Governance Futures

In this final episode of Governance Futures Season 1, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Anke Liu, Governance Lead at the Stellar Development Foundation (SDF), about Neural Quorum Governance — a novel mechanism co-developed with BlockScience to make community funding more equitable, modular, and participatory. As the Ecosystem Growth Lead at the Stellar Development Foundation, Anke Liu (X: anke_g...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Isaac Patka about the evolving landscape of security in decentralized systems. Isaac Patka is a developer and founder in the Ethereum ecosystem specializing in security and compliance infrastructure. He is the co-founder of Shield3, which conducts incident response training through Wargames exercises for major DeFi and infr...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Dr. Joachim Schwerin. Joachim Schwerin is PhD economist, blockchain expert and privacy activist with 35 years of experience in academia, the public sector and metapolitical networks. He is also Principal Economist in the unit in charge of Responsible Business Conduct within the Directorate-General Internal Market, Industry,...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Amber Case (Cyborg Anthropologist), technologist, author, and founder of the Calm Technology Institute. Case explores how humans and technology co-evolve — a field she helped pioneer as one of the world’s leading voices in cyborg anthropology. The conversation dives into lessons from Case’s DAO Game, a simulation designed t...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Seth Frey, computational social scientist and researcher of governance, common pool resources, and online communities. Seth brings insights from years of studying how people self-organize — from Minecraft servers to DAOs — and explores what digital communities can learn from Ostrom’s theories of commons management. The conv...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Mike Cooper. Mike Cooper is an experienced social scientist with 17 years of leadership in impact strategy and measurement for numerous multilateral, bilateral, and other social impact groups, including the World Bank, various UN agencies, USAID, FCDO, MCC, and others. He specializes in the curation and use of evidence for...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Jen, DAO Comms Lead at Lido, about the launch of Lido’s dual governance model. Jen shares her journey into governance, her perspective on decentralization, and how Lido is addressing value alignment between token holders and stETH users. The conversation explores how dual governance gives stETH holders veto power, the role...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene speak with Puja Ohlhaver about her latest paper on community currencies and the PCARE model. She explains how her work builds on earlier frameworks, critiques one-token-one-vote models, and offers new approaches for balancing money, votes, attention, and influence. Puja Ohlhaver is a lawyer, technologist, and innovator focused on reno...

In this episode of Governance Futures, hosts Jamilya and Eugene sit down with Mateusz Rzeszowski and Raam Chandrasekharan of the Arbitrum Foundation to discuss Arbitrum’s evolving governance model. They trace the DAO’s journey from its “big bang” launch to today’s more structured system, highlighting initiatives like the new Operations Company and Arbitrum-aligned entities designed to improve acco...

In this episode, we sit down with Vaughn McKenzie-Landell to explore how market-driven decision-making can transform DAO governance. Vaughn is CEO & co-founder of Butter, who are bringing Information Finance to Ethereum — starting with Futarchy. He started his career at Dow Jones but exited TradFi after a google search in 2009 delivered him into the BitcoinTalk forum. Together, we break down B...

In this episode, we sit down with Spencer Graham and Nicholas Naraghi, cofounders of Hats Protocol, to explore what it really takes to make DAO governance work. Spencer Graham is a cofounder of Hats Protocol and has been working for five years on making DAOs actually effective. Nicholas Naraghi is a cofounder of Hats Protocol, DAO true believer since 2017, BTC since 2011. Together, they break down...

In this episode of Governance Futures, Eugene and Jamilya speak with Anthony Leutenegger, CEO of Aragon, about tooling, regulation and DAO governance today. We dig into why ownership and control matter more than vague notions of decentralization, and how design choices like Aragon OSx are reshaping the way DAOs govern themselves. We also explore lessons from experiments like Lido’s dual governance...

In this episode, hosts Jamilya Kamalova and Eugene Leventhal sit down with Rafael Fernández and Shelby Steidl from ZK Sync to unpack one of the most forward-thinking governance frameworks in Web3 today. Rafa is a Director and Governance Lead at the ZKsync Association, where he supports protocol governance design, token mechanics, and operations. His work spans the entire governance system design,...

In this episode of Governance Futures, Eugene and Jamilya speak with Dennison Bertram, co-founder and CEO of Tally, about the evolving role of regulation, DAOs, and decentralization. We dig into the implications of the Clarity Act, why tooling isn't the only thing DAOs need, and how state alignment is becoming essential to scale Web3 governance. This is a thoughtful, provocative conversation for a...

In this episode, together with James and Dani we dive deep into the revolutionary concept of "liquefaction" and its profound implications for Web3 identity, governance, and ownership. We explore how this groundbreaking research challenges fundamental assumptions about blockchain addresses, private keys, and digital identity, while examining the emergence of Dark DAOs as anonymous voting cartels th...

In this episode, together with Ellie Rennie we dive deep into the intricacies of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs). We explore the dynamics of human coordination versus automated systems, the impact of AI on DAOs, and the critical components that make or break decentralized communities. Ellie Rennie is a Professor at RMIT University. Her research is examining permissionless systems and...

In this episode of The Governance Futures Podcast, Eugene Leventhal & Jamilya Kamalova speak with Angela Walch about the promises and pitfalls of replacing failing institutions with technologies like crypto and AI. Angela discusses the collapse of rule of law, the myth of “tech as governance,” and the limits of algorithmic solutions to political problems. Together, we explore how protocol syst...

In this special 'About Us' episode of Governance Futures, we — Jamilya Kamalova and Eugene Leventhal — share a bit about who we are, what brought us into the world of decentralized governance and Web3, and why this space matters to us. We talk about our personal journeys, how we each got involved in this work, and what excites us most about the future of governance. This episode lays the foundatio...

In this episode of The Governance Futures Podcast, hosts Jamilya Kamalova and Eugene Leventhal sit down with Eric Alston to explore the evolving dynamics of governance. Eric is a Scholar in Residence in the Finance Division at CU Boulder. His research and teaching draw from institutional analysis, law and economics, and constitutional design. He pursues questions ranging from institutional and org...

Welcome to Governance Futures - a podcast where we explore how governance works (and fails) in Web3 and beyond. Hosted by Eugene Leventhal and Jamilya Kamalova, each episode dives deep into the evolving principles of coordination, accountability, and collective decision-making in decentralized ecosystems. This is the trailer for the forthcoming podcast. Subscribe to get the first episode of our fi...