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

05/20/20 • 58 min

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 blockchains: comments on an emerging literature.” The paper focuses on blockchain and property relations in connection to global property relations and the evolution of capitalism.

For this part of the interview we speak about our thoughts on a recent DeFi Summit seminar on Human Rights (unsurprisingly, they use a very limited liberal conception of human rights), the evolution of property during the transition from Feudalism to Capitalism, and what lessons we can take from that for building something else.

In the last interview we spoke about utopian capitalism, whether blockchain is a neoliberal project, and the history of contracts. The interview itself went pretty long so I’ve split it into two parts. It's not necessary to listen to the first part if you've found this part first but you can find Part 1 here.

If you’d like to get a copy of the article you join the Crypto Leftists Discord group here where I posted a copy of the article since online it’s under a paywall.

If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon. I will never have ads to keep independence. If you want to receive irregular updates, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and / or join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime.

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ICYMI 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.

If you’d like to get a copy of the article you join the Crypto Leftists Discord group here where I posted a copy of the article since online it’s under a paywall.

Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime.

Support the show

Previous Episode

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

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: comments on an emerging literature." The paper focuses on blockchain and property relations in connection to global property relations and the evolution of capitalism.
I really enjoyed the article because it really succinctly brings up the point that most current analyses of blockchain don't go deep enough and don’t seem to ask the right questions because they focus too much on what "could be" and not what is currently happening in the space. This leads to a lot of wrong conclusions, particularly from people who I’d probably agree with for the most part on other things. In his paper, Dr. Garrod takes a more materialistic approach when analyzing blockchain and it's potential to either be co-opted by neoliberalism or create something completely different.
During the interview we spoke about utopian capitalism, whether blockchain is a neoliberal project, and the history of contracts. The interview itself went pretty long so I've split it into two parts. You can expect part two to be published next week.

If you'd like to get a copy of the article you join the Crypto Leftists Discord group here where I posted a copy of the article since online it's under a paywall.
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon. I will never have ads to keep independence. If you want to receive irregular updates, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and / or join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.

Send me your questions or comments about the show and I'll read them out sometime.

Support the show

Next Episode

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

This week I spoke with Rich Jensen (@richjensen), Co-op Executive of Resonate (@ResonateCoop). Resonate is a cooperatively owned music streaming platform aiming to give more power to artists rather than corporate record labels and VC-funded tech companies.On average their model gives a larger payout to artists as compared to other music streaming platforms like Spotify. Rich has had a long career in the music industry of starting ventures and has a passion for decolonization.
During the interview we spoke about the recent history of music culture creation, it's commodification, and how the music industry was affected by P2P platforms like Napster. We discuss how blockchain could be used to help in making sure artists receive the value of their work rather than being exploited by companies or otherwise. We then connect how this model could be used to help in efforts to decolonize the oppressed including indigenous and black communities. Since Rich is based in Seattle, we also talked about his recent experience in the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (#CHAZ) and the legacy of Kurt Cobain.
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you want to see more content like this, please consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month . At the moment I've spent more on this 9-month old project than I've ever made so any amount helps. Also, sign up for the Newsletter, follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist), and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit to continue the discussion and give your thoughts.