Nadia Asparouhova: on public goods & peer production

Into the Bytecode

Nadia Asparouhova is an independent researcher. She previously wrote about her research on open-source communities in "Working in Public", and more recently, has been researching the history of and approaches to philanthropy - which she defines with this phrase “if venture capital is risk capital for private goods, philanthropy is risk capital for public goods”.

In this conversation, we talked about public goods from this broader perspective. We talked about how previous generations have thought about this question, and how the tech ecosystem outside of crypto are grappling with this today. We talked about the second-order effects of wealth booms which have happened in both tech and crypto, how peer production happens, and the role that intrinsic versus extrinsic rewards might play in the development of crypto protocols.

Timestamps:
(00:00:00) - intro
(00:02:01) - working as an independent researcher
(00:06:09) - understanding wealth booms in tech and crypto
(00:13:01) - the unique perspectives of each successive community
(00:25:46) - the right (and wrong) question to ask
(00:34:41) - the landscape of public goods provisioning
(00:39:22) - innovative philanthropic funding models
(00:45:35) - the first wave of open source communities and crypto
(00:54:42) - different classes of stakeholders
(01:05:00) - research methodology and tools for thought

Links:
Nadia Asparouhova - https://twitter.com/nayafia
Nadia’s website - https://nadia.xyz/
“Working in Public” - https://www.amazon.com/dp/0578675862/
Gitcoin - https://gitcoin.co/

Into the Bytecode:
- Sina Habibian on X: https://twitter.com/sinahab
- Sina Habibian on Farcaster - https://warpcast.com/sinahab
- Into the Bytecode: https://intothebytecode.com

Disclaimer: this podcast is for informational purposes only. It is not financial advice or a recommendation to buy or sell securities. The host and guests may hold positions in the projects discussed.