The Ownership Economy

In this episode, Martin and Jahed sit down with Dr. Shaun Conway of IXO Protocol, to talk about the future of measuring, verifying, and delivering social impact with new mechanisms and designs enabled by blockchains. In the conversation, Dr. Conway leads us through his history working as a medical doctor, then transitioning to HIV / AIDS impact projects in his native South Africa, to working with...

In this episode we speak with Richard Bartlett, co-founder of the tech cooperative Loomio, and The Hum, management consultancy for organizations without managers. In the conversation, we cover his history and experience with patterns of decentralized organizing picked up from the punk scene and Occupy Wellington in the early 2010s, what he learned from those patterns, and how he co-created new org...

In this episode, Martin and Jahed talk with Dr. Hamid Rashid, a former director-general for multilateral economic affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Bangladesh, is Chief of Global Economic Monitoring at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. We take a bit of a detour from web3 and blockchain to discuss macroeconomics with Dr. Rashid. We dive into the functioning o...

In this episode, Martin and Jahed sit down with Joshua Tan, executive director of the Metagovernance Project and the DAOstar One, building standards and infrastructure for digital self-governance of communities. He also conducts applied research on collective intelligence and the governance of online communities. In the conversation, we cover institutional innovation in web3, modeling patterns for...

In this episode, Martin & Jahed sit down with Jeff Emmett, who is a prolific researcher at the Commons Stack, Token Engineering Commons, and BlockScience Labs, studying how to build community collaboration tools with blockchains. In the conversation, we cover how new forms of voting mechanisms can help communities make clearer, better decisions, measure and aggregate their own preferences, and...

In this episode, Martin & Jahed sit down with James Young from Abridged, the developers of the popular Collab.land software that many digital communities are using to engage, grow, and coordinate their members. In the conversation, James traces his arc from software engineer on Farmville in the early days of Zynga and how those experiences with Web 2.0 companies shaped his focus on the promise...

In this episode, Martin and Jahed chat with Mark Beylin, co-founder and CEO of Myco, where communities can bootstrap themselves with labor, co-own the business they launch, and not be beholden to the platform economics of the last wave of the internet. In the conversation, we cover how communities can use Myco’s unique LLC structure to protect themselves from liability while they extend ownership...

In this episode, Martin and Jahed sit down with Jason Prado, Director of Platform at the Driver’s Cooperative, to chat about the history of worker-owned cooperatives, the failure modes of the gig economy, and the challenges of building a cooperative in the current funding ecosystem. In the conversation, they cover the market competitiveness of the cooperative form, access to financing options that...

In this episode, Martin & Jahed sit down with Kevin Owocki, co-founder and CEO of Gitcoin, a community developing digital public goods that has put $52 million in the open source ecosystem's hands since its founding. In the conversation, Kevin covers how Gitcoin's mission came to be, why its important to fund public goods, and the bleeding edge of democratic governance innovations Gitcoin is s...

In this episode, Martin & Jahed sit down with Jason Wiener , an attorney at Jason Wiener p.c. He is a social entrepreneur, advisor and a long time board member to renowned digital platform cooperatives, including Stocksy United. In the conversation, Jason discusses the history of the cooperative movement and how this traditional structure can inform new organizational designs such as Decentral...

In this episode, Martin & Jahed sit down with Jordi Riulas, angel investor, entrepreneur, and board member at EthicHub. In the conversation, Jordi covers how EthicHub's DeFi platform is leading the regenerative finance movement by helping investors provide loans to unbanked coffee cooperatives in Mexico, creating a circular economy for their products in the EU and the US, and turning over owne...

In this episode, Martin & Jahed sit down with Pia Mancini , co-founder and CEO of Open Collective. In the conversation, we explore Pia's early work broadening access to democratic governance and starting a digital-first political party in Argentina, borderless democracy, commons-based projects, and the future of Open Collective as a community-owned project as it explores Nathan Schneider and c...

In this episode, Martin & Jahed sit down with Nathan Schneider , Assistant Professor of Media Studies at UC-Boulder, the co-author of Exit to Community , and principal invesigator of the Metagovernance Project . In the conversation, we cover the history of the cooperative movement, what DAOs and cooperatives can learn from each other, the perils of digital governance design, and the future of...