All Models Are Wrong

Latest Episodes:

CCG Chronicles #1 - Interview with Jeff Emmett of The Commons Stack Nov 20, 2021

Show notes

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've been doing a bit of traveling going to different crypto-related conferences and filming the events. The first event I joined was the Crypto Commons Gathering (CCG) in Austria back in August 2021 where we also shot full podcast episode-worthy interviews with some of the attendees as well.
For the first episode in the CCG Chronicles series, I interviewed Jeff Emmett (@jeffemmett) from The Commons Stack. During the interview we spoke about the vision for the tools being built by The Commons Stack team, cyber-physical systems design, and mycelial networks. Funny enough, Jeff was actually the second person I ever interviewed in which I published it as a blog which you can find here if you want to read it.
If you want to financially support our efforts in making the documentary, you can donate so far with bitcoin, ethereum (any layer), or NEAR at the addresses listed on the website. We're still unsure when exactly anything will be published, but we're hoping within the next year although that will depend on the amount of support we can get from the community.
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

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Let there be DarkFi and Anonymity (Interview with Amir Taaki) Nov 05, 2021

Show notes

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 and a part of the original team building Ethereum. For a long time Amir has been involved in left wing activism including volunteering in Rojava and is a big digital privacy advocate. While at Liscon, Amir also presented his latest project called DarkFi, an anonymous DeFi network.
During the interview we spoke about his thoughts on the current state of the left and crypto, why he believes anonymity to be fundamental to democratic organizing, and what DarkFi plans to achieve. You can also see his talk and demo of DarkFi at Liscon here.
Get involved in DarkFi
DarkFi Manifesto
DarkFi Telegram group
DarkFi Twitter
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

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Science and Communism are the Same (Interview with Alexandra Elbakyan, founder of Sci-Hub) Oct 31, 2021

Show notes

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 journals that paywall science funded by the public. This means that she cannot create a bank account to accept donations to continue her work and only accepts cryptocurrency.
DONATE SOME CRYPTO TO SCI-HUB BECAUSE SCIENCE SHOULD BE FREE
Alexandra is also a Russian speaker but can understand English so I was lucky enough to get a translator to help me with this interview. You'll notice that I edited out the majority of Alexandra speaking since I assume most people who listen don't understand Russian and fade to the translator. During the interview we spoke about the difficulties she's faced upkeeping the project, why she considers Sci-Hub to be a communistic project, and why she thinks the left should be taking cryptocurrency more seriously as a tool.
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

Support the show

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The heterodox politics of the internet of blockchains and sustainability existentialism Oct 17, 2021

Show notes

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 Ethan's own heterodox political views, synthesizing the works of the Austrian school and Karl Polanyi among others for creating what he calls "sustainability existentialism." We also talk about how these politics influenced the creation of Cosmos, his fears of the current state of the crypto ecosystem, and the difference between DeFi degens and regens.
Here are some more sources to learn more about Ethan's heterodox political views:

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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

Support the show

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Bitcoin is the New Data is the New Oil Oct 03, 2021

Show notes

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 the British mathematician Clive Humby in 2006 and since then has become a bit of a cliché phrase in the business world. While there may be some ways the metaphor works, there are clearly some big differences, like oil being a finite source and data being seemingly an infinite one. However, the digital scarcity introduced by bitcoin potentially changes this dynamic. During the interview Monalisa and I talk about the goals of the Oil Research Group, the pros and cons of frictionlessness, and the preciousness of data.
“Every new technology necessitates a new war” - Marshall McLuhan.
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

Support the show

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The Original Cryptoartist was also the Original Cryptoleftist Sep 12, 2021

Show notes

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 technology and culture in mutual interrogation to produce new ways of seeing the world as it unfolds around us. She’s been involved in the blockchain art world probably for as long as it has existed and has had her art recently featured in Sotheby’s first NFT auction sale.
What I've found incredible about her work is how prescient it was around art and includes the first writings attempting to synthesize blockchain with left politics. For example, her piece Crypto 2.0 and DAWCs: Dawn of Decentralized Autonomous Workers Councilswas published in 2015, right at the start of the discourse around DAOs, and already she had the foresight to see the implications this could have for left organizing.

She is also a longtime collaborator with Furtherfield, a not-for-profit international community hub for arts, technology and social change in London, and you can find much of her work with them here. She is one of the authors who contributed to the Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain book published by Furtherfield which is a must read for anyone, not only artists, who want to rethink blockchain. I previously also interviewed Ruth Catlow, one of the founders of Furtherfield on the podcast if you want more context.
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

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Bail Bloc: A Cryptocurrency Scheme Against Bail Aug 29, 2021

Show notes

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's unused processing power is redirected toward mining Monero. At the end of every month, Bailbloc exchanges the Monero for US dollars and donates the earnings to one of the bail funds in the National Bail Fund Network on a rotational basis. Due to changes in the US legal system around bail, the project is in the process of being phased out, however all of the code is open source and can potentially be used for other purposes.

For this interview I spoke to Grayson Earle (@graysonearle). He is an artist in residence at the Zentrum für Kunst und Urbanistik (Center for Art and Urbanistics) in Berlin and one of the creators of Bail Bloc. During the interview we talk about how an why he created Bailbloc, the lessons learned from it, and his suggestions for people who would want to do something similar. We also talk a little bit about Breadchain and the similarities it has with how Bailbloc approached cryptocurrency to collectivize gains for good.
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

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Teaser - The Connection between Blockchain, Cooperatives, and DAOs Aug 22, 2021

Show notes

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 podcast. For this month the topic voted on was about the connection between blockchain and cooperatives.
Get the full version on Patreon.
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

Get full access to All Models Are Wrong at allmodelsarewrong.online/subscribe

The Drivers Cooperative: Go Where Workers Are and Organize With Them Aug 12, 2021

Show notes

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 having a fundraiser here where you can invest in and support the workers' movement in the US directly while receiving potentially a 2.5x return.
For this interview, I spoke with Jason Prado (@jasonpjason), an ex-Silicon Valley developer and startup founder who left the Silicon Valley dream to assist the 2020 Bernie Sanders presidential campaign and current Chief Technologist of The Drivers Cooperative. He also has a Substack called Venture Commune.
During the interview we discuss his journey from techno-utopian thinking to socialism and his thesis for how tech workers should be helping other workers build power. Hint: go where workers are and organize with them rather than try to build tech in a vacuum. We also talk about some potential future ideas for leveraging crypto for The Drivers Cooperative similar to a DAO.
If you're interested in joining the Drivers Coop as a software developer, they are hiring! You can find open positions here.
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

Support the show

Subscribe on Substack - https://allmodelsarewrong.online/

Buy my book - https://linktr.ee/blockchainradicals

Get full access to All Models Are Wrong at allmodelsarewrong.online/subscribe

Sanctions are Economic Terrorism: Crypto in Iran Aug 08, 2021

Show notes

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 how the population is using it as a hedge for inflation. To get a better understanding on the situation, I spoke to Salman Sadeghi (@salman_sadeghi), a Masters student at GCAS studying cryptoeconomics based in Iran.
During the interview we discuss what is the experience on the ground for Iranians that are suffering under these sanctions, how he was personally effected by these sanctions, and his favorite left philosophers for understanding cryptocurrency. He also gives very interesting insight as to why the government recently banned bitcoin mining in the country purportedly because of the strain on the energy grid (hint: that wasn't the reason).
These sanctions are economic terrorism against innocent people and a form of imperialism by the United States and as Lenin once said, imperialism is the highest form of capitalism.
More Sources
My interview with the founder of GCAS, Creston Davis
Cryptocurrency Update from GCAS by Salman Sadeghi
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) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit and Discord to join the discussion.

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