The Blockchain Socialist

Talking Politics with Vitalik Buterin (Part 2)

20 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I interviewed Vitalik Buterin about his thoughts on the political aspects of crypto. It was a candid discussion about his book "Proof of Stake&qu...

Talking Politics with Vitalik Buterin (Part 1)

13 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I interviewed Vitalik Buterin about his thoughts on the political aspects of crypto. It was a candid discussion about his book "Proof of Stake&qu...

Participatory Budgeting, Real Public Goods, and why Bernie would've won with quadratic funding

06 Nov 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I spoke to Eli Zeger (@ezeger16), a writer, editor, and musician. He is also a worker-owner at Ampled and a member of the Exit to...

Why Socialists should NOT cede crypto to the Right

30 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I spoke to Joshua Citarella (@JoshuaCitarella on social media), an artist, researcher, and Twitch streamer who studies niche online...

Extitutional Theory: No Rules, No Roles, just Dynamics

23 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I spoke to Primavera De Filipi (@yaoeo), one of the earliest scholars on law and crypto, Internet activist, and artist. She is permanent researcher at...

MEV: existential threat to blockchains or solvable problem?

02 Oct 2022

Contributed by Lukas

You may have heard of Maximal Extractable Value, or MEV, which refers to the extraction of value from Ethereum users by reordering, inserting, and cen...

How to make a good ART PONZI

25 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I'm not much of an art NFT collector myself, but I do dabble in at least appreciating some NFT art that I find to be interesting in one way or an...

Review of Decentralized Society and Soulbound Tokens Paper by Vitalik (Teaser)

12 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this bonus episode I give my review of the recent article published titled Decentralized Society: Finding Web3's Soul written by Vitalik Buter...

Aligning DAOs and Cybernetics

11 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke to Kelsie Nabben (@kelsiemvn), a qualitative researcher on resilience in decentralised technologies and governance at RMIT in...

Interview with Black Swan DAO (Live in Paris)

04 Sep 2022

Contributed by Lukas

About a month ago I did the first live podcast interview in Paris at an event hosted by EBB with two members of Black Swan DAO, a Berlin-based collect...

Crypto and the Left with Cory Doctorow

28 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Cory Doctorow (@doctorow) is a long time digital rights activist, author of many book on technology and sci-fi, and a journalist. You can find out mor...

CCG Chronicles #12 - Origins of the Crypto Commons

14 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

During the CCG I interviewed a co-founder of the event and organization that runs it, the Crypto Commons Association, Felix Fritsch (@FelixFritsch2) ....

CCG Chronicles #11 - Designing systems without fetishes, the frame, and cups

07 Aug 2022

Contributed by Lukas

During the CCG I had a long conversation with Pekko Koskinen and Michael Zargham about systems design, avoiding fetishizing objectivity when designing...

Democracy as a Design Space (Interview with Nathan Schneider)

19 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nathan Schneider (@ntnsndr) is a professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and the editor of “Proof of Stake: The Making of E...

Idena: Digital Democracy without a Centralized Entity

10 Jul 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A case for crypto for the left would undoubtedly have to include the potential for creating resilient methods for digital democracy. However to make r...

CCG Chronicles #10 - Issues with the Sharing Economy and Platform Cooperativism

25 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

We're de-pegging Terra for "research purposes"

12 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this episode I spoke to Quinn Dupont (@quinndupont), an early crypto academic, founder of Alumni Labs, and author of the book Cryptocurrencies an...

CCG Chronicles #9 - Surviving Sanctions: Mutual Credit in Venezuela

01 Jun 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

How to Make a Song Every Day and Turn it in to a DAO Cooperative: Interview with Jonathan Mann

29 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this interview I spoke to Jonathan Mann (@songadaymann), also known as the Song A Day guy, who has, in case you can't tell, published a new so...

CCG Chronicles #8 - Token Engineering and Holochain

15 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

Are we a Psyop to left-wash crypto?

08 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I interviewed Danny O'Brien (@mala) , current senior fellow at the Filecoin Foundation and special advisor to the Electronic Fro...

Crypto hackers don't care about your libertarian ideology

01 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke to Jaya Klara Brekke (@jayapapaya), an academic researcher on crypto and Head of Strategy at NYM who recently gave the keynot...

CCG Chronicles #7 - Sovereignty for the Commons

17 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

CCG Chronicles #6 - How to Metagame the Labor Market

10 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

Lunarpunk, Black Markets, and Agorism in the 21st Century

03 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I spoke to Dr. Paul Dylan-Ennis (@polarpunklabs), professor at University College Dublin, and Rose O'Leary (@lunarmining), pre...

Crypto Leftists go to ETHDenver (Teaser)

27 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is a teaser of a Patreon bonus episode. For this bonus episode I spoke to Marisa and James who are working on PactDAO, a mutual aid network in NY...

CCG Chronicles #5 - The Credit Commons, Currency Design, and Totemomics

20 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

CCG Chronicles #4 - Is there nothing better than liberal democracy?

06 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

From Net Art to the rise of NFTs in an age of austerity

27 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke to Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan (@TinaRiversRyan), Assistant Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, art histo...

CCG Chronicles #3 - The autopoiesis of complexity and the cognitariat

27 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

The Anarchist Case for DAOs

13 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I spoke to @againstutopia he's known as on anarchist and crypto Twitter. He has a background in working in tech, platform coop...

Teaser - PoW vs PoS from a Socialist PoV

30 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

This is a teaser of a patreon exclusive episode. As a patron you have the ability to vote on the topic / question of a monthly patreon exclusive podca...

Platform Socialism and Web3

16 Jan 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke to James Muldoon (@james_muldoon_), a researcher at Autonomy in the UK, senior lecturer at University of Exeter, and author o...

Mix Nets and Crypto: Privacy on the Internet Beyond Tor with Nym

30 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke with Harry Halpin (@harryhalpin), open internet advocate, professor, internet researcher, and the current CEO of Nym. Nym is ...

Dancing with radical economics at the DisCO: A feminist cooperative alternative to DAOs

19 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week, after a a few delays, I was finally able to interview a couple of the masterminds behind DisCO (Distributed Cooperative Organization). I ...

CCG Chronicles #2 - A taxonomy of crypto-politics

12 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This episode is a continuation of the CCG Chronicles series which is a collection of interviews conducted during the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in...

Prefiguring post-capitalist work with DAOs

05 Dec 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode I spoke to Ori Shimony (@orishim), co-founder of dOrg, a full-stack Web3 development collective. dOrg is incredibly int...

CCG Chronicles #1 - Interview with Jeff Emmett of The Commons Stack

20 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Hi all, I have a pretty big announcement to make which is that I'm filming a documentary about the cryptocurrency space! As part of the film I&ap...

Let there be DarkFi and Anonymity (Interview with Amir Taaki)

05 Nov 2021

Contributed by Lukas

While I was in Lisbon a few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to meet in person and interview Amir Taaki (@Narodism), one of the first Bitcoin core dev...

Science and Communism are the Same (Interview with Alexandra Elbakyan, founder of Sci-Hub)

31 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I spoke with Alexandra Elbakyan (@ringo_ring) the founder of Sci-Hub, the first pirate website in the world to provide mass and pub...

The heterodox politics of the internet of blockchains and sustainability existentialism

17 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode I spoke with Ethan Buchman (@buchmanster), the founder of Cosmos and the CEO of Informal Systems, a worker-owned cooper...

Bitcoin is the New Data is the New Oil

03 Oct 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke with Maryam Monalisa Gharavi (@wcncnd), an Iranian-American artist, writer, and theorist whose work explores the interplay be...

The Original Cryptoartist was also the Original Cryptoleftist

12 Sep 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I spoke with Rhea Myers (@rheaplex), an artist, hacker and writer originally from the UK now based in Vancouver. Her work places ...

Bail Bloc: A Cryptocurrency Scheme Against Bail

29 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bailbloc is a cryptocurrency scheme against bail through The New Inquiry, in which you can download the app and a small portion of your computer&apo...

Teaser - The Connection between Blockchain, Cooperatives, and DAOs

22 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is a teaser of a patreon exclusive episode. As a patron you have the ability to vote on the topic / question of a monthly patreon exclusive podca...

The Drivers Cooperative: Go Where Workers Are and Organize With Them

12 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Drivers Cooperative is a ride-hailing platform similar to Uber except owned by the workers not venture capital starting in NYC. They are currently...

Sanctions are Economic Terrorism: Crypto in Iran

08 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

It has been reported lately in the news about how the country of Iran has been using bitcoin to get around sanctions imposed by the United States and ...

Bitcoin and US Dollar Financial Imperialism

01 Aug 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's interview, I spoke with Murtaza Hussain (@MazMHussain), reporter at The Intercept focused on Foreign Policy with an interest in c...

A Marxist POV of the Bitcoin Miami Conference

11 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Although it feels like the Bitcoin Miami Conference was ages ago, it still only happened a little over a month ago. There were plenty of memorable eve...

Teaser - Centralization vs Decentralization, which is better for socialism?

04 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is a teaser of a patreon exclusive episode. As a patron you have the ability to vote on the topic / question of a monthly patreon exclusive podca...

Access the Internet without ISPs using Mesh Networks and Blockchain with PKT

26 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode, I spoke with Caleb James Delisle (@cjdelisle), founder of PKT Cash, the world’s first bandwidth-hard blockchain mean...

Decentralizing Power and Value with P2P Models

20 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode I spoke with Samer Hassan (@SamerP2P), activist, researcher, and Associate Professor at Universidad Complutense Madrid an...

Crypto Mining is Doing a Speed Run of Capitalism in Front of Our Eyes

06 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Dr. Filipe Calvao (@filipecalvao), a socio-cultural anthropologist and professor of Anthropology and Sociology at the Graduat...

Funding Musician Coops Using Community Tokens with Ampled

30 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode, I spoke with Austin Robey, cofounder of Ampled, a cooperatively owned music platform owned by artists and workers simila...

We Need More Sociologists in the Blockchain Space!

09 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's interview I spoke with Kris Jones (@KrisJ_Official) who wrote his Masters thesis in 2018 titled "Toward a Political Sociolog...

Unlocked: The best leftist hot take on NFTs you'll ever listen to (Remix)

02 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode, I have unlocked a previously patreon exclusive podcast episode I did about a month ago during NFT mania. I wanted to unl...

Would Marx Have traded Dogecoin? Interview with 1Dime

17 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode, I spoke with 1Dime (@TheRapNerd7), a youtuber who focuses on videos about politics, critical theory, and pop culture. ...

The Promise of People Powered Money with CirclesUBI

11 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I spoke to Julio Linares (@Julio_Linares_) an Economic Anthropologist studied under David Graeber at the LSE, Social Outreach at th...

ERP Technology Companies are Centralized Planners of the Economy

04 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke to Chris D'Costa (@cjdcosta), the founder of Totem Live Accounting (@totem_live_). Totem is building a real-time global ...

Teaser - The best leftist hot take on NFTs you'll ever listen to

28 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

***This is just a teaser. Check out the full episode on Patreon***The patreon democratic economic planning council has spoken. With a choice between d...

Crypto influencers, The Fakefluencer, and the dirty underwear of capitalism

21 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This week's episode is dedicated to the crypto influencers. For the first half I give a crash course on the history and some of the more well kno...

Moral Panic! about the Internet? Try data sovereignty

14 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode I spoke to Dr. Emaline Friedman (@emalinus4). She is a network activist for the Commons Engine, part of Holochain, a so...

Haha meme printer go brrrrr feat. Mike Watson of The Acid Left

06 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's interview I spoke with Mike Watson (@_leftaesthetics), co-host of The Acid Left and author of “Towards a Conceptual Militancy...

Teaser - Q&A: What is the relationship of blockchain and the evolution of capitalism?

24 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is a teaser of a patreon exclusive episode. As a patron you have the ability to vote on the topic / question of a monthly patreon exclusive podca...

Using blockchain to make the artworlds we want with Furtherfield

13 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's interview I spoke with Ruth Catlow, Artistic Director at Furtherfield (@furtherfield), a not-for-profit international community...

Early bitcoin politics: Digital metallism vs Infrastructural mutualism

07 Feb 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's interview I spoke with Matt Cropp (@MattCropp), a Co-Director of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center, where he works on public ...

Day trading our way to the revolution feat. Jaynemesis

31 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's interview I spoke with Jay Smith (@jaynemesis) one of the top earning traders on eToro, a social trading platform where people ca...

Teaser - Q&A: A cryptoleftist take on the STABLE Act

24 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

This is a teaser for the third episode in the patreon exclusive Q&A series where I talk about my thoughts on the STABLE Act, which has become in...

Recognizing value in open source communities with SourceCred feat. Dandelion Mané

16 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I interview Dandelion Mané (@decentralion) and talk about their work on SourceCred (@sourcecred), a tool for communities to measure ...

Avoiding co-optation of the commons under capitalism

10 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this interview I sat down with Hannes Gerhardt, professor of Human Geography at the University of West Georgia and author of a recent piece in ROA...

Designing post-capitalism with the Economic Space Agency feat. Akseli Virtanen

03 Jan 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's podcast I spoke to Akseli Virtanen (@econaut6), one of the founders of the Economic Space Agency (@ecospaceagency) (ECSA), an org...

Teaser - Q&A: Socialism with markets or planning using blockchain?

20 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This is a teaser of the second episode of the patreon exclusive Q&A series where I talk about the question asked by JB on the differences between ...

GCAS: The Cooperatively owned College on the Blockchain feat. Creston Davis

12 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke to Creston Davis, founder of the Global Center of Advanced Studies (@GCASCollege), the first cooperatively run college using their o...

Enabling Blockchain to Fight against Imperialism in the Caribbean feat. Stefen Deleveaux

06 Dec 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Stefen Deleveaux (@stefdelev), the president of the Caribbean Blockchain Alliance (CBA). The CBA is an organization that advo...

Technical Analysis is Just Horoscopes for Chart People feat. Andrew Ancheta

29 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I interviewed Andrew Ancheta (@TrampAbroad1), a freelance journalist who previously wrote for crypto publications, but most recently wrote a...

What Cooperatives and Blockchain Can Learn From Each Other feat. Morshed Mannan

22 Nov 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Morshed Mannan (@MannanMorshed), a PhD candidate at Leiden Law School in The Netherlands and Research Fellow at the Institute...

Commons Based Peer Production on the Blockchain feat. Michel Bauwens of the P2P Foundation

31 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke to Michel Bauwens, the founder of the Foundation for Peer-to-Peer Alternatives and works in collaboration with a global group of...

One WEIRD trick: A Radical Strategy to Finance the Revolution feat. Jonathan Beller

17 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke to Jonathan Beller, a professor of Media Studies at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn NY with a forthcoming book “The World Computer: ...

The dystopian future of smart cities built by LLCs and the socialists that ignore the signs

11 Oct 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For this week's episode I took a closer look at the company Blockchains LLC which bought the German startup Slock.it who was working on creating ...

What Would Marx think about Cryptocurrency? feat. Mark Alizart, author of Cryptocommunism

27 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Mark Alizart, a philosopher and the author of The Climate Coup, Dogs, and most recently Cryptocommunism which has recently be...

Why the Left Should Care about Value Accounting feat. Dr. Sarah Grace Manski

13 Sep 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Dr. Sarah Grace Manski, she has a PhD in Global Studies from UC Santa Barbara and is now a professor at George Mason University...

Art, Weed, and Blockchain feat. Chibu Ichiban from afuturemodern

16 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke to Chibu Ichiban, a founding member of afuturemodern, a network of coops delivering liberation tech to the masses through art, cultu...

Giving the Power of Money to the People through Decentralized Mutual Credit Networks ft. Aleeza Howitt from Trustlines

04 Aug 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke to Alleza Howitt (@aleezagroks), a contributor to the Trustlines protocol. Trustlines is a mPoS (minimal viable Proof of Stake) si...

Are Public Goods Always “Good” and Will Personal Tokens Just Lead to Slavery ft. Annaliese Milano

26 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I sat down with PhD student at the London School of Economics under David Graeber and Laura Bear in Anthropology and occasional CoinDesk c...

Screw capitalism, start a cult, and burn your money ft. Jonathan Harris aka Money Burning Guy

17 Jul 2020

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode I spoke with Jonathan Harris (@jonone100) aka Money Burning Guy who was recently featured as a panelist at the Consensus: Distributed...

The War on Cash and The Coercive Nature of Money ft. Brett Scott

28 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke to financial activist and author of The Heretic's Guide to Global Finance Hacking the Future of Finance Brett Scott (@Suitpossu...

What Erik Voorhees and Other Crypto-Libertarians Get Wrong

21 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I decided to do something a little bit different and go solo. For this episode I wanted to analyze the mindset and beliefs in a lot of the m...

Musicians of the World Unite and Decolonize the Music Industry feat. Rich Jensen from Resonate

14 Jun 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Rich Jensen (@richjensen), Co-op Executive of Resonate (@ResonateCoop). Resonate is a cooperatively owned music streaming platf...

From Feudalism to Capitalism to (Hopefully) Beyond feat. Dr. Joel Garrod (Part 2)

20 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Property Relation on the Blockchain feat. Dr. Joel Garrod (Part 1)

16 May 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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...

Own the Value of your Labor with DAOs feat. Daniel Kronovet from Colony

26 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I interviewed Daniel Kronovet (@kronosapiens) at Colony, “An Operating System for Organizations”. The Colony Network is a suite of smart...

Why the Left Should Care About Identity and Quadratic Voting feat. Paula Berman from Democracy Earth

19 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Paula Berman (@_paulaberman), researcher at the Democracy Earth Foundation (@DemocracyEarth) which is a tech non-profit that ai...

Fighting Uber with blockchain cooperatives feat. Dardan Isufi from Eva Coop

05 Apr 2020

Contributed by Lukas

This week I spoke with Dardan Isufi (@DardanIsufi), COO of the Eva Coop (@Eva_coop) which is a cooperative ride-sharing application based on blockchai...

Teaser: Interview with Ben Arc (@BTCSocialist) [Deleted Scenes]

30 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 coup...

Crypto Commie Circlejerk: Interview with Ben Arc (@BTCSocialist)

15 Mar 2020

Contributed by Lukas

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 co...