The Blockchain Socialist

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 how magical thinking acts as a coping mechanism for uncertain times, AI doomers vs hypemen, and why content creators are illusionists.You can also find the interview in video form on YouTube here.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 just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@theblockchainsocialist@social.coop) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.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.

Andrea Leiter, Co-founder of Sovereign Nature Initiative, talks about using blockchain for ecological data to fund conservation efforts. They discuss DEEP protocol, ethical challenges, and the potential of blockchain for environmental stewardship.

Graham Jones, author of Red Enlightenment, advocates for a materialist spirituality that merges socialist principles with scientific insights. He discusses how socialism and spirituality can coexist against the stereotype of socialists being anti-religion. The conversation touches on the overlaps between the tech industry and spiritual practices, as well as Alexander Bogdanov's contributions to systems theory. Jones emphasizes the need for a renaissance of socialist values to foster community and collective action, bridging gaps with spiritual communities.

Dr. Hannes Gerhardt, a geography professor, discusses his concept of compeerism as an alternative to capitalism. Topics include distributed ledgers, limits of capitalism on tech, and transitioning to a commons-oriented economy with blockchain.

Christopher Goes, Co-founder of Anoma, discusses intent-centric architecture, redefining money, and socio-political implications of blockchain. They explore worker cooperatives, governance in tech, and peer review revolution with Anoma Research Topics.

Author Nathan Schneider discusses how the internet can be a democratic medium by learning from governance legacies of the past. Topics include implicit feudalism in online communities, the need for platforms supporting accountability, digital power dynamics, blockchain in shared governance, and critical analysis of the crypto space.

Guest Sara Horowitz, founder of Freelancers Union, discusses building mutualistic organizations, the history of workers' movements, and how crypto can promote solidarity. The podcast explores the shift towards mutualism, the impact of technology on social interactions, and the use of blockchain for resource sharing and collaboration. It also highlights the importance of community building, democratic technology, and fostering change through supportive networks.

Gianmarco Cristofari and the host discuss platforms as markets within markets, socialist history of cybernetics, platforms vs. protocols in web3, Extinction Rebellion's tech relationship. They delve into platform studies, cybernetics, technological sovereignty, code governance challenges, sortition, citizen assemblies, radical movements, and the future of platformization and crypto integration.

For this episode I spoke to James Brennan (@jt_bren) who has been finishing up his Masters at the University of Colorado focused on crypto. As part of his research he took a dep dive into the infamous group behind the Miladys NFT collection, Remilia Corp. During the discussion we spoke about esoteric political ideologies professed by Remilia and those associated with it, their financialized tactics for earning revenue, and all of the controversies surrounding the project. We also asked ourselves the very uncomfortable question of whether their tactics are something the left could learn from.My previous episode with Adam from Acid Horizon where we talked about effective accelerationism is a good primer for this episode.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 just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@theblockchainsocialist@social.coop) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.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.

I spoke to Oisín Kyne, co-founder and CTO of Obol Network,  an ecosystem for trust minimized Ethereum staking that enables people to create, test, run and coordinate distributed validators. Distributed Validator Technology (DVT) enables the duties of an Ethereum validator to be performed across a cluster of nodes in order to improve resilience as compared to running a validator on a single node. During the discussion we spoke about how DVT works, its implications for community funding, and  how it supports the decentralization of Ethereum. DVT is one of the most exciting technologies in my view for allowing a form of online collectivism that otherwise would be difficult to do on Ethereum.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 just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@theblockchainsocialist@social.coop) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.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.