(đ„Dinarian Note: I included the full article from "The Economist" Get Ready for the Phoenix Source: Economist; 01/9/88, Vol. 306, pp 9-1 for your reading pleasure đ„)
In 1988, the cover of The Economist was titled âGet ready for a world currencyâ. The magazine cover showed a phoenix rising from the ashes of burning US currency.
âThirty Years from now, Americans, Japanese, Europeans and people in many other rich countries âŠwill be paying for their shopping with the same currencyâ
The author continues to suggest a single unified currency that would ease the challenges and difficulties of international financial transactions.
The author also mentions a world connected like never before. Instead of the Yuan, Dollar, or Euro, this new form of currency, a âphoenix coinâ would dominate. This new coin would replace the existing financial system and there would be no need for expensive international currencies or cumbersome money wires. Everyone would be using the same coin/currency.
Now just over 30 years later, this âpredictionâ is now becoming a reality.
Itâs important to realize this article was written during the early days of the internet and well before the world had ever heard of Bitcoin or cryptocurrency â Bitcoin only came into existence during the 2008 financial crisis.
Of notable mentioned is Stellar (XML), whose logo is eerily similar to the logo on the coin of the Pheonix (see below):
While I wonât get into the implications of what this means, such as this new financial system planned at least 33 years in advance, what is of more importance to the investor, is the investment opportunities this new financial system will bring.
What is Stellar (XLM)?
In case you havenât heard of Steller, it is one of the few IS0 20022 compliant cryptocurrencies which will be part of this new financial system. Stellar is a peer-to-peer (P2P) decentralized network with the purpose of connecting the worldâs financial systems and ensuring a fast and transparent protocol for payment providers and financial institutions.
Here is a List of the ISO 20022 compliant cryptocurrencies.
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The ISO 20022 standard are the rules and language for cross-border and international payments. Itâs the mechanism to connect financial institutions and central banks. However, for this new financial system to be implemented, central banks must also move towards a new âdigital currencyâ (with the help of the blockchain).
CBDCs in Development â Worldwide.
The last piece of this puzzle are Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs). A CBDC is a new type of central bank currency that harnesses the power of the blockchain to create a digital currency.
With the standard for international payments (ISO 20022) being implemented in November, Central banks will now have the standards in place for cross-border international payments for their digital currency.
The move to CBDCs is expected to be a step toward replacing the current fiat-based currency and most all countries which have a central bank are already underway towards developing their own CBDC.
China is leading the pack and already has a pilot program in place!
New Global Reserve Currency
The creation of CBDCs will also allow alliances like BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India and South Africa) to create their own âalliance currencyâ, with Russia recently reporting with the help of BRICS, will be creating their own New Global Reserve Currency.
While the ushering in of a new digital currency wonât happen overnight, November marks the beginning of the implementation of the ISO 20022 Standard â notice the year 2022 embedded in the name of the standard.
Even the recently appointed new prime minister of the UK, Rishi Sunak is already publically supporting this new initiative.
A New Financial System is Already Here
Blockchain technology is allowing for the heralding of an entirely new financial system. New cross border payment protocols like ISO 20022 and the creation of Central Bank Digital Currencies is bringing an entirely new financial system to the world.
Whether the 1988 edition of The Economist was prophetic or planned we may never know, but what is certain in we are now living in a new digital financial age.
RFK Jr: "The Pandemics are coming from labs. ALL OF THEM... Lyme, COVID, RSV, HIV & Spanish Flu came out of a vaccine lab." â ïž đ
"Gain-of-Function Vaccine research has created the worst plagues in our history."
"We can go down the whole list of diseases... Itâs just a disaster. Itâs given us no benefits. Itâs given us everything from Lyme disease to Covid, and many many other diseases. RSV, which is now one of the biggest killers of children, came out of a vaccine lab."
"Thereâs strong evidence that even Spanish flu came from vaccine research."
"Thereâs plenty of evidence that HIV also came from a vaccine gain-of-function lab program. "
"The 'PANDEMICS' are coming from labs... ALL OF THEM."
đThe industry has gotten incredible at teaching robots
đThe industry has gotten incredible at teaching robots to move, sprint, and imitate body dynamics. But as Michael Parker (@bittensormax) points out in The UMI Thesis, thereâs still a massive missing piece in Physical AI: Motion Understanding.
âš Key Takeaways:
đčLooking Human vs. Understanding Humans: Robots can execute impressive physical feats, but they still struggle to reliably read non-verbal human cues in context.
đčMotion is Meaning: A gesture, hesitation, or glance changes completely depending on posture, timing, and surrounding context.
đčBeyond Pixels: True intelligence requires mapping human intent and sequence across timeânot just processing raw frames.
đčThe UMI Intelligence Layer: As robots enter hospitals, factories, homes, and stores, Bittensorâs SN78 @umi_sn78 UMI (Universal Motion Intelligence) aims to own the critical layer that translates human movement into real meaning.
The future of robotics isn't just about how machines moveâit's about how ...
đš Chutes is being framed as a Hyperliquid-style breakout for decentralized AI inference, with live revenue, verified GPU infrastructure, and a direct challenge to centralized cloud AI đš
Chutes is gaining attention as a decentralized AI inference platform that claims to combine real usage, cryptographic verification, confidential computing, and open-source infrastructure into a working production system. The thesis is simple: instead of trusting Big Tech clouds with AI workloads, users get a distributed compute layer built around verification and privacy.
đ Key points
đč Chutes is live in production and reportedly scaled to more than 1,170 active GPU nodes, including large numbers of Nvidia H200s and Blackwell-class hardware.
đč The platform says it has processed nearly 38 trillion tokens since launch across 53 deployed applications and more than 700,000 registered users.
đč The team reportedly cut unprofitable usage programs, reduced total token volume, and still improved revenue efficiency, with revenue per GPU rising sharply after removing subsidized traffic.
đč Chutes is using post-quantum cryptography, trusted execution environments, and Nvidia confidential ...
đš Chutes is being framed as a Hyperliquid-style breakout for decentralized AI inference, with live revenue, verified GPU infrastructure, and a direct challenge to centralized cloud AI đš
đš Chutes is being framed as a Hyperliquid-style breakout for decentralized AI inference, with live revenue, verified GPU infrastructure, and a direct challenge to centralized cloud AI đš
đš JPMorgan’s criticism of the CLARITY Act is fueling a fresh power struggle over who gets to write America’s crypto rules đš
A new clash is emerging between legacy finance and crypto legislation after JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon reportedly warned that the CLARITY Act could let crypto firms offer bank-like products without bank-level oversight. The dispute is quickly turning into a larger fight over regulation, competitiveness, and who controls the future architecture of digital finance in the United States.
đ Key points
đč Jamie Dimon reportedly called the CLARITY Act a threat to the financial system, arguing it could allow crypto firms to offer yield-like products while avoiding the capital, reserve, and oversight burdens traditional banks face.
đč Senator Cynthia Lummis pushed back publicly, framing the issue as a global strategic race and warning that if the U.S. does not set digital asset standards, other powers will.
đč The core tension is whether the bill creates legitimate regulatory clarity or simply opens the door to regulatory arbitrage for crypto platforms operating outside the traditional banking...
đ Coinbase just launched an AI agent for Crypto Trading
Custom AI assistants that print money in your sleep? đ
The future of Crypto x AI is about to go crazy.
đ Hereâs what you need to know:
đ 'Based Agent' enables creation of custom AI agents
đ Users set up personalized agents in < 3 minutes
đ Equipped w/ crypto wallet and on-chain functions
đ Capable of completing trades, swaps, and staking
đ Integrates with Coinbaseâs SDK, OpenAI, & Replit
đ What this means for the future of Crypto:
1. Open Access: Democratized access to advanced trading
2. Automated Txns: Complex trades + streamlined on-chain activity
3. AI Dominance: Est ~80% of crypto đtxns done by AI agents by 2025
đš I personally wouldn't bet against Brian Armstrong and Jesse Pollak.
đ Coinbase just launched an AI agent for Crypto Trading
đ Coinbase just launched an AI agent for Crypto Trading
The future of cybersecurity isn't about blocking yesterday's threatsâit's about defeating tomorrow's before they are even built. đĄïžâĄ
âThe ultimate competitive edge belongs to defenders who can instantly ingest unique zero-days, automatically generate the attack strains that don't exist yet, and ship bulletproof detections to the front lines ahead of the breach. đźđ
âAs legacy security platforms degrade under the weight of novel AI-driven threats, the worldâs largest financial institutions won't scatter their bets. They will consolidate on the single provider capable of delivering this predictive defense at global scale. đŠđ
âThe Engine Behind the Defense:
âTo stay ahead, that provider needs a constant, unrelenting supply of edge-case attacks. A decentralized subnet is the only architecture built to fuel this machineâpaying a global swarm of attackers to continuously probe, create, and supply novel threats around the clock. đđđ„
đ Navigating Bittensor yield just got effortless! đ§ âĄïž
If youâve been looking to optimize your $TAO positions across subnets without the headache of manual rebalancing or technical friction, @TrustedStake is changing the game! đ
The new Quickstart Guide breaks down how to get seamless exposure to top-tier AI strategies:
đŻ One-Click Index Exposure: Access curated subnet baskets (Universe, Top 15, and specialized sectors) in seconds.
đĄ Non-Custodial Security: Retain complete asset control while leveraging Substrate proxy accountsâkeeping your primary stash safe in cold storage.
đ Automated Rebalancing & Yield Optimization: Smart TWAP execution, validator selection, and root reinvestment handle the heavy lifting to maximize your alpha.
đ Block-Level Transparency: Real-time PnL metrics and full on-chain visibility right from your dashboard.
đCheck out the full walkthrough to get startedđ
...
đŻ Leadpoetâs new Arena could change how businesses find their next customers đŻ
Leadpoet is launching an Arena where AI agents compete to identify companies most likely to buy, turning sales intelligence into a measurable performance competition.
đ Key points
đč Agents compete on lead quality: Systems are evaluated on whether the prospects they identify show genuine buying intent.
đč Better than list generation: The goal is to find likely customers rather than produce large volumes of low-quality contacts.
đč Real-world signals matter: Agents can analyze company activity, business changes, hiring, technology use, market behavior, and other indicators.
đč Performance becomes measurable: Agents can be ranked based on precision, relevance, conversion potential, and downstream sales outcomes.
đč Competition can improve intelligence: Different agents may identify different signals, creating a wider search across potential customers.
đč Sales teams gain prioritization: Businesses ...
Revolut Leak Shows the Cost of Constant ID Collection
Revolutâs mistake is the news, but the bigger problem is the growing number of companies being encouraged or required to keep copies of our most sensitive identity documents.
Online bank Revolut has revealed that it gave out sensitive personal and financial information of an undisclosed number of its customers in response to a fake government request.
The information that was handed over to an âunauthorized third partyâ reportedly includes names, dates of birth, occupations, addresses, phone numbers, account numbers, transaction histories (including Bitcoin), and even copies of government-issued IDs and onboarding verification selfies.
Revolut claims that derived biometric face data was not.
The company said that the data was handed over in response to an email that came from a real government agencyâs domain, but was not actually sent or authorized by that agency.
The email passed several authentication checks (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) that are designed to establish the authenticity of a messageâs origin and integrity, but do not verify the legitimacy of the legal request itself.
Revolut said that it complied with the request âunder the reasonable belief that it was an authentic government agency requestâ â and only later found out that it was not.
Revolut said it later realized its mistake, blocked the email address, and reported the incident to the relevant authorities.
Revolut said that only a âlimitedâ number of its customers were affected by the data leak, and that the companyâs systems were not hacked, nor was any money stolen.
The story broke on September 11 when Revolut customers started receiving an email notice about a data leak, and the news was picked up by media outlets the following day.
The reason this is a recurring problem is that companies are keeping highly sensitive information about their customersâ identities, and sometimes even financial transactions, for a long time, and this data is then available to be disclosed to third parties â either in response to valid legal requests, or, as in the case of Revolut, fake ones.
One reason for this is know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) rules. Revolutâs current UK customer privacy notice spells it out: the company generally keeps personal data of UK customers for no more than seven years after the relationship ends, and sometimes longer â for legal reasons.
This means that even if you close your account, your identity documents donât disappear.
And while the incident with Revolut happened in the financial sector, itâs by no means the only one that requires customers to hand over sensitive identity information. Discord, a popular chat service, said in an October 9, 2025 security update that government ID photos of approximately 70,000 users may have been exposed after a third-party customer service provider got hacked.
This was not a financial service, nor the same type of attack. But the result was similar â because the underlying business process was the same: requiring and storing sensitive identity documents. In the case of Discord, these were used to review age-related appeals.
Itâs hard to do anything about a copy of your old passport, or a photo of your face, or a record of your past transactions. These can be used to identify and profile you, and can be used to carry out targeted fraud. And this can happen even if the initial disclosure didnât result in financial loss.
The more companies are forced to collect and store such information, and the more of it they have, the more opportunities there are for this data to be leaked, either by the company itself or a third party it works with. That's what makes governments' push for more ID checks just to access ordinary parts of life so reckless.
This Is The Income A Family Needs To Live Comfortably In Every US State
Hereâs the short version of what it takes for a family of four to live comfortably in 2026 by state:
In Massachusetts, youâd need nearly $330,000 a year - the highest figure in the entire country. Only three states clear the $300,000 mark: Massachusetts, Hawaii, and California. At the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi is the most affordable at about $188,000. Thatâs a full $142,000 less than what youâd need in Massachusetts.
So⊠how much does a family of four need in your state?
This map shows the pre-tax income a household with two working adults and two kids needs to live comfortably in every U.S. state.
The numbers come from SmartAsset (as of February 2026). Theyâre based on the familiar 50/30/20 budget: 50% for necessities, 30% for discretionary spending, and 20% for savings or other goals. These arenât bare-minimum survival numbersâtheyâre what it takes to live pretty well while still putting money aside.
And as Visual Capitalist notes, Massachusetts sits at the very top of that list. Massachusetts tops the ranking, with a family of four needing $329,555 per year to meet the 50/30/20 benchmark.
Hawaii follows at $313,165, while California ranks third at $302,682.
Rank State Income needed for family of four (2026)
1 - Massachusetts - $329,555
2 - Hawaii - $313,165
3 - California - $302,682
4 - Connecticut - $298,189
5 - New Jersey - $295,110
6 - New York - $291,533
7 - Colorado - $283,213
8 - Washington - $281,798
9 - Oregon - $280,966
10 - Vermont - $280,384
11 - Alaska - $272,064
12 - New Hampshire - $267,904
13 - Rhode Island - $264,659
14 - Minnesota - $263,078
15 - Maryland - $257,837
16 - Maine - $250,931
17 - Montana - $249,434
18 - Pennsylvania - $247,936
19 - Illinois - $244,109
20 - Virginia - $242,944
21 - Nevada - $242,278
22 - Indiana - $241,696
23 - Wisconsin - $238,451
24 - Arizona - $236,870
25 - Utah - $235,789
26 - Delaware - $228,134
27 - Ohio - $226,221
28 - Idaho - $226,054
29 - Florida - $223,392
30 - New Mexico - $223,142
31 - Nebraska - $223,059
32 - Missouri - $217,734
33 - Georgia - $214,573
34 - Michigan - $214,323
35 - South Carolina - $212,909
36 - North Carolina - $212,410
37 - Wyoming - $212,410
38 - Oklahoma - $211,910
39 - North Dakota - $210,496
40 - Kansas - $207,917
41 - Iowa - $204,422
42 - Texas - $203,424
43 - West Virginia - $202,592
44 - South Dakota - $201,760
45 - Alabama - $198,931
46 - Louisiana - $197,933
47 - Tennessee - $197,267
48 - Arkansas - $195,437
49 - Kentucky - $194,854
50 - Mississippi - $187,533
Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York aren't far behind, bringing the number of states with comfortable-income thresholds above $290,000 to six.
Colorado and Vermont Make the Top 10
As expected, many of the highest income thresholds are concentrated in the Northeast and along the West Coast.
However, Colorado has the seventh-highest threshold in the country at $283,213, ranking above Washington and Oregon.
Vermont rounds out the top 10 at $280,384, despite having the second-smallest population of any U.S. state. Meanwhile, nearby states like New Hampshire, Maine, and Rhode Island all fall outside the top 10.
Just Six States Come in Below $200,000
Despite the wide range in living costs across the country, only six states have a comfortable-income threshold below $200,000 for a family of four.
Mississippi ranks lowest at $187,533, followed by Kentucky. The states of Arkansas, Tennessee, Louisiana, and Alabama also fall below the $200,000 mark.
The gap between Massachusetts and Mississippi exceeds $142,000 per year, meaning the Massachusetts benchmark is about 76% higher.
đ€Can Decentralized AI Stop Big Tech from Owning the Future of Robotics?đ€
The race to build the future of robotics is no longer just about robots. It's about who controls the intelligence behind them.
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Over the last three years, a small group of companies has emerged as the backbone of the AI revolution. Microsoft provides cloud infrastructure. NVIDIA supplies the chips. Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Meta, and others develop the models. Together, they control much of the compute, data, and software stack powering modern AI.
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Now that AI is moving into the physical world, many are asking a bigger question:
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Will these same companies end up controlling robotics too?
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It's a valid concern.
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The latest generation of robots relies on enormous amounts of compute, simulation, training data, and foundation models. Many robotics startups today are built on infrastructure provided by large technology companies. NVIDIA's Omniverse is becoming a key simulation environment for robot training. Microsoft Azure is powering the training of robotics foundation models. Physical AI startups increasingly depend on hyperscale cloud infrastructure to train and deploy intelligent systems. Recent partnerships across the industry show just how central Big Tech has become to robotics development.
But while Big Tech is building the highways, another movement is trying to ensure it doesn't own every destination.
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That movement is decentralized AI.
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Why Decentralized AI Exists
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The idea behind decentralized AI is simple. Instead of a handful of companies owning the models, compute infrastructure, data pipelines, and intelligence networks, these resources are distributed across thousands of participants.
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This means anyone can contribute compute, contribute models, validate outputs and can participate.
The most visible example today is the decentralized AI network known as Bittensor (@bittensor). The network has evolved into a large ecosystem of specialized AI markets called subnets, where participants compete to provide useful machine intelligence and are rewarded based on performance. Rather than relying on a single company, intelligence is generated and validated by a distributed network of miners and validators.
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Think of it as an attempt to build an open marketplace for AI instead of a world where intelligence is rented from a few centralized providers.
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Why This Matters for Robotics
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Robotics has a unique problem. Unlike chatbots, robots operate in the physical world. They need to perceive environments, make decisions, move safely and they need to learn continuously.
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The challenge is that collecting and training on real-world robotic data is incredibly expensive. That's one reason large companies have such an advantage. They can afford the compute, simulation environments, and data infrastructure needed to train robotics models at scale.
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This is where decentralized systems become interesting.
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Instead of one company collecting all the data and training all the models, decentralized networks could allow thousands of contributors to participate in building robotic intelligence.
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Imagine a future where:
Warehouse robots contribute operational data.
Delivery robots contribute navigation data.
Factory robots contribute manipulation data.
Developers contribute models.
Validators evaluate performance.
The resulting intelligence becomes a shared network rather than a proprietary asset.
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That vision is beginning to emerge.
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Bittensor's Move Toward Physical AI
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While many people associate Bittensor (@bittensor) with language models and AI services, parts of the ecosystem are increasingly exploring embodied intelligence and robotics.
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One example is Kinitro, a subnet focused on incentivizing the training and evaluation of embodied AI systems. The goal is to create competitive environments where developers build robotic intelligence and are rewarded based on performance.
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The broader Bittensor ecosystem has also expanded into compute marketplaces, distributed inference systems, bandwidth infrastructure, and AI coordination layers that could eventually support robotics workloads. Several subnets now focus on decentralized compute, confidential inference, data transfer, and model training, critical components for future robotic systems.
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In other words, the pieces are starting to appear.
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Not a decentralized robot network yet.
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But the infrastructure that could support one.
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Beyond Bittensor: The Rise of Physical AI Networks
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Bittensor isn't alone.
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Across the industry, researchers and builders are experimenting with decentralized approaches to physical AI.
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New research published in 2026 introduced the concept of DAO-enabled decentralized physical AI, or DePAI. The idea combines robotics, decentralized infrastructure, AI models, governance systems, and human oversight into a single framework. Instead of centralized control, robots and physical infrastructure could be coordinated through transparent rules and distributed ownership models.
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At the same time, developers are exploring decentralized operating systems for robots that allow machines to communicate directly with each other and with distributed compute resources. These architectures are designed to make robotic systems more resilient and less dependent on a single cloud provider.
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The goal is not simply decentralization for its own sake.
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The goal is resilience.
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If one server fails, the system continues.
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If one company disappears, the network survives.
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If one participant leaves, innovation continues.
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But Here's the Reality
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Decentralized AI faces the same challenge every decentralized technology faces.
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Big Tech has resources. A lot of resources.
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Training advanced robotics models requires enormous compute budgets, sophisticated simulation environments, access to specialized hardware, and vast amounts of real-world data.
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That's why many robotics startups still partner with major cloud providers and AI companies. It's often the fastest path to deployment.
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And there are legitimate concerns about whether decentralized networks can maintain quality, reliability, and security at the scale required for industrial robotics. Even researchers studying decentralized AI systems have highlighted risks around concentration, incentives, governance, and network security.
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The challenge isn't just decentralizing intelligence.
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It's decentralizing intelligence while maintaining performance.
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That's much harder.
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The Most Likely Outcome
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The future probably won't be fully centralized. And it probably won't be fully decentralized either. Instead, we're likely heading toward a hybrid model.
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Large technology companies will continue providing chips, cloud infrastructure, simulation platforms, and foundational research.
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At the same time, decentralized AI networks will emerge as alternative coordination layers where intelligence, data, and economic value can be shared more openly.
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The companies building robots may use NVIDIA hardware.
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Train on Azure.
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Run foundation models from OpenAI.
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But they may also participate in decentralized data networks, decentralized compute markets, and decentralized intelligence protocols.
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The future of robotics could end up looking less like a monopoly and more like an ecosystem.
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The Bigger Question
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The real question isn't whether decentralized AI can eliminate Big Tech.
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It can't.
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At least not anytime soon.
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The real question is whether decentralized AI can prevent a future where a handful of companies control every robot, every model, every dataset, and every decision made by the machines operating around us.
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As robots become workers, assistants, delivery drivers, factory operators, and even economic agents, that question becomes increasingly important.
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Because the battle for the future of robotics is no longer about hardware.
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Welcome to the Dinarian on Locals, where we discuss everything blockchain and digital asset related. We are here to learn from one another as this is a new and ever evolving space. Please post and share what you like, but be respectful to others as they are here to learn as well.
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