For this episode of OTNS, Primavera and I spoke to Jason Potts (@profjasonpotts), a professor of economics and co-director of blockchain innovation hub of RMIT. This is the first episode in the series where we’re talking to someone who is still a fan of Balaji. During the interview we spoke about his disappointments in the book, how productive forces are evolving past market capitalism, and the commons.
Overthrowing the Network State (OTNS) is a series in collaboration with Blockchaingov where we critique The Network State by Balaji Srinivasan while also pulling out the salvageable parts and concepts in discussion with a variety of guests. We are overall critical of Balaji’s specific ideas in the book, but we want to discuss it with intellectual honesty and highlight the larger concepts around how these technologies are and could subvert state structures. You can find the first episode of OTNS where we give our initial criticisms and alternatives here.
Blockchaingov is a 5-year long, transdisciplinary research effort aimed at restoring trust in institutions at the community and global levels, by promoting better on chain and off chain distributed governance practices. Throughout the series, each discussion will include me and a member of Blockchaingov with either a new guest each episode or just a discussion between us to tackle various topics from the book.
