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All Things Co-op: Blockchain and Cryptocurrency

[S5 E08] New

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In this episode of All Things Co-op, Kevin talks to blogger and podcaster “The Blockchain Socialist” about how blockchain technology can serve as a mechanism for worker cooperatives and the Left. Though often tied to cryptocurrency, blockchains can also function as a means by which cooperatives maintain data sovereignty, can engage with various economic actors outside of traditional capitalist structures, and can enable scalability, while retaining democratic governance of enterprises. Though blockchain is not going to fix every problem, it does offer up many interesting opportunities to shift away from traditional, hierarchical capitalist institutions. 

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Learn more about The Blockchain Socialist: https://theblockchainsocialist.com/; https://twitter.com/TBSocialist


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Showing 1 comment

  • Stephen Padgett
    commented 2022-02-02 13:22:28 -0500
    The best way to understand crypto currency, is to first understand bitcoin as a network software. This requires some thought work, but it can be understood by anyone who understands basic math ( 50% of people maybe ? ) . With this understanding, the bitcoin blockchain can be understood as well. The blockchain everyone is talking about is that which was invented by the bitcoin inventor Satoshi Nakamoto and its variations. Bitcoin in an engineering sense is completely disconnected from other economic systems. This is fact ! This is a revolution in money – it represents a form of money whose value cannot be controlled by any central authority, This is equivalent to gold or tobacco ( eg, tobacco was used as money among plains Indians in 1800s, Lewis and Clark carried hundreds of pounds of tobacco to buy food and cloths from the Indians ) .

    This was a great talk overall but until “blockchain” is demystified, any discussion about crypto currency and “blockchain” becomes overly complicated. This is a big topic but it becomes more interesting and understandable when one understands these things in terms of fundamental principles.

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