E193: @NEARProtocol: NEAR Is Encrypted Ethereum @ilblackdragon is the Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol and one of the inventors of the Transformer, the technology behind every AI LLM. Today we talk about why he left Google, how a payments problem pulled him into crypto, and why he thinks AI and blockchain have to be built together. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 02:52 - Illia's Mission, Explained To An Uber Driver 03:46 - The Fire In Illia's Belly: Where It Came From 05:46 - How Illia Got Out of Where he Started from 06:54 - Moving out of Google That Changed Everything 07:55 - Attention Is All You Need, Explained Simply 10:59 - Did Illia Know He Was Starting A Revolution? 12:13 - Sponsor: @variational_io , @Bitwise 13:02 - Why Walk Away From Google's Fortune? 14:44 - Illia's Reaction When ChatGPT Exploded 15:55 - What Smart AI People Still Get Wrong 17:29 - How AI Led Illia To Crypto 19:50 - Did Illia Drop AI For Blockchain? 21:00 - 6 Years Of NEAR And How It Survived 22:14 - Why Stay In Crypto With An AI Edge? 24:42 - NEAR In One Sentence: Today And Tomorrow 26:39 - Sponsor: @KASTxyz 27:26 - What You Can Build On NEAR And Nowhere Else 29:03 - What's Happening Inside Centralized AI 30:48 - Does Illia Use Claude Or ChatGPT? 31:36 - What You Should Never Use ChatGPT Or Claude For 32:25 - The Danger Of A Few Companies Owning All The Intelligence 34:35 - How Cryptographic Guarantees Actually Work 35:58 - Is There A NEAR GPT? 36:50 - ZEC Explained Simply: Why It Matters 38:24 - $ZEC Is Private Bitcoin. What Is near:native? 39:32 - Is Owning The AI Interface Bigger Than Owning Banks? 40:29 - User Owned AI, Explained 42:05 - Sponsor: @JupiterExchange , @ethena 42:45 - Can User Owned AI Sustain An Economy? 44:55 - The Best Argument Against User Owned AI 46:13 - Open Weight Models, Explained 47:20 - Is AI Doom Further Off Than We Think? 51:15 - The Next Shift Nobody Is Watching 54:08 - What Humans Will Struggle With Most 55:29 - Thank You