GreenPill Season 8. Ep. - 4 - Economics W/ Ethan, Julio & Alana
May 6, 2025
Ethan Buckman, CEO at Informal Systems and co-founder of Cosmos, teams up with Julio Linares, a Guatemalan economic anthropologist and activist. They dive into the nature of money, exploring local currencies and innovative economic models. The conversation reflects on alternative wealth measurements and the role of community support in fostering resilience. From credit clearing to blockchain technology, they challenge traditional economics while envisioning a decentralized future grounded in mutual aid and ecological consideration.
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Money as Social Agreement
- Money is a realm of social agreement and a human construction.
- We can redesign money to serve the purposes we want rather than follow fixed rules blindly.
Ethan's Biophysics-to-Blockchain Path
- Ethan's journey started in biophysics and permaculture before moving to blockchain.
- Early experience with Ethereum inspired him to build decentralized systems for better global coordination.
Economy as Living Non-Equilibrium System
- The economy is a non-equilibrium system, unlike dead equilibrium models economists often use.
- Sustainable economies resemble living systems with cyclic energy flows, requiring new economic models.