GM

Sovereign Engineering started as a crazy experiment: what would happen if we brought 21 motivated engineers together for a prolonged period of time, in person? When we came up with that idea a little over two years ago, we didn't really know how this could look like or if it would work. The imagery that came to mind was a combination of "Bell Labs" and "The School of Athens" - as strange as this might sound. But we had our reasons for said imagery, because we knew from the get-go that the underlying philosophy of it all would be crucial. After all, it's philosophy and underlying principles that brings about freedom tech, not the other way around.

While the program and its cohorts are still evolving, I think it's fair to say that we are past the experimentation stage. The concept works. The amazing projects that came out of the past cohorts are testament to that: Blossom, Nutzaps, TollGate, Cashu Wallets, Zapstore, Wikifreedia, nSite, npub(dot)cash, DVMs, and many more. All these ideas were born during discussions on the island, and Sovereign Engineering helped bring them about.

Vibes were high during the last cohort, as the dominating factor of these particular 6 weeks was vibe-coding in all its facets. I am incredibly bullish on nostr as the glue for the agentic web, and that's precisely what we want to explore some more in the upcoming SEC-05 cohort, kicking off September 1st. Six weeks of high-bandwidth conversation, ideation, experimentation, exploration, and yes—implementation. Ideas are worthless without the validation of a working prototype, and vibe-coding is rocket fuel for prototyping. But we are also convinced that it can be way more than that, so that is what we will focus on. YOLO Mode.

If the above does resonate with you, don't hesitate to reach out and apply. Applications for the upcoming cohort close in a week from now. #SovEng

I'm incredibly excited to finally share something that's been in the works for months:

As some of you know, I've been working on a new show called Finding Home. The idea was to create the show I wanted to watch: a Bourdain-style exploration of food and travel, but through the eyes of Bitcoiners.

It draws a parallel between the immigrant's search for a physical home and the bitcoiner's search for a sovereign one. The pilot, directed by the brilliant nostr:nprofile1qqspe0vmhu7gct8vzp6wksuf8ry4j32jfxcqepjqdyzfs89f2j5j7csv0nqwc features the story of Shakib Farrah nostr:nprofile1qy2hwumn8ghj7etyv4hzumn0wd68ytnvv9hxgqgdwaehxw309ahx7uewd3hkcqpqwvc8u63ek6mvuykz9jcw5eqquxvheetxms4ph2p43wwgensh06mqqxcpje , a fellow pleb who runs an amazing Somali restaurant, Safari, in Harlem.

Here's the trailer.

The full episode drops Friday on IndeeHub. This is a 100% self-funded project so far, so it'll be on lightning enabled PPV to help me make the next one.