Prince Was a Nostrich

In high school I mocked Prince for changing his name to a symbol. At Paisley Park last weekend I finally got it. Own your name. Own your work. Own your money. No gatekeepers. That's the Bitcoin ethos. That's the Nostr ethos. Prince would have been one of us.

When I was in high school, Prince changed his name to a symbol. As a teenager I thought: the guy who dresses weird changed his name to a weird symbol. Weird. I didn't understand it, so I mocked it. The typical teenager response.

Last weekend I spent a day at Paisley Park in Minneapolis. Thirty years later, I finally understand.

PXL_20260920_172834832.MP.jpg Prince wanted freedom. He wanted ownership. He wanted to be sovereign over his own creativity. And he wanted to say fuck you to the music industry.

Here's what I missed as a teenager: his record deal owned his name, his masters, his output, essentially his creativity. They could release his music when they wanted, at the pace they wanted, and he owned none of it. So he wrote SLAVE on his cheek and became a symbol no corporation could trademark, pronounce, or control. The man refused to let a company own his identity.

Sound familiar?

I watched Prince make that guitar scream when George Harrison was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Twenty years ago I just thought it was a bad ass performance. I didn't know Rolling Stone had just left him off their top 100 guitarists list for political reasons. I didn't know that solo was a three minute fuck you to an industry that tried to erase him.

Now I can't unhear it. Listen to this knowing that context:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWRCooFKk3c

Prince left us in 2016, before Nostr existed. But look at what he was reaching for:

He sold his Crystal Ball album directly to fans over the internet in the 90s, years before iTunes.
He wanted fans to pay him directly, with no label skimming.
He wanted his name to be his, unconfiscatable by contract.
He kept his unreleased work in his own vault, under his own control.
He wanted the gatekeepers gone.

Own your name. Own your work. Own your money. Get paid directly by the people who love what you make. No permission needed.

PXL_20260920_170706628.NIGHT.jpg That is the Bitcoin ethos. That is the Nostr ethos. That is why many of us are here.

The man lived in purple his whole life.

Prince would have been a Nostrich. He'd have been one of us. He'd have a Lightning address in his bio and he'd be Zapping guitarists on the timeline right now.