A case for crypto for the left would undoubtedly have to include the potential for creating resilient methods for digital democracy. However to make real democracy of one person one vote is incredibly difficult without having a very good system of sybil resistance, or for a way to tell that a single account is a…

In this episode I spoke to Quinn Dupont (@quinndupont), an  early crypto academic, founder of Alumni Labs, and author of the book Cryptocurrencies and Blockchains.   During the interview we spoke about his recent publication through Alumni Labs on A Progressive Web3,  some of the ethical issues around studying cryptocurrencies that people should be aware of which he’s written extensively about,…

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 song every day for the past ~14 years. There’s a good chance you’ve heard one of his songs at some point since many have gone viral in the…

For this episode I interviewed Danny O’Brien (@mala) , current senior fellow at the Filecoin Foundation and special advisor to the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF). Danny worked with the EFF for a very long time and has a podcast called How to Fix the Internet. During the interview we talked about  his experience of the early internet and…

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 keynote speech for the Haus Der Kunst DAO Summit. During the interview we spoke about her skepticism and cautious optimism she mentioned in the keynote speech, the contradictory feelings on the market…

For this interview I spoke to Dr. Paul Dylan-Ennis (@polarpunklabs), professor at University College Dublin, and Rose O’Leary (@lunarmining), previous writer at CoinDesk and now a programmer for DarkFi. They are both also the editors for a new philosophy journal called Agorism in the 21st Century which recently published its first issue.  Agorism is a heterodox libertarian political tendency…

For this episode I spoke to Dr. Tina Rivers Ryan (@TinaRiversRyan), Assistant Curator at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, New York, art historian, critic, and educator. She’s been involved in digital art on the internet well before NFTs were ever a thing but has written some interesting critiques about it all. During the interview…

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 cooperatives, and is one of the stewards of PrimeDAO. We  had followed each other online but finally had the opportunity to meet in person during The DAOist in Lisbon a few months ago. During…

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 of the book Platform Socialism , coming out with Pluto Press on January 20th.  You may have seen that I also reviewed Platform Socialism on my site so check that out as well if you want to…

For this episode I spoke with Harry Halpin (@harryhalpin), open internet advocate, professor, internet researcher, and the current CEO of Nym. Nym is  a project trying to build a global privacy commons for the internet using mix nets, crypto, and anonymous credentials. During the interview we talk about the current issues with privacy on the internet…

This week, after a a few delays, I was finally able to interview  a couple of the masterminds behind DisCO (Distributed Cooperative Organization). I spoke to Stacco Troncoso (@StaccoP2P) and Natalia Avlona who are both members of the crew working on DisCO, also called DisCONAUTS. A DisCO is an alternative / critique / complement to DAOs (Decentralized Autonomous Organizations)…

For this week’s episode I spoke to Ori Shimony (@orishim),  co-founder of dOrg, a full-stack Web3 development collective. dOrg is incredibly interesting because it is run similarly to a worker-owned cooperative but functions as a DAO while also being at the forefront of building some of the most cutting-edge crypto platforms and products. During the interview…

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 developers. For a long time Amir has been involved in left wing activism including volunteering in Rojava and is a big digital privacy advocate. At Liscon, Amir…

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 public access to tens of millions of academic research papers for absolutely free. As you can imagine, what she’s doing is illegal and has had countless issues with government and privately owned…

For this week’s episode I spoke with Ethan Buchman (@buchmanster), the founder of Cosmos and the CEO of  Informal Systems, a worker-owned cooperative helping build the infrastructure of the Cosmos Network. Cosmos is a particular blockchain with the goal of creating the internet of blockchains by creating a layer that facilitates interoperability between different blockchains. During the interview we talk about…

For this episode I spoke with Maryam Monalisa Gharavi (@wcncnd), an Iranian-American artist, writer, and theorist whose work explores the interplay between aesthetic and political valences in the public domain. She conceived of the Oil Research Group, a one woman collective exploring the relationship between oil, data, and bitcoin. “Data is the new oil” was coined by…