My keynote presentation at the Imagine If conference in Nashville focused on how i think about scaling freedom tech.
Date: September 20, 2025
OpenSats: https://opensats.org
Ten31: https://ten31.xyz
Imagine If: https://bitcoinpark.com/imagineif
(01:02) ODELL takes the stage
(01:23) Diagnosing the problem
(02:35) Ad driven surveillance and addictive platforms
(03:04) Open source and open protocols
(03:49) Scaling open source: incentives and funding
(04:26) OpenSats and Bitcoin powered grants
(05:25) Email, an open protocol, and Gmails predatory model
(06:42) Make freedom profitable: align incentives
(06:54) Ten31 thesis: sustainable, user-aligned businesses
(07:28) Case study: Start9 and self-hosted services
(08:16) Case study: Maples private AI and open API
(08:51) Case study: Primal on Nostr and Bitcoin
(09:37) Case study: Strike and low switching costs
(10:25) Closing call to action: profit drives scalability
Video: https://primal.net/e/nevent1qqs8g25llcvddu2cacsglckxks2afya2c27pt6g3qf3rh5rma3eachsg5mu8s
more info on the show: https://citadeldispatch.com
learn more about me: https://odell.xyz
[00:00:00]
ODELL:
So what's the answer? The answer is to make freedom profitable. That's what scales this movement. Bitcoin is what makes it possible. The open protocol that is Bitcoin. Our lives have become increasingly digital. We've basically moved our entire lives onto the internet. The solution is open source software and open protocols. The beauty of open source is that it's inherently viral in nature. Joining us on stage is Matt O'Dell. Thank you guys. Tough act to follow, but I'll try and make it worth your while. We'll see how this goes.
It's impossible to make a slide deck without at least one UI error, but the year is 2025. We're gonna be talking about making freedom profitable. So the core problem that I've diagnosed in our society is we have a lot of problems, but the one that I think we can actually change and improve is that our lives have become increasingly digital. We've basically moved our entire lives onto the internet. We rely on it, we spend way too much time on it and the way we built it out, the big tech paradigm, the way we built it out was through walled gardens, through big tech walled gardens. And as a result, the issue we're seeing now is we do not have freedom in the digital age.
We're in a weird time where humanity is flourishing and productivity is growing and we're doing quite well, but at the same time we have less freedom than the generations before us. And I think people inherently struggle with this. They think about it all the time, but they don't realize there's a better path. And and where did this problem come from? This problem came from the business models. The the the business model of big tech is data surveillance primarily driven by ad models. We've effectively become digital cattle and they milk us for our data. We are the product and and they milk us for all it's worth. They sell that out to other tech companies, and then they monetize our attention.
So their incentive is to addict us. Their incentive is to make us tied to our phones and tied to the platforms we use. Use. So what is the better path? What is the solution here? And the solution is open source software and open protocols. By going down that path, we can give individuals agency and freedom over their lives, and and they're able to choose the path they want to take. The beauty of open source is that it's inherently viral in nature. It's not controlled by a human, it's not controlled by corporations, it's not controlled by a government.
It can go through generations. Generations of people improving it, using it, shipping it without permission. So how do we scale open protocols? How do we scale open source? Well, like many things in our life, money rules everything around us, and I think we're fortunate that we have a very organic and strong global open source community. But life is short, and time is of the essence, and I think we need to speed it up. So the way we speed it up is by providing financial and other support to the many open source contributors around the world that are doing this with their own time. They are donating their own time, they are oftentimes not making money from it. And so we created OpenSats, which is a five zero one c three organization.
100% pass through. If you donate to Open Sats, we do not take a cut of your donations. And we run the whole thing on Bitcoin. Bitcoin is what makes it possible. The open protocol that is Bitcoin, the money that you can save and spend without permission is what makes it possible. We're able to run an incredibly lean operation. We're able to send out monthly grants to recipients in 40 plus countries, no wires. The world still runs on dollars, so we accept dollars, but we immediately convert it into Bitcoin, and because Bitcoin is the best money in the world we have more money in our treasury than we've ever raised in the lifetime of the organization, which is pretty pretty crazy.
But I want to bring it back for a second to another two sets of open protocols that we've scaled our digital society on, which is the Internet and which is email. Now, the Internet has obviously changed society for the better. We've improved tremendously, we've been more productive, humanity has flourished. But on top of that, there's been these predatory business models that have scaled it out further, and that's where we end up in the situation where we do not have freedom in the digital age. So on this graphic, you might see, you know, a lot of the big tech companies here, but then you also see the open protocol that is email, and it's absolutely massive in comparison to everything else. What you don't see on this chart is about half those emails sent are Gmail.
So another private corporation that has scaled out email, but in a very predatory way. They read all of your emails, they sell that data to advertisers. And now that we're seeing AI come into the picture, there's another model where they can also profit off of your data. Not only selling it to advertisers but building out LLMs, building out profiles on people and we're about to see it really accelerate and get even worse. So with all that said, what we're seeing is you have open source protocols, they compound really well, they scale pretty well, they promote human flourishing, but what scales them the best is for profit companies.
But historically, they've had predatory business models. So what's the answer? The answer is to make freedom profitable. That's what scales this movement. That's what makes it happen quicker. And that's where 10/31 comes into the picture. Because at ten thirty one, we are focused on building profitable businesses that are sustainable and ethically aligned with the individual and with the user. Rather than the user being the product, the user is the customer, and our interests are aligned with them. So all that is really big picture, a little bit abstract. So I just wanted to dive in to the nitty gritty, give you some examples of what is happening right now in this ecosystem.
So one of the companies we're supporting is Start9. Start9 is fully open source. You can use everything Start9 built and never pay them a penny. You can just build out your own Start Nine server on your own, never pay them anything. And what they enable is the ability to take everything we rely on in the cloud and bring it into your house, bring it into your office and easily run it yourself and have agency over it. And so then you ask, well, that sounds like a charity. No, they have a very strong business model, they should be profitable very soon, which is premium services and support.
They also sell hardware, but you don't need to buy their hardware from them. You can imagine a situation where you could build your own iPhone, or you could buy the nice polished iPhone from Apple. It's kind of where Start Night is going. Then we have Maple, you're gonna hear from one of the co founders right after me. Maple is a incredibly secure AI where you can just chat with the AI, have completely private conversations, not worry about them building a profile on you. And what's really cool there too is they have an open API, so the way they do security in the Cloud, other people can build apps on top of it as well.
And we can see a greater app ecosystem emerge around these core principles of security and privacy and agency. Then we have Primal. Primal is trying to build an open social layer for the world on top of the Nostra protocol and on top of the Bitcoin protocol. You own your identity, you own everything you build on the internet whether it's video streaming. This right now is streaming through Nostra viewable on primal. For the average user, you're just downloading in the App Store. But the coolest part is the entire stack is fully open source, anyone can modify it, anyone can distribute it, anyone can even sell the entire stack if they wanted to.
How does Primal make money? Primal makes money through premium services aligned with the user, making sure that them and the user are both served to the fullest. And then we have Strike. Strike is a native Bitcoin business that just makes it incredibly easy to use Bitcoin. You can think of it as a more open competitor to a Cash App or a Robinhood. And it's built on basically two main open protocols, which is Bitcoin and then globally with Dollars, Tether. And the key here is the switching cost from something like a Strike versus something like a Robinhood is significantly lower.
If Strike fails its users and a couple clicks, you can remove your Bitcoin, move to a different service, you can pay someone on Cash App, you can pay someone on Robinhood, you can pay someone on a self custody open source wallet, and Strike doesn't have control over that. So what I wanna leave you with here today is our goal needs to make freedom profitable. Our goal needs to make sustainable, profitable, ethical businesses, because anyone who's ever been involved in fundraising for charitable open source knows it's a forever grind. And the only way we scale, the only way we make this thing sustainable is if we have profitable businesses that are built on top of it. Thank you all.
So what's the answer? The answer is to make freedom profitable. That's what scales this movement. Bitcoin is what makes it possible. The open protocol that is Bitcoin. Our lives have become increasingly digital. We've basically moved our entire lives onto the internet. The solution is open source software and open protocols. The beauty of open source is that it's inherently viral in nature. Joining us on stage is Matt O'Dell. Thank you guys. Tough act to follow, but I'll try and make it worth your while. We'll see how this goes.
It's impossible to make a slide deck without at least one UI error, but the year is 2025. We're gonna be talking about making freedom profitable. So the core problem that I've diagnosed in our society is we have a lot of problems, but the one that I think we can actually change and improve is that our lives have become increasingly digital. We've basically moved our entire lives onto the internet. We rely on it, we spend way too much time on it and the way we built it out, the big tech paradigm, the way we built it out was through walled gardens, through big tech walled gardens. And as a result, the issue we're seeing now is we do not have freedom in the digital age.
We're in a weird time where humanity is flourishing and productivity is growing and we're doing quite well, but at the same time we have less freedom than the generations before us. And I think people inherently struggle with this. They think about it all the time, but they don't realize there's a better path. And and where did this problem come from? This problem came from the business models. The the the business model of big tech is data surveillance primarily driven by ad models. We've effectively become digital cattle and they milk us for our data. We are the product and and they milk us for all it's worth. They sell that out to other tech companies, and then they monetize our attention.
So their incentive is to addict us. Their incentive is to make us tied to our phones and tied to the platforms we use. Use. So what is the better path? What is the solution here? And the solution is open source software and open protocols. By going down that path, we can give individuals agency and freedom over their lives, and and they're able to choose the path they want to take. The beauty of open source is that it's inherently viral in nature. It's not controlled by a human, it's not controlled by corporations, it's not controlled by a government.
It can go through generations. Generations of people improving it, using it, shipping it without permission. So how do we scale open protocols? How do we scale open source? Well, like many things in our life, money rules everything around us, and I think we're fortunate that we have a very organic and strong global open source community. But life is short, and time is of the essence, and I think we need to speed it up. So the way we speed it up is by providing financial and other support to the many open source contributors around the world that are doing this with their own time. They are donating their own time, they are oftentimes not making money from it. And so we created OpenSats, which is a five zero one c three organization.
100% pass through. If you donate to Open Sats, we do not take a cut of your donations. And we run the whole thing on Bitcoin. Bitcoin is what makes it possible. The open protocol that is Bitcoin, the money that you can save and spend without permission is what makes it possible. We're able to run an incredibly lean operation. We're able to send out monthly grants to recipients in 40 plus countries, no wires. The world still runs on dollars, so we accept dollars, but we immediately convert it into Bitcoin, and because Bitcoin is the best money in the world we have more money in our treasury than we've ever raised in the lifetime of the organization, which is pretty pretty crazy.
But I want to bring it back for a second to another two sets of open protocols that we've scaled our digital society on, which is the Internet and which is email. Now, the Internet has obviously changed society for the better. We've improved tremendously, we've been more productive, humanity has flourished. But on top of that, there's been these predatory business models that have scaled it out further, and that's where we end up in the situation where we do not have freedom in the digital age. So on this graphic, you might see, you know, a lot of the big tech companies here, but then you also see the open protocol that is email, and it's absolutely massive in comparison to everything else. What you don't see on this chart is about half those emails sent are Gmail.
So another private corporation that has scaled out email, but in a very predatory way. They read all of your emails, they sell that data to advertisers. And now that we're seeing AI come into the picture, there's another model where they can also profit off of your data. Not only selling it to advertisers but building out LLMs, building out profiles on people and we're about to see it really accelerate and get even worse. So with all that said, what we're seeing is you have open source protocols, they compound really well, they scale pretty well, they promote human flourishing, but what scales them the best is for profit companies.
But historically, they've had predatory business models. So what's the answer? The answer is to make freedom profitable. That's what scales this movement. That's what makes it happen quicker. And that's where 10/31 comes into the picture. Because at ten thirty one, we are focused on building profitable businesses that are sustainable and ethically aligned with the individual and with the user. Rather than the user being the product, the user is the customer, and our interests are aligned with them. So all that is really big picture, a little bit abstract. So I just wanted to dive in to the nitty gritty, give you some examples of what is happening right now in this ecosystem.
So one of the companies we're supporting is Start9. Start9 is fully open source. You can use everything Start9 built and never pay them a penny. You can just build out your own Start Nine server on your own, never pay them anything. And what they enable is the ability to take everything we rely on in the cloud and bring it into your house, bring it into your office and easily run it yourself and have agency over it. And so then you ask, well, that sounds like a charity. No, they have a very strong business model, they should be profitable very soon, which is premium services and support.
They also sell hardware, but you don't need to buy their hardware from them. You can imagine a situation where you could build your own iPhone, or you could buy the nice polished iPhone from Apple. It's kind of where Start Night is going. Then we have Maple, you're gonna hear from one of the co founders right after me. Maple is a incredibly secure AI where you can just chat with the AI, have completely private conversations, not worry about them building a profile on you. And what's really cool there too is they have an open API, so the way they do security in the Cloud, other people can build apps on top of it as well.
And we can see a greater app ecosystem emerge around these core principles of security and privacy and agency. Then we have Primal. Primal is trying to build an open social layer for the world on top of the Nostra protocol and on top of the Bitcoin protocol. You own your identity, you own everything you build on the internet whether it's video streaming. This right now is streaming through Nostra viewable on primal. For the average user, you're just downloading in the App Store. But the coolest part is the entire stack is fully open source, anyone can modify it, anyone can distribute it, anyone can even sell the entire stack if they wanted to.
How does Primal make money? Primal makes money through premium services aligned with the user, making sure that them and the user are both served to the fullest. And then we have Strike. Strike is a native Bitcoin business that just makes it incredibly easy to use Bitcoin. You can think of it as a more open competitor to a Cash App or a Robinhood. And it's built on basically two main open protocols, which is Bitcoin and then globally with Dollars, Tether. And the key here is the switching cost from something like a Strike versus something like a Robinhood is significantly lower.
If Strike fails its users and a couple clicks, you can remove your Bitcoin, move to a different service, you can pay someone on Cash App, you can pay someone on Robinhood, you can pay someone on a self custody open source wallet, and Strike doesn't have control over that. So what I wanna leave you with here today is our goal needs to make freedom profitable. Our goal needs to make sustainable, profitable, ethical businesses, because anyone who's ever been involved in fundraising for charitable open source knows it's a forever grind. And the only way we scale, the only way we make this thing sustainable is if we have profitable businesses that are built on top of it. Thank you all.
ODELL takes the stage
Diagnosing the problem
Ad driven surveillance and addictive platforms
Open source and open protocols
Scaling open source: incentives and funding
OpenSats and Bitcoin powered grants
Email, an open protocol, and Gmails predatory model
Make freedom profitable: align incentives
Ten31 thesis: sustainable, user-aligned businesses
Case study: Start9 and self-hosted services
Case study: Maples private AI and open API
Case study: Primal on Nostr and Bitcoin
Case study: Strike and low switching costs
Closing call to action: profit drives scalability
