Metallica brought the signal hard on their seminal first 4 albums. I believe they were being inspired by the cypherpunks whether they knew it or not.
Their Black album was meant to get more people to pay attention to their signal. They paid a heavy price to use their stinger in that moment but that’s what the Gods wanted.
The 2 biggest conveyers of Cypherpunk signal in the 80s and early 90s were Phish and Metallica.
Both are relevant figures in the history of information sharing. Metallica fought Napster with all their might while Phish encourages the free spread of their tapes and was the first band to sell concert recordings right after their shows.
One company links them - nugs.net - they are worth learning about.
I’m a huge Phish fan. Great post! I’ve always associated bitcoin with DIY outsiders. It was one of the qualities that appealed to me when I first heard about bitcoin.
First ever concert was Metallica but then NYE 93 was my 1st Phish show.
Using Bitcoin today reminds me so much of using the internet to trade tapes in 1994. Nostr reminds me of building the #phish community on IRC. The whole spectrum from friends whose apartments we’d stay at when touring to denial of service accounts from trolls on IRC or RMP.
Phish fans - like back them - still don’t know that they were meant to be here. I want to change that.
