by discussing their funding in detail, the expectations of the funders, and whether the TPOT/PostRat community is still a principal driver of the vision for the "company." But this all points to another rug pull in progress, and a lot of credulous people hurt.
While it is reasonable that the company acknowledged that Dorsey's vision of "moderation by protocol" was unfeasible, it sets up a highly centralized model that is now subject to capture.
Dave Troy :toad:
5/Eric Adams was a frequent guest on Pierce's jet. Steve Bannon helped Pierce raise $60mm from Goldman Sachs 20 years ago for his "World of Warcraft" mining arbitrage play, Internet Gaming Entertainment. So you probably don't want anything to do with Bluesky long term.
https://nypost.com/2021/11/23/eric-adams-flew-to-puerto-rico-on-bitcoin-billionaire-jet-report/
Moss Wizard
@davetroy Anarchism is “no rulers including myself.” Libertarianism (in recent usage) is “no rulers except myself”, with the implication that literally everyone else is just a resource to exploit. A sort of “distributed monarchism” with trade agreements between a million rapacious kinglets.
Dave Troy :toad:
@Moss yes, and yet they still would consider themselves "anarchocapitalists." You should take this up with them.
Rich Puchalsky ⩜⃝
Anarchists do not consider "anarcho-capitaiists" to be anarchists. All anarchists oppose capitalism, and all anarchism is against all forms of hierarchical control, not just the state's.
You've created a long thread of people telling you the same thing over and over, none of which was necessary to what you wanted to write. This kind of "anarchists want to destroy the state, and so do warlords, therefore warlords are anarchists" just isn't going to fly on Mastodon.
Moss Wizard
@davetroy Destroying the state is not the only defining characteristic of anarchism, it is only the most simplistic freshman-level element. The specific right-libertarian people in the specific case of bsky funding are all power-hungry exploiters, not devotees of a narrow historical branch of political philosophy.
Dave Troy :toad:
@Moss if you're curious, the specific strains I'm referencing is LeFevre-ian voluntarism and autarchy, and Konkinist agorism. Both of them want to dissolve the state, hence they are, by definition, 'anarchists.'
Moss Wizard
@davetroy I’m sorry but “professional liars misuse terms, so I will too” is not the seat of logic you might have thought it was.
Dave Troy :toad:
@Moss yes, I know. But there are a lot of people interpreting those philosophies in ways that suit themselves.
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