We reject: kings, presidents, and voting. We believe in: rough consensus and running code. —David Clark, 1992

This is huge. @blocks joins x402. Bringing lightning to agentic payments.

No soft forks, no bridges, no operators, just Bitcoin. We’ve put a lot of work into thinking carefully about the security of Shielded Bitcoin and about what information the protocol reveals. And this is just the beginning!

Shielded Bitcoin: Private Transfers on Bitcoin L1

Square has introduced a new integration with Apple Business in Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, Japan, Spain, the UK, and the US. Sellers can now manage their Apple Maps presence directly from Square Dashboard. What's included: - Automatic sync of business details across Apple Maps, Siri, Apple Wallet, and more - Brand presence management on connected Apple Maps place cards - Action links such as as Menu, Order, Pickup, Delivery, Book, Schedule Appointment, so customers can take action directly from a place card Learn more: squ.re/applemaps

This is one of China's most formidable advantages: 93% of the Chinese believe AI will help their country. Only 36% of Americans do. These are dire numbers for the US. We have to turn this around.

From new ways for customers to find you, to fewer steps during service. A preview of 8 new features that start rolling out next week: → Connected sellers can keep hours, logo, and contact details in sync on Apple Maps → Keep taking orders for later fulfillment even when today's items sell out → See the revenue each channel brought in, rather than a lump sum → Give the kitchen a head start on items as they're rung in → Set up a service charge once and it adds itself to every check Check out all of our newest tools and features here: squareup.com/us/en/release-n…

If you believe the risk is coming from 1-3 people in a garage with no money and no compute, you just don't understand this technology and haven't learned anything this summer. Risk comes from the asymmetry of capabilities created by secret labs training frontier agents and running them with massive amount of compute. Open-source is exactly the solution to this asymmetry and empowers hospitals (and any smaller orgs) to defend themselves!

lightning on x402

Freedom Tech DC: Open Intelligence with @Jack - Open source is a boon for global innovation - AI will reshape company structures + how @blocks operates - Instead of slowing down, we should open more - Government should fund compute - The cypherpunks built Bitcoin in the open -- we should build AI the same way (00:00) — Introduction & Why Open Source Matters (03:50) — From Goose to Buzz: AI Collaboration (05:28) — Rethinking the Company structure in the AI Era (09:47) — Three Roles: Contributors, Outcome Owners & Coaches (13:01) — Open the Frontier: Permissionless AI Innovation (19:29) — Openness, Safety & the Fear of AI (24:20) — Government’s Role: Shared Compute & Access (29:53) — The Punk Ethos: Build, Fail & Learn in Public

4.25% APY on @Square

Buzz Desktop v0.5.25 🐝 Browse canvas history, see who changed what, and restore an earlier version without losing the edit trail. Plus a picker for installed ACP commands, clearer Databricks model names, and Claude fixes. github.com/block/buzz/releas…

Bitcoin bonus is live in Cash App. Opt in to earn weekly bitcoin* rewards when you hold bitcoin in Cash App. There’s no lockup, and your bitcoin isn’t used in lending; your bitcoin stays available. Terms apply, see below ↓

Cash App is partnering with Workday to meet modern earners where they get paid. Starting October 1, Cash App will appear as a direct deposit option for eligible U.S. employees within Workday’s Enhanced Direct Deposit experience. More here: cash.app/press/cash-app-part…

always fun to jam with the team in sf annnd….about to go earn SO MUCH local cash 👀👀

@CashApp Mobile is live ☎️ Consistent. Creative. Collaboration. Thankful to help get these up and running with the help of humans, and innovative internal tools. Learning. Leveraging. Launching.

x402 lets agents pay for API calls using almost every form of digital money under the sun—except for the first digital money. Then @benthecarman got Lightning merged into the spec and now, BLAM, every agent is a bitcoiner.

An open source team moved its day-to-day development into Buzz. Across matched workweeks, MeshLLM merged 56% more PRs and cut median merge time from about 7 hours to 4. More on the setup, data, and caveats from our engineering team: engineering.block.xyz/blog/s…

Buzz Desktop v0.5.24 🐝 Give each agent a shared channel conversation or separate conversations for each thread. Plus clearer setup, remembered Inbox filtering, better startup recovery, and fixes for agent avatars across communities. github.com/block/buzz/releas…

Past couple months we’ve quietly overhauled our entire onboarding funnel at @CashApp. → More ways in. P2P, Neighborhoods, Tags, soon Borrow. → Shorter, faster flows based on where you came in. → ML-powered next best actions to drive activation. Not the sexiest work, but really really matters.

Today, we’re launching an ambitious new school called The Horowitz Andreessen Academy. Based in San Francisco, The Academy serves the most promising young high school graduates. We think this can be an elite institution that attracts top tier talent. One that prepares students for the future rather than remaining stuck in the past. The #1 goal is to help students learn to build, which is the most important skill in the AI era. They'll learn primarily by pursuing their own projects, either individually or in groups. There are classes and guest lectures, too, from some truly amazing people who have built modern-day Silicon Valley. The Academy is designed as a network, since that’s the reason students go to school in the first place. Core to that network are our 10 Founding Partners: Anduril, Anthropic, Coinbase, Google, Meta, NVIDIA, OpenAI, Palantir, Replit, and Stripe. The network includes over 50 hiring partners and over 200 speakers and mentors. To join as a hiring partner or faculty member, you can apply on our website. We raised $42M in funding led by @a16z. I'll be CEO and @pmarca and @eriktorenberg will join me on the board. Applications are open for our Founding Class Fellowship, which will be one year and tuition-free. Eventually, pending regulatory approval, we plan to offer a two-year program that charges tuition, similar in cost to an elite private university. We're looking for the most unusually ambitious young builders on the planet. Come join us in San Francisco: theacademysf.com/