The Blockchain Socialist

This week I spoke with Rich Jensen (@richjensen), Co-op Executive of Resonate (@ResonateCoop). Resonate is a cooperatively owned music streaming platform aiming to give more power to artists rather than corporate record labels and VC-funded tech companies.On average their model gives a larger payout to artists as compared to other music streaming platforms like Spotify. Rich has had a long career in the music industry of starting ventures and has a passion for decolonization.During the interview we spoke about the recent history of music culture creation, it's commodification, and how the music industry was affected by P2P platforms like Napster. We discuss how blockchain could be used to help in making sure artists receive the value of their work rather than being exploited by companies or otherwise. We then connect how this model could be used to help in efforts to decolonize the oppressed including indigenous and black communities. Since Rich is based in Seattle, we also talked about his recent experience in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (#CHAZ) and the legacy of Kurt Cobain.If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. At the moment I've spent more on this 9-month old project than I've ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

This is Part 2 of my interview with Dr. Joel Z Garrod, a sociologist based in Canada and author of a recently published article, “On the property of blockchains: comments on an emerging literature.” The paper focuses on blockchain and property relations in connection to global property relations and the evolution of capitalism. For this part of the interview we speak about our thoughts on a recent DeFi Summit seminar on Human Rights (unsurprisingly, they use a very limited liberal conception of human rights), the evolution of property during the transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, and what lessons we can take from that for building something else. In the last interview we spoke about utopian capitalism, whether blockchain is a neoliberal project, and the history of contracts. The interview itself went pretty long so I’ve split it into two parts. It's not necessary to listen to the first part if you've found this part first but you can find Part 1 here.If you’d like to get a copy of the article you join the Crypto Leftists Discord group here where I posted a copy of the article since online it’s under a paywall.If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon. I will never have ads to keep independence. If you want to receive irregular updates, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and / or join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

This week I sat with Dr. Joel Z Garrod, a sociologist based in Canada and author of a recently published article, "On the property of blockchains: comments on an emerging literature." The paper focuses on blockchain and property relations in connection to global property relations and the evolution of capitalism. I really enjoyed the article because it really succinctly brings up the point that most current analyses of blockchain don't go deep enough and don’t seem to ask the right questions because they focus too much on what "could be" and not what is currently happening in the space. This leads to a lot of wrong conclusions, particularly from people who I’d probably agree with for the most part on other things. In his paper, Dr. Garrod takes a more materialistic approach when analyzing blockchain and it's potential to either be co-opted by neoliberalism or create something completely different.During the interview we spoke about utopian capitalism, whether blockchain is a neoliberal project, and the history of contracts. The interview itself went pretty long so I've split it into two parts. You can expect part two to be published next week. If you'd like to get a copy of the article you join the Crypto Leftists Discord group here where I posted a copy of the article since online it's under a paywall.If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon. I will never have ads to keep independence. If you want to receive irregular updates, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and / or join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

This week I interviewed Daniel Kronovet (@kronosapiens) at Colony, “An Operating System for Organizations”. The Colony Network is a suite of smart contracts, running on Ethereum. It provides a general purpose framework for the essential functions organizations require, such as ownership, structure, authority, and financial management. Along the way, we talk about organizations and society as systems of information processing, the relationships of models to reality, and some classic (and modern) political economic thought.Colony Discord -> discord.gg/erRD8gbSign up for the Blockchain 101 for Socialists Live Session (May 2nd)More Information -> www.reddit.com/r/cryptoleftists/…ine_live_session/Newsletter: theblockchainsocialist.com/sign-up-for…newsletter/Eventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/blockchain-10…m_term=fullLinkCrypto Leftists Discord: discord.gg/Hs78cVMMentioned Articles in the EpisodeAI is an Ideology (Jaron Lanier and Glen Weyl) -> www.wired.com/story/opinion-ai-i…-not-a-technology/Designing Freedom (Stafford Beer) -> monoskop.org/images/e/e3/Beer_S…igning_Freedom.pdfThe Use of Knowledge in Society (Friedrich Hayek)  -> www.econlib.org/library/Essays/hykKnw.htmlReputation Systems: Promise and Peril (Daniel Kronovet) -> kronosapiens.github.io/blog/2018/06/…se-peril.htmlThe Great Transformation (Karl Polanyi) -> en.wikipedia.org/wikiSend me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

This week I spoke with Paula Berman (@_paulaberman), researcher at the Democracy Earth Foundation (@DemocracyEarth) which is a tech non-profit that aims to create platforms for decentralized and incorruptible online governance. Their projects have largely been based on Ethereum.In the interview we discuss the identity problem for decentralized platforms like blockchain, the advantages of quadratic voting as opposed to current systems, and why the Left should care about all these things.Sign up for the Blockchain 101 for Socialists Live SessionEventbrite: www.eventbrite.com/e/blockchain-10…m_term=fullLinkNewsletter: theblockchainsocialist.com/sign-up-for…newsletter/Discord: discord.gg/Hs78cVMWant to stay in touch?Check the site -> theblockchainsocialist.com/Join the community -> www.reddit.com/r/cryptoleftists/Contribute to the project -> www.patreon.com/theblockchainsocialistOther Platforms:Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3geORcile9E…hURsSBlErXnihh9AiTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-…st/id1501607045Soundcloud: @theblockchainsocialistStitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-blockchain-socialistPodcast Addict: podplayer.net/?podId=2598359Deezer: www.deezer.com/us/show/961422Podchaser: Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

This week I spoke with Dardan Isufi (@DardanIsufi), COO of the Eva Coop (@Eva_coop) which is a cooperative ride-sharing application based on blockchain started in Montreal and expanding to other cities. We discuss taking on Uber while trying to build a democratic and non-exploitative alternative like Eva.Want to stay in touch?Check the site -> theblockchainsocialist.com Join the community -> www.reddit.com/r/cryptoleftists/Contribute to the project -> www.patreon.com/theblockchainsocialistYou can also find the podcast and future episodes on the major podcast platforms below.Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3geORcile9E…hURsSBlErXnihh9AiTunes: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-…st/id1501607045Soundcloud: @theblockchainsocialistStitcher: www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-blockchain-socialistPodcast Addict: podplayer.net/?podId=2598359Deezer: www.deezer.com/us/show/961422Podchaser: www.podchaser.com/podcasts/the-blo…ocialist-1034109iHeart Radio: www.iheart.com/podcast/269-the-b…cialist-59432216/Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

What I’ve done is taken some of the audio left over from the interview I did with Ben Arc or also  known as BTCSocialist on Twitter released a couple weeks ago and mashed it together since some of the good stuff wasn’t able to make into the interview. I hope you enjoy the extra content and if you want full access then consider becoming a patron on Patreon.Some of the things we spoke about include:Secret lefties in the hacker communityFake right wing anarchistsPost-capitalist blockchain projects trying to reinvent the wheel when there's socialismRight wing philosophers' obsessions with eugenics and skull sizeCheck the site -> theblockchainsocialist.com/Join the community -> www.reddit.com/r/cryptoleftists/Contribute to the project -> www.patreon.com/theblockchainsocialistSend me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

 A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to speak with Ben Arc (@BTCSocialist), one of the first openly leftist guy in bitcoin and significant contributor to the bitcoin FOSS space. In this episode we discuss what it was like for him to be one of the only people loudly represent the Left, and, his bitcoin-IoT projects. You can find his github for all of his projects here: https://github.com/arcbtcYou can also find the podcast and future episodes on the major platforms below.Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/3geORcile9E1EyPyFiAHhM?si=x7fjsFhURsSBlErXnihh9AiTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-blockchain-socialist/id1501607045Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/theblockchainsocialistStitcher: https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-blockchain-socialistPodcast Addict: https://podplayer.net/?podId=2598359 If you haven’t seen it, I’ve also republished another article on Medium titled, Won’t the State just Destroy the Blockchain?that you can check out or share with your other Lefty or even Libertarian friends.Check the site -> theblockchainsocialist.com/Join the community -> www.reddit.com/r/cryptoleftists/Contribute to the project -> www.patreon.com/theblockchainsocialistSend me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime. Support the showICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking. The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

The podcast explores the intersection of Marxist analysis with Blockchain and Crypto, challenging capitalist structures. It offers guidance for left-leaning individuals interested in Blockchain technology and highlights the host's new book 'Blockchain Radicals'.