AI Is Changing the Internet. What Does It Mean for Creators? (with Justin and Michael Blau)

41 snips

Mar 17, 2026

Guest

Michael Blau

Guest

Justin '3LAU' Blau

Michael Blau, Head of Product at Bond and former magician-turned-builder, and Justin Blau, CEO of Bond and ex-DJ-artist turned crypto founder. They discuss creators lacking audience data and how on-chain relationships could fix that. They explore stablecoins and global rails, bonding as a new creator-fan model, AI-driven content abundance, and why human curation and provenance will still matter.

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Books

Transcript

Episode notes

ADVICE

Use Onchain Relationships For Simple, Composable Infrastructure

Put creator–fan economic relationships on chain to enable transparency and direct wallet-to-wallet communication.
Michael Blau: on-chain implementations are far simpler and composable than building thousands of lines of fiat-rail integrations.

ADVICE

Focus On Frictionless Onramps For Mainstream Adoption

Improve fiat on-ramps (cards, Apple Pay) to onboard mainstream users; stablecoin UX still needs easier entry.
Justin warns credit/debit support, chargebacks and expired cards complicate converting card payments to stablecoins.

ANECDOTE

How Justin's DJ Career Led Him To Crypto

Justin recounts going from finance student to DJ, meeting the Winklevoss twins, and discovering Bitcoin, which led him to build crypto tools for musicians.
He describes musicians lacking ticket buyer emails and royalty transparency, motivating blockchain experiments since 2017.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

What does the future of the creator economy actually look like? The economics of content creation are changing, what happens to copyright in a world of abundant generated content, and why human taste, curation, and connection may matter even more going forward.

In this episode, host Robert Hackett talks with Justin (CEO, Bond) and Michael Blau(Head of Product, Bond) about the changing relationship between creators, audiences, platforms, and technology.

They unpack how today’s platforms shape creator behavior, why audience relationships are often trapped inside algorithms, and what a more direct creator-fan connection could look like. They also explore broader questions around crypto infrastructure, stablecoins, and whether blockchain can enable new kinds of internet-native products without needing to be the focus of the user experience.

Along the way, Justin reflects on his path from music into crypto, Michael talks about how magic shaped the way he thinks about originality and performance, and both share thoughts on NFTs, digital ownership, productivity tools, books, and creative inspiration.

Highlights

0:00 Intro 0:47 The biggest misconceptions about creator monetization
1:04 Why creators still don’t know their audience
1:34 Trading, speculation, and the limits of past creator crypto models
2:31 Why creator-fan relationships could move onchain
4:41 Stablecoins and global internet products
6:55 Justin Michael’s journey from DJ to crypto builder
8:12 What artists still don’t get from platforms
10:09 Subscription models, fan support, and alternative mechanics
17:57 AI, content abundance, and the future of creativity
18:57 Why human curation still matters
19:36 Copyright, IP, and a world shaped by AI
25:00 The difference between AI and crypto products
25:38 What magic teaches about creativity and originality
28:23 Inspirations: John Mayer, Zedd, Brian Chesky, David Blaine
35:06 Why NFTs still matter

Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.