AI will cost the world $2,590,000,000,000 this year. But a lot of that is just pure waste. Here's what's happening: Spending jumped 47% in a year, and the results didn't follow. Gartner even reckons most companies can't even prove their AI is paying off, and expects a wave of projects to be killed over cost. But the bill isn't high because these companies use too much AI. It's high because of how they use it... Walk into almost any team and every request, big or tiny, gets thrown at the most expensive model available. The hard reasoning earns that, but tagging an email doesn't. And most of the work is tagging the email: sorting, summarising, drafting, generating images and video. Everyday jobs a cheaper model can do just as well, all sent to the priciest option out of habit. The fix is to send each job to the model built for it. Turns out, ModelSteam does exactly that and at a better price point than other vendors: Text, image and video models sit behind one key; the heavy work goes to the frontier, the rest goes somewhere cheap, and you stop juggling five providers to manage it. So: If you're still firing every job at your priciest mode or already using OpenRouter, try running it through ModelStream and cut your AI bill by up to 20%. Free to start: modelstream.ai/?aff_coupon=Q…

One of the more in-depth threads on @BLOCKLORDS I've seen!

The greatest mistake in gaming history: A physicist created the first video game in 1958. He never filed a patent. Today, his invention powers a $165B industry with 2.7B players worldwide: 🧵

One handshake betrayal cost Nintendo $200 BILLION. In 1991, they publicly humiliated an electronics giant at CES. Their partner had zero gaming experience but unlimited resources. The company's ruthless revenge that OBLITERATED Nintendo's 90% market dominance: 🧵

In 2005, a Dutch gamer exposed Grand Theft Auto's hidden secret. The discovery forced stores worldwide to ban the game. The $44.5 million scandal that forced gaming to change forever:

Monopoly isn't just a game—it's the most profitable lie ever sold. It wasn't created to celebrate capitalism—it was designed to destroy it. Parker Brothers stole it and erased its true purpose. Once you learn why, you'll never pass GO the same way again... 🧵

World of Warcraft predicted exactly how humans would respond to COVID-19. A 2005 game glitch created the first unplanned virtual pandemic. Scientists studied player behavior as digital bodies piled up in cities. Here's how a gaming accident revolutionised pandemic science: 🧵

In 1993, Nintendo's mascot made $7B. SEGA's response: A hedgehog with cocaine energy. The rivalry that created modern gaming - and ruined both companies: 🧵

Ancient texts held secrets for 2000 years... until AI changed everything: Now we have the first AI to pinpoint text origin with 71% accuracy. Even more incredible: it dates texts within 30 years of their creation. And it's already challenging what we know about classical Greek history:

$5.275M could buy 50 Lamborghinis. Instead, it bought ONE Pokemon card. Here's the wild story behind this record trade:

Gaming is creating a new class of millionaires. Not through competitive gaming... But through a $35 billion play-to-earn economy. Here's the wealth secret nobody's talking about (bookmark this):

In 1991, two men created the start of a legacy. They had no historical consultants. No research team. Yet they invented systems that revolutionized gaming forever. Here's the untold story of Civilization, and why its 7th version changes everything:

Joe Rogan is wrong about gaming. So is Ryan Reynolds. So is Ray Bradbury. They all called it a "waste of time." But they missed something massive:

Gamified narrative governance brings tears of joy to my eyes! We are going to create some great stories together.

2 billion for Zerohash means Mastercard sees crypto payments becoming standard faster than building in house. When payment giants acquire instead of compete, the technology shift is already inevitable. This validates the infrastructure layer.

Much love to Jeremy and the @Delphi_Digital team for all their support getting @BLOCKLORDS made!

The gaming giant that worked employees until they collapsed: EA's infamous "crunch culture" forced 100-hour workweeks with no overtime pay. But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Why Electronic Arts can't shake its "Evil Empire" nickname:

The gaming industry has a dark secret: Online players spent $50.6 BILLION building "virtual wealth" in 2024. But they never truly OWN any of it. Until now... Here's how ONE game is giving the power (and winnings) back to its players:

He became gaming's first millionaire before the internet existed. His 1982 blueprint is STILL used by influencers today. Here's the forgotten story of gaming's first celebrity:

I'm a gaming addict. Every game you can't stop playing uses Pac-Man's 40-year-old mind trick. Most players never notice it—but once you see it, you'll never be manipulated again. Here's how 4 ghosts from 1980 are STILL controlling your brain today: 🧵

A Dutch modder discovered something shocking in the game's code. Hidden inside was a disabled but fully-rendered interactive sex mini-game. The mod to access it, dubbed "Hot Coffee," spread rapidly across forums. But here's where everything changed:

A house party turned into RuneScape's darkest hour. Durial321 gained impossible killing powers. Hundreds lost everything in "safe" zones. The Falador Massacre changed gaming forever:

Another strong partnership for the @BLOCKLORDS ecosystem. Excited to be working with the @SuperVerseDAO team!

Ken Kutaragi secretly designed the SNES audio chip without Sony's knowledge. Sony executives were furious when they found out. Yet Kutaragi convinced them to partner with Nintendo on a revolutionary "Play Station." The partnership seemed perfect:

Welcome to the @BLOCKLORDS realm Lord Ivan!

It began with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Rockstar Games had mastered marketing through controversy. But what happened in June 2005 wasn't part of any marketing plan. This scandal would completely reshape how games are made:

The time has come to #SlayTheBear Amazing experience to have worked with @axisstudiosgrp on this wonderful piece. I always wondered what it would look like to see a bull moose fight a bear. Now it's been brought to life! The bear is a strong opponent, but together we can fight back. This release signals a very important new chapter in the @BLOCKLORDS story, with tons of updates and announcements planned for the coming months. The game is already live in Early Access on @EpicGames, and we urge you to join us and thousands of players as we build the future of strategy gaming and web3 entertainment together.

Wake up babe, @NickyLi37 just pushed a new @BLOCKLORDS update!

Sony's PlayStation dominated: • 100+ million PS1s sold vs 33M N64s • Enabled vast worlds & orchestral sound • Games like FF7 showed what CDs could do • Developers preferred Sony's open approach One decision changed everything:

PlayStation grew into a $45B+ empire - born from Nintendo's betrayal. Nintendo eventually recovered with Wii and Switch. But imagine if these giants had stayed partners... Would Microsoft have ever entered gaming?

At CES 1991, Sony announced their Nintendo partnership, showing the prototype. The next day, Nintendo shocked everyone by revealing they'd secretly signed with Philips. Sony's President Norio Ohga's response? "We will never withdraw from this business. Never."

THE GAME EVERYONE MOCKED: Executives LAUGHED. Focus groups called it "STUPID." After losing everything in a fire, he created The Sims. How a rejected idea became one of gaming's greatest success stories 🧵:

Nintendo chose cartridges for N64 instead of CDs: • Cartridges: 64MB storage, faster loading • CDs: 650MB storage, cheaper production • Result? Most developers abandoned Nintendo The consequences were staggering...

Community-driven narratives are a big step in the evolution of web3 gaming!

In 1958, physicist William Higinbotham had a problem: Visitors were sleeping through nuclear physics exhibitions. He built "Tennis for Two" on an oscilloscope in three weeks. What happened next changed entertainment forever:

Nintendo's game expertise + Sony's CD-ROM tech created what insiders called a "dream alliance." Contracts were signed, prototypes built, and the 'Play Station' debuted at CES 1991. Then came the betrayal that blindsided everyone:

Be sure to vote for @BLOCKLORDS for best strategy game and people's Choice!

Some belated happy holidays from the @BLOCKLORDS crew!

Lord @gabusch YGG army is growing mighty within the @BLOCKLORDS realm. This could be your chance to join him!

Assassin's Creed Shadows sparks debate with its Black Samurai. Yasuke was a real African warrior who served Japan's most powerful warlord. Historical fact or creative liberty? The fascinating story behind gaming's latest $100,000,000 historical adventure: 🧵

Executive orders get headlines but implementation matters more. What does crypto capital actually mean? Bitcoin options education and proper derivatives infrastructure would be more impactful than vague proclamations. Show me the regulatory framework.

Nintendo's betrayal was about control. The contract gave Sony rights to all CD games - Nintendo would earn nothing from these titles. This seemed catastrophic as gaming shifted to discs. Their solution would backfire spectacularly:

Borrowing against your house to buy Bitcoin is how you lose both. Saylor’s playing a different game with corporate balance sheets and convertible debt. Don’t confuse his strategy with yours.

For centuries, archaeologists faced a daunting challenge: Piecing together damaged ancient texts, figuring out where they came from, and determining when they were written. It was like solving a 2000-year-old puzzle with most pieces missing. But everything changed when DeepMind stepped in...

The real story begins with Elizabeth "Lizzie" Magie. In 1904, this progressive feminist patented "The Landlord's Game" to expose monopolies. She created TWO sets of rules. The second set would vanish into history:

The lesson? Nintendo's desperation to control everything created their greatest rival. The same control-obsession plagues gaming today—players invest thousands of hours but own nothing. That's why we built BLOCKLORDS differently:

In 2018, I left my successful career in Chinese gaming to chase a crazy dream: Building the first true player-owned medieval empire. Everyone said mixing blockchain with gaming was stupid. 5 years later, we've raised from Square Enix, Bitkraft, & Krafton. Here's how BLOCKLORDS is changing gaming forever:

This made bitcoin look amateur: A $0.36 investment. A 6,363% return in 30 days. Here's the AI art revolution Wall Street missed:

Forget what you saw in the movie: The REAL Tetris story is about KGB deception and corporate warfare in Soviet Moscow... And a 72-hour negotiation that turned a $0 handshake into a $500 million empire 🧵:

We've got a xmas surprise coming to our partners and core community this week as well!

Gaming's biggest companies are in trouble: $81.4 billion spent on just two deals. The industry celebrated these as masterstrokes. But they all missed something devastating:

LEAKED: The $70B gaming industry conspiracy nobody saw coming: Microsoft's acquisition was a smokescreen. 56 game studios have already vanished. 100+ more are next. The terrifying truth they're hiding from gamers:🧵

They created Ithaca - an AI system named after Odysseus' legendary home. It was trained on over 78,000 ancient Greek inscriptions from the Packard Humanities Institute. And its capabilities would transform our understanding of history...

A tiny 5-inch screen showed simple green lines. Players used knobs to control shots. Yet people queued for hours to play 90 seconds. The $165B industry he sparked would have made him richer than Gates.

Love this content made by one of our community members! Not that many regions left to claim in the @BLOCKLORDS realm.

Gaming's biggest companies targeted children: • Executives wanted kids "hooked before critical thinking" • They designed "dopamine-triggering" systems for minors • Only 3% of kids are protected by safety features Here's what the investigation uncovered:

Lottery ticket hit. Cool for them but mining pools still control 99% of hash rate. One lucky block doesn’t change centralization metrics.

Rockstar denied responsibility, blaming "determined hackers." Their defense collapsed when experts proved the content was theirs. It was Rockstar's own code — deliberately hidden but never removed. What followed would reshape gaming forever:

Traditional gaming is fundamentally broken. • That rare item you spent 100 hours grinding for? • That character you invested years building? You have ZERO legal ownership of any of it. Here's how user-driven economies change everything:

First, Ithaca showed it could restore damaged texts with 62% accuracy. When working alongside human experts, accuracy jumped to 72%. But that was just the beginning of what it could do...

Few things give me more satisfaction while playing @BLOCKLORDS than killing bears.

Magie wanted people to experience how monopolies extract wealth from many for few. The game spread through Quaker communities and college campuses. Then came the betrayal that would change everything:

I'm excited to announce that I will be speaking at Paris Blockchain Week 2024 🇫🇷 🍀Get a Chance For a Free ticket to join me! Click on the post, Fill the form, and Best of Luck! See you all at the Carrousel du Louvre, 9 - 11 April 2024 🥳 invt.io/1txbkfk9bp8 #ParisBlockchainWeek #PBW2024

This is 🔥 @yoitsOG and @gam3sgg team driving the space forward with these awards! Wen irl gala? Haven't worn a tux in forever.

Lots of news this week!

In 2004, Rockstar made a game so brutal it was banned in 10 countries. When a UK teen was murdered, media blamed "Manhunt" right away. But cops found the game in the victim's home, not the killer's. How a false story created gaming's biggest moral panic: 🧵

It's Treasury Tuesdays!! Every Tuesday, I break down a $BTC treasury company. This week: Treasury B.V. ( @treasury_btc ) Amsterdam's new Bitcoin treasury. Here's their strategy:

The €42.8 million empire that started with two beers: Major publishers laughed them out of the room. But these two Czech developers were onto something. Now they're revolutionizing medieval gaming with ONE breakthrough that's shocking critics:

In 1932, Charles Darrow learned Magie's game at a dinner party. He asked for the rules, redesigned it with Atlantic City streets, and sold it as his own. Parker Brothers rejected it at first. But not for long:

Bitcoin 8.5x validates macro thesis. But using past performance to predict altseason timing is dangerous. 2017 and 2021 had different conditions. This cycle isn't guaranteed to follow same pattern.

In 2007, her groundbreaking findings showed: • Panic migration patterns • Deliberate infection behavior • Risky altruism in crisis • Quarantine resistance These exact patterns later appeared in real outbreaks.

The most ironic name in gaming history: They called it 'Final Fantasy' because it was meant to be their last game. Instead, it launched one of gaming's most iconic franchises. Here's the incredible story behind Square's legendary gamble:

Just wanted to share thanks from the @BLOCKLORDS Team for your Community Beta Participation. Decentralization empowers the community. Collective decision-making can shape gaming worlds, breaking the traditional developer-centric model.

Get those codes!

DeepSeek just copied a $100B Chinese strategy to dominate AI: I saw it work at League of Angels. They're using the EXACT same playbook that revolutionized gaming. Here's the blueprint everyone missed:

Modern gaming followed Monopoly's path: Players invest thousands of hours Build virtual empires Own nothing when they leave It's Magie's warning playing out in digital form.

Video games use slot machine psychology to addict you. They can spike dopamine by 100%—comparable to DRUGS. 60 million gamers now meet addiction criteria. These 5 techniques hook your brain without you knowing:

Congratulations to #TheArd for unlocking the very first @bisping adventure! Many more to come.

It started with a raid boss named Hakkar the Soulflayer. His "Corrupted Blood" attack damaged players and spread between them. The effect should've vanished quickly and stayed in the raid zone. But things went sideways fast...

Blizzard tried creating quarantine zones. They failed spectacularly. Players wouldn't comply, with some teleporting into safe zones while infected. Sound familiar to anyone who lived through 2020? The parallels are uncanny.

In the 1970s, professor Ralph Anspach created "Anti-Monopoly" and got sued. His defense uncovered Magie's story and her mission. This same pattern is unfolding in gaming today:

Dr. Fefferman, an epidemiologist at Tufts University, was playing WoW when this happened. She recognized what traditional models missed – authentic human behavior during crisis. Her discovery would revolutionize disease modeling:

Fast forward to 1972: Atari created Pong. Their first test machine landed at Andy Capp's Tavern. Within days, the owner called in panic: "Your machine broke!" The diagnosis stunned them:

Seascape tech has made @BLOCKLORDS possible, now the platform is gearing up for its next phase. Don't sleep on this!

The virtual plague mirrored real human behavior with eerie precision. Some became "first responders," healing others at risk of infection. Others fled to remote areas, self-isolating from the digital disease. Many panicked while some deliberately spread it.

Rally the troops @IvanOnTech

Woke up to the most sophisticated impersonation attack I've seen in my last 6 years in the space. Fake website, videos, socials and more. Pretty impressive honestly. Thankfully community knows @BLOCKLORDS is king, and the copycats will always be 10 steps behind.

Mark my words: within 5 years, 12.5 million people will earn their living playing games. Not as streamers or pros. Regular players will own and trade digital assets worth real money in a $4.6B market. The revolution making gamers rich has already begun:

$300M liquidated because people confused leverage with strategy. Meanwhile, treasury companies using options collars are collecting premium and sleeping fine. Volatility is the product, not the problem.

Yes? No? Maybe....

S&P just gave Strategy a junk rating of B-. Here's why this is actually a WIN: First of all, S&P doesn't rate companies they don't take seriously. Getting any rating validates that Bitcoin treasury operations exist as a legitimate corporate structure. That's bigger than the rating itself. The B- immediately opens markets that were closed. High-yield funds can now invest. Credit markets requiring any rating are now accessible. Strategy's addressable market just expanded overnight. That's win number one. WIN NUMBER 2 is more interesting: B- establishes the baseline. Every Bitcoin treasury company now knows where they start. The path from junk to investment grade is now visible. Before this rating, treasury companies operated in a grey zone. No framework. No benchmark. No roadmap to institutional credibility. Now there's a map. And credit agencies have shown they'll engage with this sector seriously. WIN NUMBER 3: Strategy just validated the entire model. S&P evaluating a Bitcoin treasury company means they believe this structure has staying power. They're not rating pump-and-dump schemes or speculative vehicles. They're rating what they see as a legitimate corporate treasury operation. That changes everything for the sector. Other companies can now point to Strategy's rating when raising capital. They have proof that credit agencies recognize this model. The B- also sets expectations properly. Treasury companies won't start at investment grade. They'll need to prove operational maturity over time. Multiple market cycles. Consistent execution. Strategy proved getting rated is possible. Now the race is on to see who climbs fastest. Most companies will stay comfortable where they are. They'll keep doing what worked in 2020-2024 and hope it keeps working. A few will recognize what this rating actually means: the institutional world is watching now. Credit agencies are paying attention. The path to legitimacy exists. The ones that adapt will separate themselves permanently. Strategy's B- is just the starting gun. What a time to be alive.

They crafted the perfect story: Unemployed man invents game during Depression. Becomes millionaire. The American Dream in a box. The truth stayed buried until:

When COVID hit in 2020, the CDC and WHO revisited the Corrupted Blood incident. The similarities were uncanny: • Asymptomatic carriers • Superspreader events • Quarantine failures • Rural flight • Misinformation campaigns

It's been a long time coming, and @BLOCKLORDS is finally here. Huge sense of accomplishment and gratitude towards the team who agreed to go on this journey with me to create a genre-defining game against all odds. Big thanks to all our backers, partners, and players for making this possible. As epic as this is, it is only the beginning!

CRASH BANDICOOT was nearly banned in Japan. Sony execs thought he was "too ugly" for Japanese players. They changed his eye colour, thinned eyebrows, and transformed his personality. The story behind PlayStation's unexpected Japanese success:

Enter Sega. They needed something to compete with Mario. Through an internal design contest, they created a blue hedgehog named Sonic. His design was inspired by Felix the Cat and Mickey Mouse. Here's where it gets interesting:

The Entertainment Software Rating Board launched an investigation. They revoked the game's "Mature" rating, replacing it with "Adults Only." This had never happened to a released game before. This administrative change triggered an industry-wide crisis:

At @BLOCKLORDS, we're restoring Magie's vision: Create true ownership of your contributions Shape a medieval world together Your impact? Permanent

NPCs became unwitting carriers. They couldn't die from the disease but spread it to interacting players. This mirrored how asymptomatic carriers function in real outbreaks. This caught the attention of one brilliant researcher:

When Darrow's version started selling, Parker Brothers quickly reversed course. After buying "Monopoly," they discovered Magie's patent. Their solution? Pay her $500. No royalties. No credit.

The most dangerous marketing stunt in gaming history: A man terrorized 20 people with what looked like a real gun. Police couldn't tell it was fake. All to promote Splinter Cell: Conviction. But what happened next would change gaming marketing forever: