What Bitcoin and Nostr Did to Social Capital—
Traditional networking operates on the simple premise that relationships are strategic assets. You collect connections for leverage. You position yourself between people who should probably just talk directly. Your value comes from controlling access, not from what you create.
It works because platforms create artificial scarcity. Algorithms decide reach. Gatekeepers control distribution. The person who knows the right people holds real power.
Nostr and Bitcoin change the underlying structure completely.
There’s no platform controlling who can reach who. No algorithm to game. No gatekeeper extracting value from introductions. The architecture itself removes the scarcity that made strategic networking valuable.
What emerges is different. Connections still form, but they form around proof of work instead of proximity. Someone builds something useful, shares insight that helps others, contributes signal to the conversation. The network notices. Not through strategic positioning but through actual output.
Bitcoin adds a dimension traditional networks never had, immediate value settlement. When you zap someone’s work, the exchange completes right there. No social debt. No implied future favor. Just direct recognition of value created.
The paradox is that trying to network strategically becomes the least effective path. There’s no chokepoint to position yourself in. No access to control. The infrastructure doesn’t support extraction.
But proof of work connects naturally. Build something, people building similar things find you. Share what you’re learning, people learning the same things engage. Create value, value flows back.
It’s not that everyone must build or create. Plenty of people are here to learn, to observe, to absorb information. That’s completely valid.
It’s just that the networking dynamics shifted from “who you know” to “what you’ve done.” The proof of work itself becomes the connection point.
The frame changed. And once you see it, you can’t unsee it.