Hivemind Ventures

Presidio Bitcoin's first-ever hackathon is officially in the books! We had Hackers fly in from as far as South Korea and Amsterdam to build on bitcoin for 24 hours straight. With the help of our incredible tech partners, they were able to build some pretty impressive projects. Let's take a look at our winners...🧵

[New Pod] Open Source AI & Confidential Compute w/ @anthonyronning & @marks_ftw fountain.fm/episode/YSwEaV… youtube.com/watch?v=2JX82J… We discussed a variety of topics including: - The state of Llama, DeepSeek, and Open Source AI - Dario’s take “On DeepSeek and Export Controls” darioamodei.com/post/on-deepse… - Data Quality is key - Garbage In, Garbage Out (speculation: Facebook data not nearly as valuable as Twitter or Reddit?) - Trend of companies not using proprietary models to protect data privacy - AI Alignment towards truth: how to ensure LLMs show real chain of thought - The model host matters most - open source models get filtered in dramatically different ways depending on hosting and system prompts - The value of open source models in preventing brainwashing/mind control - Learnings from Mutiny that led to Open Secret - Confidential Computing Explained - Secure Enclaves moving from the iPhone to the cloud - OpenSecret is like Apple’s private cloud compute but open source, verifiable, and anyone can use it - How to craft better prompts (meta-prompting) to get the most out of AI - How @OpenSecretCloud and @TryMapleAI verify that a chat is private. Enclaves as the next upgrade of HTTPS blog.opensecret.cloud/opensecret-tec… - Using AI to audit code - Secure enclaves as an ingredient for autonomous digital life - o1 isn’t a chat model (and that’s the point) latent.space/p/o1-skill-iss…

JP Morgan will not the bank the AIs. But we will ;) Come hack @PresidioBitcoin!

🚨AI + Bitcoin Opportunity 🚨 Presidio Bitcoin will host its first hackathon on May 16-17! Participants can win $10k+ and connect with devs from @blocks, @lightspark, @fewsats, @spiralbtc, @HRF, @hivemind_vc, & @lexeapp. More info and application 👉 pbhackathon.com

The @lava_xyz value proposition is immense. People want to save in Bitcoin and spend in dollars. Once they understand Bitcoin, they never want to sell it. But they do need to make purchases and live in the legacy fiat world. Lava enables that experience without ever requiring you to give up your keys. It's self-custodial BlockFi and it's going to be massive. Check it out! lava.xyz

Huge congrats to @MarediaShehzan! I'm proud to have backed @lava_xyz since day 0 via @hivemind_vc A series A led by @foundersfund & @khoslaventures represents a huge step toward Silicon Valley understanding the #Bitcoin thesis. I expect to see many more of these in the coming year :)

Thinking more about @gladstein's bet that Nostr will have at least 1M WAUs by Jan 31, 2026. Not only would I take the over, but I would actually take an order of magnitude over. Maybe much more. primal.net/e/note1d6aehu8… Why? 1) Current WAU count is already likely much higher than 30k (if you count reading nostr as active usage) primal.net/e/note189hk9l3… 2) Two companies alone will bring us way over 1M users. And they've already got Nostr integrations live @CashApp @TIDAL stacker.news/items/554100 primal.net/e/note1x96fnaq… 3) Nostr Wallet Connect is likely to go mainstream as the global bitcoin/eCash payment standard and I expect that every bitcoin/lightning/eCash wallet will adopt it over the next year @nwc_dev @getAlby @MutinyWallet @bobscully @callebtc nwc.dev 4) AI agents coming to Nostr is real. As information goes infinite, Nostr is the only corner of the web where every note is signed (and thus trustworthy). And Nostr + Lightning is the only infra capable of banking these agents such that they can interop with each other and us @openagents @UnleashedChat hivemind.vc/ai/ 5) And ofc that's to say nothing of what will actually happen, which is that A) current UX will improve radically (making it easier to onboard noobs to existing use cases @primal_app @damusapp) and B) new unexpected nostr use cases (leveraging open identity + WoT) will emerge, surprising even the biggest nostr bulls to the upside. hivemind.vc/identity/ Buckle up - it's gonna be a fun 18 months :) 𓅦⚡️🚀

[New Post] Nostr is Identity for the Internet hivemind.vc/identity/ In today’s essay, I explore why the Internet needs user owned identity and an open, interoperable data layer. Imagine if you were able to move your identity and social graph seamlessly between Twitter, Instagram, Spotify, Craigslist, Reddit, Yelp, and any other site. Brand new experiences could emerge like a dating or recruiting app that recommends the perfect person for you based on mashing up previously siloed data from someone’s Twitter follows, Goodreads posts, and Spotify streams. User-owned identity would also solve the cold start problem that every new app faces, allowing indie devs to instantly on-board new users and creating the perfect conditions for a new long tail of custom and niche apps to thrive. I.e. rewilding the web :) How do we get there? Regulation is fraught with problems and seems a dead end. An open standard for identity and data would be ideal. Protocol > Platform. And I think the winning protocol has already emerged: Nostr. Why? - Nostr is ridiculously simple - Users own their identity - Nostr is extensible - Nostr has a committed critical mass of builders (and emerging Web of Trust) I think it’s a feature not a bug that this community is largely Bitcoiners who chose Nostr because of its similar ideological commitment to simplicity, user issued identity, and bazaar style development. Like @jack, I think the long tail of microapps that Nostr enables is its ultimate killer feature. But which will take off next? In my mind, Nostr will follow a straightforward trajectory - first solving discovery/reputation for Bitcoiners, then for early tech adopters, and finally for the mainstream. Here are some examples where I think Nostr based discovery & reputation will shine: - Global, social payments: ala @primal_app @MutinyWallet @getAlby & @makeprisms - Ecash mint discovery/selection ala @MutinyWallet & bitcoinmints.com - Marketplaces for DLC oracles (ala @lava_xyz) - Local Bitcoins replacements (ala @MostroP2P) - Open AI agent discovery (ala @openagents & cascdr.vercel.app) - Marketplaces for APIs (ala @pablof7z's DVMs & @tasktiger_io) - An open alternative to Github (ala gitworkshop.dev) - An open PWA app store (ala @Storedotapp & zap.store) - ValueRank search & discovery (ala @NostrBand @KagiHQ & @UnleashedChat ) - Open information creation and curation (ala highlighter.com & wikifreedia.xyz) -Marketplaces for files (ala Blossom from @stuartbowman_ & hzrd149) - Review and UGC content sites (ala @apollosats & Satlantis @SvetskiWrites) - P2P content delivery and payment (ala @fountain_app & @wavlake & @geyserfund) Of course the most exciting category of all is the unexpected wave of unimaginable apps that will eventually emerge. Ultimately, user owned identity and open data lead to online trust, which is a beautiful and deflationary force, capable of disrupting predatory marketplace middlemen and shifting the balance from financial to social capital. I.e. a more humane world. (h/t @stuartbowman_) If any of this sounds exciting to you, join us on Nostr and experience what I imagine it felt like in the early 90s on @TheWELL! primal.net/e/note195pzs7a… Thanks to @ArturBrugeman @mbraticevic @dksf @bobscully & @MoritzKaminski for feedback on this essay.

💯 Investing in AI agents settling over ⚡️ is one of my top priorities @hivemind_vc Full thesis here: hivemind.vc/ai

Probably nothing ;) 💪⚡️ I'm proud to work w/ many of the projects sharing data for this report @getAlby @deezy_inc @Breez_Tech @River I can attest that this is just the tip of the iceberg - the amount of ⚡️builder activity across my portfolio @hivemind_vc is off the charts rn!

Investment thesis @hivemind_vc: find interesting "crypto" ideas with unnecessary tokens and rebuild them with #LightningNetwork payments and #Nostr. First up, open markets for compute are now live via @GPUtopia! (h/t @golemproject @gensynai)

I'm proud to sponsor #Ai4All via @hivemind_vc alongside @fedibtc @stakwork @replit @boltfun_btc & others If you're interested in how global, final settlement payments of any size can be married w/ open source AI models + agents, then sign up for this incredible hackathon!

[New Post] How (Actually) Open AI Wins hivemind.vc/ai I explore why open source AI development is important and how the 3 decentralized protocols I invest in @hivemind_vc provide infra for a capable swarm intelligence: - #Bitcoin - #LightningNetwork ⚡️ - #Nostr 𓅦

[New Post] Why I'm Betting Big on Nostr hivemind.vc/nostr

Excellent writeup from @dksf on the #nostr moment! I'm planning to invest heavily in the ecosystem in 2023. Several @hivemind_vc portcos are already building on #nostr as well. If you're a hacker exploring the protocol - hit me up! ⚡️🚀

We're hiring! ⚡️🎵 Wavlake’s first successful pre-seed fundraise led by @TrammellVC, along with @MaxAWebster and @ltngventures will greatly help us work on growing our audience and user base. Excited to share more in the coming weeks. Stay tuned 👀 @wavlake/our-first-fundraise-also-were-hiring-c8810ac1bba4" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">medium.com/@wavlake/our-f…

DREAM JOB for a music fan!! Man am I excited about this project & mission: "to help artists around the world unlock more value from their work." I've even got an EP I've been sitting on for a minute that I'll be dropping here in the new year as well ;)

This is so dope! @stacker_news becoming the bounty board for the Internet. All powered by⚡️of course! @replit joining the party soon 👀

In an industry of exceptional people, @therealkingonly has always stood out. He's both incredibly talented and principled - a visionary and a gentleman. It's an honor to finally partner w/ @Breez_Tech to deliver the missing piece of the⚡️ puzzle: a non-custodial API for all!