GreenPill

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐 In this episode of the VDAO × Greenpill Anti-Fragile Network States mini-series, host Kris Miller talks with Steph Curdy — Bitcoin early adopter, Wolfram researcher, and real-world resilience builder who traded city life for a hands-in-the-soil permaculture experiment. Steph shares how Bitcoin shaped his understanding of asymmetry, how COVID exposed the fragility of urban systems, and why he decided to buy land, build food and energy resilience, and grow a local community around it. They explore anti-fragility, decentralized systems, gradients, permaculture design, skepticism, community trust, and why people — not tomatoes — are the real value in any resilient ecosystem. A grounded, practical and inspiring look at how digital builders can become real-world resilience builders. 🌱 greenpill.network 🌐 vdao.org 🐦 https://x.com/JoinVDAO 🐦 https://x.com/Steph_Curdy 🐦 https://x.com/greenpillnet ⏱️ Timestamps 00:00 – Cold open: "The real value is community, not tomatoes." 01:24 – Welcome to the VDAO Anti-Fragile Network State season 02:19 – Steph Curdy joins the show 02:44 – Steph's "why" as a builder 03:50 – Bitcoin, energy & curiosity 05:48 – What anti-fragility means to Steph 07:30 – Bitcoin as asymmetric exposure 08:55 – COVID revealing urban fragility 09:38 – Searching for land & building resilience 11:35 – Bitcoin as a "Cambrian explosion" of economic primitives 13:32 – Returning to foundational systems: food & nature 15:46 – Steph's background: Tesla → finance → Wolfram 17:31 – Discovering permaculture 19:11 – Emergence: crypto, permaculture & meta-crisis spaces 20:56 – Sensemaking through energy gradients 22:52 – History & first-principles thinking 25:05 – Using gradients to understand Bitcoin 26:55 – How Steph thinks about skeptics 28:51 – Money as information & coordination 30:27 – Listening as a core civic skill 32:25 – Crypto insecurity & ecosystem overwhelm 34:44 – Quality-of-life benefits of resilience 36:24 – Buying land: the practical journey 38:46 – Turning a junk site into regenerative opportunity 41:10 – Building trust with neighbors 42:58 – Year-by-year development of the land 45:02 – Insight: community is the real value 47:29 – Mushroom systems, events & collaborative building 49:28 – Crypto × permaculture: bridging the worlds 51:51 – Polarization & public perception 54:30 – Digital + physical sovereignty 57:03 – What Steph learned building in real life 59:49 – Closing thoughts 01:00:32 – Outro

New @greenpillnet pod out today! 🌐 In this episode of the Network Nations mini-series, Primavera De Filippi & Felix Beer speak with Audrey Tang, former Digital Minister of Taiwan, and Nathan Schneider, professor and author of Governable Spaces. Together they explore Meta-Politics — the foundational design of digital infrastructures that shape how civil society governs itself online. Audrey and Nathan discuss how platforms today constrain collective action, how democratic protocols like alignment assemblies can counter online harms, and why new governance substrates must embed values such as plurality, civic care, interoperability, and entanglement. They also examine decentralized identities, freedom of movement, DAOs, religion as governance, and how network-native communities can evolve into political actors. A powerful conversation about the next layer of digital democracy — and what it takes to build civic technologies that empower global communities. 🌱 greenpill.network 🌐 networknations.network @owocki @greenpillnet @audreyt @ntnsndr 00:00 – Cold start 02:18 – Introducing Audrey Tang & Nathan Schneider 03:07 – Nathan: "Why I worry about the word meta" 05:10 – Nation-states as fragile historical accidents 06:15 – Self-governing online networks as new politics 08:16 – How today's platforms limit civic life 10:22 – Blockchains break the server–client power structure 12:17 – Nation-states reacting to decentralized governance 14:33 – Audrey: Democracy as a "social technology" 16:37 – Deepfakes, alignment assemblies & Taiwan's model 18:33 – Crowdsourced policymaking at national scale 20:49 – Freedom of movement & interoperability design 22:48 – What Network Nation aims to build 24:52 – Audrey's "Six-Pack of Care" 27:13 – Embedding civic care into protocols 29:21 – Bridging systems & depolarization 31:33 – What values can — and cannot — be encoded 33:28 – Forking, polycentric governance & metastability 35:52 – Norms vs code: where power really lives 37:41 – How decentralized tech forces governance innovation 39:51 – Why cooperatives aren't enough for politics 42:13 – Religion as a governance model for network nations 45:17 – Open movements & global political power 47:15 – Civil society as a political actor 49:40 – Verifiable credentials & protecting deliberation 51:52 – Avoiding dystopia & VC-dominated "network states" 54:17 – Funding, incentives & getting there first 56:43 – Poison pills & preventing bad governance 58:39 – Scaling across vs scaling up 01:00:44 – Fractal scaling & mutualization 01:02:53 – Naming as the first political act 01:05:59 – Different starting points for network nations 01:08:15 – Diversity, plurality & collective action 01:10:29 – Making conflict fun through bridging 01:12:41 – Innovation amnesia & protecting past wins 01:14:42 – Values vs opinions in political communities 01:16:37 – Civic care vs individual virtue ethics 01:19:00 – Entanglement as cohesion 01:21:11 – Building a narrative that reaches real people 01:23:25 – Applying meta-politics to global crises 01:25:46 – Everyday tools already enabling the future 01:26:51 – Closing

Vitalik Buterin, the co-founder of Ethereum and visionary in blockchain, joins the discussion to delve into public goods funding for the future. He highlights the shift from vibes-based funding to verifiable mechanisms, arguing that now is the perfect time for reform with new technologies. Vitalik explores where funding will come from in 2026, the importance of accountability in open-source projects, and how innovative strategies like programmable cryptography and AI can enhance funding models. His insights are pivotal for builders aiming to align their projects with these transformative ideas.

In this engaging discussion, Chance McAllister, a researcher and builder focused on pop-up villages and community formation, dives into what makes network societies tick. He shares the interesting origin of pop-up cities and how a simple Discord link sparked a high-talent online community. Chance contrasts formal safety nets with informal social support, and highlights lessons from the Mennonites on building belonging and negotiation tactics. He encourages exploring deeper connections among digital nomads and advocates for pragmatic approaches in creating lasting communities.

Austin Wade Smith, executive director at Regen Foundation, discusses innovative ecological state protocols. Kevin Owocki, founder of Gitcoin, highlights the importance of public goods funding and regenerative culture. Monty Bryant, co-founder of ReFiDAO, delves into coordinating the regenerative finance movement. The trio explores whether the Regen movement is evolving into a network nation, examining shared identities, the interplay of bioregionalism and digital worlds, and how community-driven activism shapes a collaborative future.

Rob Avis, a permaculture educator and co-founder of Fifth World, shares his transformative journey from industrial food and oil & gas to championing regenerative design. He discusses how nature and decentralization can create antifragile food, energy, and water systems. Avis emphasizes the difference between sustainability and regeneration, using beaver dams as a model for beneficial ecological disturbance. He also highlights the importance of digital tools and community resilience in nurturing the next generation of earth stewards.

This discussion features Rainer Bauböck, a political theorist skeptical about online communities as real nations, and Liav Orgad, a legal scholar delving into digital citizenship and governance. Yancey Strickler, a Kickstarter co-founder, explores new models for collective organization. They tackle whether digital communities can foster genuine political belonging, the differences between coercive membership and voluntary associations, and the potential for cloud communities to redistribute political power, all while navigating the complexities of identity in the digital age.

Daniel Ospina, an organization designer and entrepreneur, and Daniel Stringer, a user researcher specializing in human-computer interaction, delve into their new book, exploring the groundbreaking concept of 'network firms.' They discuss how blockchain and AI drastically lower coordination costs, enabling fluid organizational structures to replace rigid traditional firms. Case studies, including GainForest, illustrate practical applications. The duo also debates the potential of decentralization and the importance of design choices in shaping the future of work.

In this engaging conversation, Simon Brown, a longtime builder in the Ethereum space and lead of the ConsenSys Network State initiative, discusses the transformative potential of digital coordination tools for decentralized communities. He dives into the concept of 'network states' and their historical roots, while emphasizing Ethereum as a socio-technology that fosters diverse partnerships. Simon shares insights on capital formation challenges, real-world experiments in network-state thinking, and the essential role of shared values in creating resilient digital communities.

Jon Hillis, founder of Cabin and the Neighborhood Village Project, and Timur Koster, co-founder of Edge City, dive into the transformative concept of entanglement in community building. They discuss how co-creation and shared rituals can forge deeper connections and trust among individuals. The duo highlights the challenges between DAOs and community goals, exploring the value of pop-up civic experiments. With an emphasis on local interdependence, they propose that voluntary ties can create resilient networks that redefine civil society.