SCRF Interviews: Recent Episodes
SCRF
SCRF Interviews podcast from the Smart Contract Research Forum (SCRF) brings together researchers and practitioners to delve into pressing research problems in web3.
Part 7 of our 7-part series with the team at BlockScience features a conversation with Jessica Zartler, Communications Advisor and Researcher at BlockScience. Jessica delves into various areas, including:
What is “decentralization”?
What is “progressive decentralization”?
What is the relationship between decentralization and centralization?
How do decentralization, ethics, and regulation overlap?
Jessica Zartler, Communications Advisor and Researcher at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science/team
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JessicaZartler
Eugene Leventhal, Podcast Host and Executive Director of SCRF
Website: https://scrf.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbeats1
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
Part 6 of our 7-part series with the team at BlockScience features a conversation with Michael Zargham, founder and CEO of BlockScience, and Jeff Emmett, Communication Lead at BlockScience. They delve into a variety of areas, including:
The meaning of “computer-aided governance” (CAG) in the web3 space
CAG compared to computer-aided tools for other disciplines
CAG’s role in BlockScience’s work
The necessity of mapping the terrain before using CAG tools
The inherently political nature of policy decisions that allocate resources
How CAG makes the decision-making process more visible
Dr. Michael Zargham, founder and CEO of BlockScience
Website: https://block.science/team
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mZargham
Jeff Emmett, Communications Lead at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science/team
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffemmett
Eugene Leventhal, Podcast Host and Executive Director of SCRF
Website: https://scrf.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbeats1
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
Part 5 of our 7-part series with the team at BlockScience features a conversation with Eric Christopher Alston, a contributor to BlockScience as well as a Scholar in Residence at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Kelsie Nabben, Lead Social Scientist at BlockScience. They delve into a variety of areas, including:
Defining “governance” and contextualizing its importance within groups
Identifying current challenges and opportunities within the space
Acknowledging prospective vulnerabilities in governance
Sharing strategies for creating and maintaining resilient governance systems
Discussing some emerging methodologies and practice
Eric Christopher Alston, Scholar in Residence, University of Colorado at Boulder
Website: https://block.science/team
Twitter: https://twitter.com/IncompleteRules
Kelsie Nabben, Lead Social Scientist at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science/team
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kelsiemvn
Eugene Leventhal, Podcast Host and Executive Director of SCRF
Website: https://scrf.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbeats1
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
Part 4 of our 7-part series with the team at BlockScience features a conversation with Senior Research Scientist Jamsheed Shorish and BlockScience Founder and CEO Dr. Michael Zargham. They delve into a variety of areas, including:
Defining “formal methods”
The need for validation and verification
Generalized dynamical systems (GDS)
The application of formal methods in system design
Jamsheed Shorish, Senior Research Scientist at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jshorish
Michael Zargham, Founder and CEO at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mZargham
Eugene Leventhal, Podcast Host and Executive Director of SCRF
Website: https://scrf.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbeats1
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
Part 3 of our 7-part series with the team at BlockScience features a conversation with Senior Engineer Danilo Bernardineli and Communications Lead Jeff Emmett. They delve into the role of models in data, computational methods versus analytical and empirical methods, and using computational simulations to explore uncertainties and help inform decisions.
Danilo Bernardineli, Senior Engineer at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://twitter.com/danilolessa
Jeff Emmett, Communications Lead at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffemmett
Eugene Leventhal, Podcast host and Executive Director of SCRF
Website: https://scrf.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbeats1
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
BlockScience is a company that does analytical modeling in the distributed ledger (i.e., blockchain) field, working on complex cybernetic systems. David and Kelsie’s conversation explored a variety of topics, including:
What is measurement?
What can we measure?
What do we do with what we measure?
How can measurement data inform decisions?
David Sission, Senior Engineer at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://www.linkedin.com/in/david-f-sisson/
Kelsie Nabben, Lead Social Scientist at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://twitter.com/kelsiemvn
Eugene Leventhal, Podcast host & Executive Director of SCRF
Website: https://scrf.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbeats1
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
Our 7-part series featuring the team from BlockScience kicks off with Matt Barlin, Lead Systems Engineer, and Jeff Emmett, Communications Lead. Their wide-ranging conversation spans engineering ethics, its application to real-life projects, and the difference between web2 and web3 engineering methodologies.
Matt Barlin, Lead Systems Engineer at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MattBarlin
Jeff Emmett, Communications Lead at BlockScience
Website: https://block.science
Twitter: https://twitter.com/jeffemmett
Eugene Leventhal, Podcast host & Executive Director of SCRF
Website: https://scrf.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/bbeats1
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
The second season of SCRF Interviews kicks off with a special audio-only recording of John, the Governance Operator at SafeDAO, talking with Renee Davis, the founder of talentDAO. Their discussion covers how SafeDAO was spun out of Gnosis Safe, why it was founded, and SafeDAO’s governance model. The interview was recorded live on the floor of the Cryptoeconomics and Governance Community Hub in Bogota in October 2022.
John of SafeDAO
Website: https://gnosis-safe.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/safe
Renee Davis
Website: https://talentDAO.io
Twitter: https://twitter.com/talentDAO_
If you want to learn more about SCRF, check out:
The Forum: https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/
Discord: https://discord.gg/BPqN5mjzeC
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SCRForum
Welcome to Season #2 of SCRF Interviews, which returns Wed, Oct 26th.
This season begins with a special episode recorded live from Bogota, discussing SafeDAO governance. We follow that with a 7-episode deep dive into the work of the BlockScience team who built an open-sourced cadCAD (complex adaptive dynamics Computer-Aided Design).
For a glimpse into the season, we will feature:
- SafeDAO Governance with John Governance Operator and Core Contributor at SafeDAO, and Renee Davis, the Founder of talentDAO.
- Engineering Methodology with Matthew Barlin, the Lead Systems Engineer at BlockScience, and Jeff Emmett, the Communication Lead.
- Intro to Data & Measurement in Web3 with David Sisson, Senior Engineer at BlockScience, and Kelsie Nabben, the Lead Social Scientist.
- Computational Science in Web3 with Danilo Bernardineli, Senior Engineer at BlockScience, and Jeff Emmett, the Communication Lead.
- Role of Formal Methods in Complex Systems Design with Jamsheed Shorish, Senior Research Scientist, and Michael Zargham, CEO and Founder of BlockScience.
- Challenges & Opportunities in Governance with Kelsie Nabben, the Lead Social Scientist at BlockScience, and Eric Christopher Alston, Scholar In Residence and Faculty Director at University of Colorado Boulder.
- Computer Aided Governance with Michael Zargham, CEO and Founder of BlockScience, and Jeff Emmett, the Communication Lead.
- Community and Governance with Jessica Zartler, Communications Advisor & Researcher at BlockScience.
Learn more about SCRF at https://scrf.io/
Join forum episode discussions at https://www.smartcontractresearch.org/tag/scrf-interviews
Twitter: @SCRForum
The SCRF Interviews team is taking a break until mid-July to work on some exciting content. Stay tuned for new approaches to blockchain research, exciting interviews, and much more. In the meantime, why not join our Discord, follow us on Twitter or leave a comment on the Smart Contract Research Forum?
Discord - https://discord.gg/asvaWTn6vn
Twitter - https://twitter.com/scrforum
Forum - https://www.smartcontractresearch.org
This episode of SCRF Interviews is the second in a mini-series focused on DAO Star One, a “new alliance of DAO builders racing to build standards that will realize the promise of this emerging technology.” At issue: how do you standardize data in DAOs to facilitate the creation of tooling without over-defining what a DAO is. Featuring Gnosis Guild founder Kei Kreutler and Blockcscience founder Michael Zargham. Hosted by Eugene Leventhal, head of operations at the Smart Contract Research Forum.
Kei Kreutler
Website: ourmachine.net
Twitter: @keikreutler
Michael Zargham
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mczargham/
Twitter: @mathemagicianMZ
DAO Standards - DAOStar One (Ep.10)
The first of two episodes dedicated to DAOStar One. At issue: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) lack a common technical standard which would make it easier for developers to create tooling for DAOs, and give DAOs the same level of legibility and interoperability that other web3 entities like NFTs currently enjoy. Featuring a discussion between Metagov Executive Director Joshua Tan and Isaac Patka, Co-creator of Logos DAO and contributor to Moloch Mystics. Moderated by SCRF’s Head of Operations, Eugene Leventhal.
Joshua Tan
Twitter: @joshuaztan
Website: joshuatan.com/research
Metagov: https://metagov.org/
Isaac Patka
Twitter: @isaacpatka
Website: logos.xyz
Moloch Mystics: https://github.com/Moloch-Mystics
This episode features a conversation between Research Hub’s co-founder and Head of Operations Patrick Joyce and Research Hub Community Lead Anton Lebed, moderated by SCRF’s Head of Operations, Eugene Leventhal. At issue: How can web3 help decentralized communities like Research Hub incentivize healthy research behaviors and enable decentralized science?
Patrick Joyce
Research Hub - https://researchhub.com
Twitter - @joycesticks
Anton Lebed
Research Hub - https://researchhub.com
Twitter - @coglebed
This week, Media Studies Ph.D. student at CU Boulder Eric Barry Drasin discusses conceptual art and the decentralized art object framework that he created. At issue: one of the key maneuvers in conceptual art is dematerialization of the art object, which refers to emphasizing the thought process even when it renders the object itself (such as painting on a canvas) obsolete. Drasin’s Decentralized Art Object Framework (DAOF) is a legal and technological framework that uses the blockchain so that it can store coded sets of instructions that would become art objects and allow both transfer and “rematerialization.” As the DAOF framework mostly replicates traditional art contract law, Drasin’s artwork uses another conceptual art maneuver; he presents several works that reimagine and interrogate reality using the framework that he created. Hosted by James Brandon McGirk, an editor at the Smart Contract Research Forum.
Eric Barry Drasin
Website: https://www.ericbarrydrasin.com/
Student site: https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/graduate-students/media-studies/eric-barry-drasin
Dungeonmaster LLC: https://linktr.ee/dungeonmasterllc
MFA Thesis “Exit Strategy” Exhibition Talk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYVUgT0hO80
James Brandon McGirk
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/themcgirkeffect
Substack: https://OurCyberpunkNow.Substack.com
This week we took a departure from our usual format to answer some questions from the Smart Contract Research Forum (SCRF) community. SCRF is the result of conversations between Chainlink founder Sergey Nazarov and Richard Brown and has evolved to become a community devoted to solving the last mile problem in research–how do you connect research to the people who need it, and engage with it? Moderated by Eugene Leventhal, featuring questions from Paul Zube, Larry Bates, and Lorretta Sackey.
Smart Contract Research Forum
twitter.com/scrforum
https://smartcontractresearch.org
SCRF Interviews | Resilient Treasury Management - Daniel Ospina and Darcy Allen (Ep. 6)
The third episode of our treasury management mini-series co-hosted with RMIT features a conversation between governance expert Daniel Ospina and RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub senior research fellow Dr. Darcy Allen. At issue: how can treasuries remain secure in the chaos of web3? How can tooling help navigate this complexity? Blockchain Innovation Hub faculty member Kelsie Nabben and SCRF’s Operations Lead Eugene Leventhal moderated the event.
Daniel Ospina
Twitter: @_Daniel_Ospina
Website: bit.ly/joinrndao
Darcy Allen
Twitter: @DrDarcyAllen
Website: darcyallen.com
Kelsie Nabben
Twitter: @kelsiemvn
Website: kelsienabben.academia.edu
In the second episode of our treasury management and funding public goods mini-series co-hosted with RMIT, distinguished RMIT Professor Jason Potts talks to Gitcoin founder Scott Moore. Moderated by RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub co-founder Chris Berg. At issue: How should a treasury be spent? How is a treasury in a web3 organization different from a traditional corporation’s treasury?
Jason Potts
Twitter: @profjasonpotts
Faculty page: https://www.rmit.edu.au/contact/staff-contacts/academic-staff/p/potts-distinguished-professor-jason
Scott Moore
Twitter: @notscottmoore
Gitcoin: https://linktr.ee/Gitcoin
Welcome to the first episode in a new mini-series, co-hosted by RMIT, focusing on treasury management and funding public goods. This week Yearn Finance’s Bull Trapper and RMIT Blockchain Innovation Hub senior research fellow Dr. Darcy Allen, chat with RMIT’s Chris Berg and SCRF’s Eugene Leventhal. At issue: what unique challenges does treasury management present for web3 and how do you balance diversification with growth and other long-term goals?
Bull Trapper
Twitter: @iearnfinance
Dr. Darcy Allen
Personal website: https://darcyallen.com/
Blockchain Innovation Hub: https://rmitblockchain.io/darcy-allen
Twitter: @DrDarcyAllen
What unique challenges does treasury management present for web3? A new mini-series co-hosted with @blockchainrmit the first episode features a conversation between @iearnfinance’s Bull Trapper and @drdarcyallen, moderated by @chrisberg and @bbeats1
The third episode of our “Culture and Incentivization'' mini-series featured a conversation between Ellie Rennie, a Professor and Future Fellow at RMIT University, and Coordinape’s Zach Anderson, moderated by SCRF’s Head of Operations, Eugene Leventhal.
The episode takes into question how the two interviewees’ experiences with incentivizing individuals through their respective communities have fared and what they believe the future will hold for DAOs when it comes to interfacing culture with tools built on human interaction.
How does one receive the most fair and efficient level of reward for their work? Are hierarchies necessary? Or applicable to DAOs? Both professionals will defend and deliberate on these topics within this episode.
Ellie:
Twitter - @ElinorRennie
Website: ellierennie.medium.com
Faculty page: https://digital-ethnography.com/people/ellie-rennie/
Zach
Twitter - @fifthworldzach
Coordinape: coordinape.com
This week Head of Soft Governance at The Token Engineering Commons Livia Deschermayer and UC Davis Assistant Professor Seth Frey discuss the intersection of onboarding, culture and incentivization. At issue: what role does culture-building play in creating communities, how much can be predetermined and how can new members begin contributing to this culture? The second episode in a three-part mini-series on culture and incentivization.
Livia Deschermayer
The Token Engineering Commons - https://tecommons.org/
Twitter: @_liviade
Seth Frey
UC Davis Faculty page: https://communication.ucdavis.edu/people/sethfrey
Website: https://enfascination.com/weblog/professional
Twitter: @enfascination
This week Professor of Media Studies at CU Boulder Nathan Schneider and Radicle’s Head of Community Abbey Titcomb discuss Culture and Cryptoeconomics. At issue: With so much focus on incentivization in web3 communities, what happens to culture? How much emphasis should decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) place on creating mandates and developing a shared sense of community or vision? The first in a three-part mini-series on culture and incentivization.
Nathan
Faculty page: https://www.colorado.edu/cmci/people/media-studies/nathan-schneider
Twitter: @ntnsndr
CommunityRule: https://communityrule.info/
Metagov: https://metagov.org/
Abbey
Radicle: https://radicle.xyz/
Twitter: @abbey_titcomb