The Blockchain Socialist

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.

I spoke to Kat (katalunia.eth) who is behind a project called ETH Evacuations which is taking donations to pay for families to get out of Gaza through the Rafah crossing. Kat is a product manager and startup builder, most recently Head of Product at Zora and travelled to Gaza in June 2023 to be a mentor in product management for the community at Gaza Sky Geeks.She is accepting ether and other tokens on the Ethereum mainnet, Optimism, or Base so that she can get the money directly to those who are on the ground. I myself donated already to the cause which you can find social proof for here.Donate here- https://ethevacuations.xyz/donateDonations address - 0x8D5bF23b181EA94d3104d4192acb52427E54875AMore about how evacuations from Gaza works - https://www.madamasr.com/en/2024/02/13/feature/politics/the-argany-peninsula/Mutual Aid Gaza Open Collective - https://opencollective.com/mutual-aid-gaza/projects/emergency-fund-gsgSign up to be a Gaza Champion - bit.ly/championgazaIf 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 Mustafa Al-Bassam, co-founder and CEO of Celestia, a modular blockchain network that makes for others to securely launch their own blockchain. Mustafa was also a member of the black hat hacking group LulzSec under the name T-Flow known for hacking the CIA website, newspapaers owned by Rupert Murdoch, and other corporate and state organizations in 2011.During the discussion we spoke about his experience of being in the hacker group, his transition to interest in blockchains, and Celestia. If you want to learn more about the history of hacktivism, Anonymous, and LulzSec, then I can recommend the book Hacker, Hoaxer, Whistleblower, Spy by Gabriella Coleman. 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.

Adam Jones delves into accelerationist theory, e/acc, and techno-optimism. They discuss the origins of accelerationism, critique techno-elites, and explore the intersection of power dynamics in a cyberpunk reality. The conversation covers Nick Land's influence, the need to break current systems, and the implications of accelerating intelligence towards a techno-capital singularity.

The audiobook for my book Blockchain Radicals is officially out! This is a sample you can listen to if you want to know if it seems like something you'd want to pick up. You can find your audiobook copy in all of the major audiobook platforms including Audible, Libro.fm and audiobooks,com.You can still find all the other places to find the physical book online here.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.

Rachel O'Dwyer, writer and lecturer in Digital Cultures, discusses the history and function of tokens, the relationship between money and tokens, and the role of tokens in social control. They also touch on the affordances of tokens and provide advice for token design.

Sam Delesque, founder of Traditional Dream Factory, discusses blending crypto with permaculture and community in a regenerative village in Portugal. They explore the potential of crypto for a regenerative real estate model and discuss the vision for the village, including housing, a farm, and a democratic school. They also discuss community land trusts, the role of technology in regeneration, and the purpose of OASA in decentralized governance.

Ali Breland, a journalist at Mother Jones who has written on crypto and politics, discusses his experience at a Praxis sponsored party in NYC, interviews with ex-employees about the founder's fascist sympathies, and how they target 'cool kids'. They also explore applying for a citizenship and question Praxis' connections to far-right figures.

Afra Wang, a Chinese diaspora journalist, talks about China's involvement with cryptocurrency, how the Chinese diasporic community builds on crypto differently, and their experience at ZuConnect. They discuss the decline of internet access and tech companies in China, the Chinese attraction to cryptocurrency and the Ethereum ecosystem, the Chinese crypto diaspora community in Southeast Asia, China as a process of immigration, building for the Western crypto space, colonialism's impact on Chinese entrepreneurs, and the creation of Zuzalu and Zuzu Connect events.