The guest
Balaji Srinivasan: Angel investor and entrepreneur, former CTO of Coinbase and general partner at Andreessen Horowitz. Holds multiple Stanford engineering degrees, co-founded Earn.com and Counsyl, and was considered for a senior FDA role.
What this episode covers
Tim Ferriss interviews Balaji Srinivasan across a wide range of topics centered on his view that the internet increases variance and is dismantling legacy institutions. Balaji argues that crypto represents 'free speech and free markets,' explains how he'd invest (half Bitcoin, half Ethereum) and the attack vectors against each, and outlines defenses against media 'cancellation' including financial independence and a pseudonymous economy. He details his 1729 project to pay global talent in Bitcoin, the concept of 'network states' and 'shadow mayors,' and his belief in transhumanism and reversing aging over mere universal healthcare. He closes with geopolitical analysis: a declining US ('woke capital'), an ascending China ('communist capital'), and India as the dark-horse 'crypto capital' and potential media superpower.
Recommended on this episode
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The Man Who Knew Infinity
“it's a very fun movie to watch i mean it's it's engaging”
“there's a book that was turned into a movie called the man who infinity it's a very fun movie to watch i mean it's it's engaging”— Balaji Srinivasan
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The Journalist and the Murderer
Janet Malcolm
“there's this great book ... so it's a phenomenal book you should read it”
“there's this great book called the journalist and the murderer that actually documents this so it's a phenomenal book you should read it”— Balaji Srinivasan
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Trust Me, I'm Lying
Ryan Holiday
“but that's a good book on some of the dark arts”
“there's also a book called trust me i'm lying by ryan holiday which covers a lot of this including the tactic of getting an email 20 minutes before a piece is going to be published”— Tim Ferriss
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Beautiful Trouble
“beautiful trouble is an awesome window into another world”
“beautiful trouble is an awesome window into another world which is it's sort of like you know it's a handbook for activists”— Balaji Srinivasan
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Seeing Like a State
James C. Scott
“this is a great book by yale university press”
“if you read read this book seeing like a state this is a great book by yale university press that essentially talks about how names were developed”— Balaji Srinivasan
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Exercism
Exercism
“exercism.io this is an awesome site by the way”
“exercism.io this is an awesome site by the way it's got a funny name too has something where you can learn python by doing like 50 python problems”— Balaji Srinivasan
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Popcorn Time
“popcorn time is actually quite a good app”
“popcorn time is actually quite a good app you know that's like basically streaming with the quality of like in itunes or whatever”— Balaji Srinivasan
The guest's own work
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The 4-Hour Body
Tim Ferriss
“i recommended it in fact in the four hour body this is more than 10 years ago and i did not get paid to do so”— Tim Ferriss
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The 4-Hour Workweek
Tim Ferriss
“you've been talking about this stuff forever you know with the four-hour work week this is not it's not unusual for your audience”— Balaji Srinivasan
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The 4-Hour Chef
Tim Ferriss
“the four-hour chef which can very confusingly is about accelerated learning and behavioral change the disproportionate impact of small incentives and stakes”— Tim Ferriss
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The Network State
Balaji Srinivasan
“i've got this book coming out by the way that'll actually also be serialized in 1729 so like those daily tasks and book chapters with the book's title is the network state”— Balaji Srinivasan
Also referenced (named, not recommended)
MediaReferenced
Good Will Hunting
“if you've ever seen goodwill hunting i have yeah so goodwill hunting was kind of based on that”— Balaji Srinivasan
MediaReferenced
300
“the ideal was to have citizen soldiers like if you've seen the movie 300 where all the athenians come out and it's like you know i'm a potter”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Nomad List
Nomad List
“you go to nomadlist.com or teleport.org and you do a spreadsheet and you optimize your personal runway”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Bitcoin
“put half into bitcoin half into a theorem the simplest thing that i think is you know guaranteed to produce really exceptional returns”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Ethereum
“put half into bitcoin half into a theorem the dumbest meaning the simplest like the simplest thing that i think is you know guaranteed to produce really exceptional returns”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Zcash
“you can use zcash to transfer money from one name to another pseudonymously zcash is basically like the truly anonymous version of bitcoin truly private version”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
PostgreSQL
“if you're starting from scratch you'll use postgres or an open source database or combination of some kind”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Git
“there's a thousand details and how that works which are useful to get number one like git and stuff like that”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
“there's 400 million pseudonyms you know or pseudonymous users on reddit pseudonymous like reddit is a persistent pseudonym that accumulates reputation”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Filecoin
“asset issuers like creators of new cryptocurrencies and digital assets would pay users to do tutorials like file coin or orchard how to use decentralized storage”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Orchid
“like file coin or orchard how to use decentralized storage or decentralized vpn”— Balaji Srinivasan
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Udacity
“a sort of a caricature or attack or whatever of audacity udacity of these nano degrees they say oh you're getting a nano degree”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Coursera
“the scanner which is like audacity and coursera and so on which are fine companies good companies billion dollar companies”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Python
“the difference between a person who solved five problems or one problem in javascript versus zero is actually a big difference”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Figma
Figma
“you might be able to get paid more if you know figma or if you know python or if you know chemistry”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Casa (keys.casa)
Casa
“i'm an investor in a company called casa keys.casa is url it's cold storage as a service so they go through with you how to set up your cold storage”— Balaji Srinivasan
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StarkWare (Cairo)
StarkWare
“an investor in something called starkware which has something called cairo that is very promising and general so-called zero-knowledge roll-ups are very promising”— Balaji Srinivasan
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Uber
“you go from a taxi ride you know it's standard taxi ride to uber which actually has very long trips and also very short ones”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Spotify
“you unbundle all the songs from all the albums then you rebundle them in spotify playlists”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Tinder
“tinder alone is a complete change in how making happens swipe right swipe left swipe right swipe left that itself is like this huge thing”— Balaji Srinivasan
ProductReferenced
Reliance Jio
Reliance
“india has brought about 400 million people online with something called reliance geo which basically 4g lte there is about 100 x cheaper than in the us”— Balaji Srinivasan
MediaReferenced
Ready Player One
“the easiest way to give them that pass is actually vr goggles ready player one here you go ready player knight exactly right”— Balaji Srinivasan
BookReferencedISBN verified
From Third World to First
Lee Kuan Yew
“he wrote a book called from third world to first and he took singapore from this third world swamp into you know this shining metropolis”— Balaji Srinivasan
BookReferencedISBN verified
The Lessons of History
Will and Ariel Durant
“if anyone has read lessons of history by will and ariel durant you know war famine and pestilence example given covet 19 also do a pretty good job”— Tim Ferriss
MediaReferenced
The Terminator
“it's like being a terminator the present is all idyllic everyone's gambling through the fields and then this crazy scientist invents some horrible new terminator”— Balaji Srinivasan
MediaReferenced
House of Cards
“you see a hollywood depiction of this house of cards and netflix in its first season actually depicted an evil ngo like a water thing”— Balaji Srinivasan
MediaReferenced
Ghostbusters
“the original ghostbusters depict an evil regulator so did dallas buyer's club depicted evil regulators”— Balaji Srinivasan
MediaReferenced
Dallas Buyers Club
“the original ghostbusters depict an evil regulator so did dallas buyer's club depicted evil regulators”— Balaji Srinivasan
MediaReferenced
Black Mirror
“they have this sort of black mirror world view this future sucks the west isn't the sort of black marathon where the only thing they can see in the future”— Balaji Srinivasan
Big reveals from this episode
- Asked how he'd invest $100K or $100M today, Balaji says the simplest move 'guaranteed to produce really exceptional returns' is half into Bitcoin and half into Ethereum.
- He identifies the most likely attack on Bitcoin as a Chinese network-level 'great firewall' attack rather than a mining attack, assigning roughly a 30% chance over five to ten years.
- Balaji frames the world as splitting into three groups: 'woke capital' (US and allies), 'communist capital' (China), and 'crypto capital' (the free world).
- He predicts that in a non-nuclear military conflict over Taiwan, China would probably win because the US military can no longer execute in the physical world.
- He defines a 'network state' as a social network with integrated cryptocurrency and national consciousness that eventually crowdfunds territory around the world.
- He proposes 'shadow mayors', building convince-based community organizations (network unions) that deliver local goods and could eventually win elections outright.
- Balaji names India the dark horse of the decade, arguing it could become 'crypto capital' and even a media superpower by inverting Hollywood's dystopian 'black mirror' worldview.
- He argues universal healthcare is just 'moving gravy around on the plate' and that the real goal should be reversing aging and eternal life.
Worth remembering
- The number 1729 is the Ramanujan number, the smallest number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways, and the name of Balaji's new global talent project.
- The NSF Acceptable Use Policy banned commercial traffic on the internet until it was repealed around 1991, which enabled the commercial internet and dot-coms.
- Balaji quotes Janet Malcolm's 'The Journalist and the Murderer,' whose famous opening calls every journalist's work 'morally indefensible.'
- He describes the 'pseudonymous economy,' arguing real names are a state technology developed partly to simplify conscription, citing the book 'Seeing Like a State.'
- He predicts a 'cloud burst' in the 2020s where a major government or corporate database hack rains down DMs and Slacks, citing the SolarWinds and Ledger breaches.
- His 1729 project plans to pay at least $1,000/day in Bitcoin prizes for tasks like writing essays, making explainer videos, and creating open-source course exercises.
- Miami Mayor Francis Suarez recruited tech and finance to Miami largely by being friendly on Twitter ('How can I help?'), and made Miami the first city to put the Bitcoin white paper on its .gov site.
- Balaji notes humans don't age like cars breaking down randomly, lifespans cut off sharply near 120, suggesting aging is a coordinated, programmable process that could be reversed.
- Lee Kuan Yew, whom Balaji calls the greatest leader of the 20th century, took Singapore 'from third world to first' and later advised Deng Xiaoping on reforming China.
- India brought roughly 400 million people online via Reliance Jio with 4G LTE about 100x cheaper than in the US, which combined with remote work and crypto could transform the global labor market.
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