The Blockchain Socialist

While at Devcon 2024 I spoke to Sarah Friend,an artist and software developer from Canada and based in Berlin. In 2023, she was a research fellow at Summer of Protocols, led by Venkatesh Rao and the Ethereum Foundation, studying the death of protocols and published a paper on "Good Death". We discussed her findings in her research on how and when protocols are considered dead, how different human cultures view death and the silliness behind the longevity movement. If you want to listen to my ...

02-02

43:27

In Thailand at Funding the Commons I spoke to Jake Hartnell, co-founder of Layer, a modular tech stack to build decentralized protocols using Eigen Layer's shared security. Jake is also a contributor to Juno and DAO DAO in the Cosmos ecosystem. During the discussion we simplify how Eigen Layer works, what new affordances it brings, and what it means for collaborating across state lines. What is something that is normally being associated with hyper-financialization of computation can also be...

01-26

24:33

While at Devcon I spoke to Anuj Das Gupta, co-founder of Smart Transactions with Vlad Zamfir. Smart Transactions offers advanced blockchain solutions with context-aware, decentralized, and customizable transaction capabilities. We spoke about how MEV (maximum extractable value) gives someone the ability to control time for a split second, how the control of time has influenced the transition to capitalism and why we must nationalize designers. We also talk about communism and why it's free t...

01-21

56:06

In Thailand I spoke to Florian Glatz, probably the first crypto focused lawyer in Europe and possible the world and co-founder of Common Ground, an on-chain social network. Florian also helped author some part of the MiCA legislation in the EU which lays out the legal framework for cryptocurrences. We spoke about his experiences in the early days of the ICO boom, the unpreparedness of the legal system for crypto, and how Common Ground is leading the way for fairer ways to do ICOs. You can al...

01-10

26:39

To finish off the year I spoke again with Chainleft, a pioneer in the on-chain art world and my online dopple ganger. We spoke about his newly released piece Crimson Echo (codename: Blood Journey) which is "A generative film, built by Ethereum Virtual Machine, compressed and stored fully on Ethereum, exploring how stories emerge through permanent acts of individual and collective conscience." Be sure to be a part of the on-chain history being made to show that you did not support the ongoing...

12-31

53:01

While in Thailand during the Funding the Commons design jam, I spoke to Tony Lai a co-steward of Mothertree Labs with Susanne Aichele who I spoke to in the last episode and Founder of the Blockchain Group at CodeX Stanford and an Edmund Hillary Fellow. We spoke about Tony's interest in how to embody being a post-capitalist, Buddhist vs. Christian imagery, as well as his recent trip to Bhutan where he and others advised on a new ecological special economic zone initiative funded by the bitco...

12-22

36:19

While in Thailand during the Funding the Commons design jam, I spoke to Susanne Aichele from Mothertree Labs. Susanne is a filmmaker, researcher, and communication practitioner focused on the intersection of ecology, community, and identity, leveraging experience with BBC, National Geographic, the UN, and WHO to create projects that foster interconnected ecologies and non-extractive practices. We spoke about Susanne's previous documentary The Ways of the DAOs (2022), how to approach narrativ...

12-17

27:18

There seems to be an ever increasingly thin line between crypto, scams, and financial domination. I spoke Steve Pikelny, CEO, CTO, CFO, COO of http://FastCashMoneyPlus.biz and Jesus pamphlet collector aka steviep about his newest art project FinSexy to explore the uncomfortable intersection between findom and crypto. If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you find content like this important consider donating to my Patreon starting at jus...

11-19

01:12:39

I spoke to Eric Alston again! Eric is a professor at University of Colorado and recently completed a fellowship with the Summer of Protocols studying the governance of killswitches. His report is titled "Killswitch Protocols: Or On Engineering Recursive System Death" and co-authored with Seth Killian and Garrette David. During the interview we discussed the history of killswitches, the many ways they can be governed and the implications of the governance system they lie in like in blockchain...

10-21

01:04:22

For this episode I spoke to Simone Robutti. Simone works as an organization designer, adversarial researcher, and teacher. Formerly a software developer, he has been part of different chapters of Tech Workers Coalition since 2018. During the interview we discussed how to start a labor union at your tech company, innovative ways to go on strike, and how tech ideology as psyoped you to thinking labor struggle can't work in tech. We also touched on how technical tools for assisting workers shou...

10-11

01:06:15

For this episode I spoke to Ahmed Gatnash, the Executive director of Kawaakibi Foundation. He is also a Strategy Advisor at the Albert Einstein Institution, and is the co-author of Middle East Crisis Factory, a primer on systemic crises and a vision for a positive future for the MENA region. During the discussion we spoke about the context of the political economic situation where Islam rose, the economic policies that were put into practice during this time, and how the policies looked at t...

10-01

57:43

For this episode I spoke to Suji Yan, CEO and founder of Mask Network. Mask's main product is an open-sourced browser extension that wraps around several web2 and web3 social media networks. Rather than starting a new social media platform, the extension brings the benefits of both kinds of social media. During the discussion we spoke about Suji's journey from journalist to founder, non-financial uses of crypto, and how Mask is allocating capital to support a decentralized web. You can also...

08-19

01:06:18

Note that this interview was done in Spanish, you can find the youtube video with english subtitles if you need here. This episode is part of a subseries where I've partnered with my comrade Giulio Quarta from the Crypto Commons Association and their initiative called the Commons Economy Roadmap (CER) where we will be interviewing some of the projects listed as part of the CER. In this interview we spoke to Neri Ortiz and Lucía Ruiz who both live in Mexico. Neri is a coffee farmer and Lucia ...

08-11

45:08

For this episode I spoke to Nick Susi, Executive Director of Strategy at dotdotdash who recently wrote a really interesting article on his Substack titled magic, online!. The article goes into the history of magical thinking that accompanied many of the past's technological achievements like phones that let you talk to the dead or fairies that appeared in some of the first photographs and how today we again see magical thinking accompany AI's proliferation. During the interview we talk about...

07-31

01:01:17

This episode is part of a subseries where I've partnered with my comrade Giulio Quarta from the Crypto Commons Association and their initiative called the Commons Economy Roadmap (CER) where we will be interviewing some of the projects listed as part of the CER. In this interview we spoke to Andrea Leiter, co-founder of Sovereign Nature Initiative (SNI). SNI uses blockchain to turn real-world ecological data into dynamic digital assets, such as NFTs, that fund conservation efforts directly th...