The Blockchain Socialist

I spoke to Nader Dabit, longtime crypto developer and educator who built at Aave, Lens, and Developer DAO, about what it felt like to be at the frontier of Web3 and why he eventually left.
Nader spent years genuinely believing in decentralized social and censorship resistant platforms, and we dig into why those ideas haven't found their footing: the brutal difficulty of onboarding people, a culture that kept rewarding hype over substance, and watching the space forgive grifters over and over while builders burned out. We also get into the moment AI clicked and why late 2024 felt like a real turning point, what agentic coding does to the software engineering profession, and whether the crypto-AI intersection is real or just the latest way to raise money. And Nader shares some thoughts as a Palestinian American on why censorship resistance still matters to him even if the tools haven't delivered on it yet.
This episode is sponsored by NYM, the world's most private VPN. Unlike traditional VPNs, Nym uses a decentralized mixnet to scramble your internet data — hiding who you're talking to, when, and how often. You can switch between full mixnet mode for maximum anonymity, or a faster VPN mode for everyday use.
Use the code blockchainsocialist when signing up and get an extra month!
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you find content like this important consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@[email protected]) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit. 
Support the show
ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.

The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

I spoke to Nick Vincent, assistant professor of computing science at Simon Fraser University and author of the Data Leverage substack, about what it actually means that AI systems are built on the collective output of humanity's digital labor and what we can do about it.
Nick has spent years researching how data functions as a bargaining tool, and we get into the nitty gritty of what that looks like in practice: data strikes, data poisoning, and redirecting your data to competitors as forms of collective action. We also discuss the explosion of agentic coding tools like Claude Code, what they mean for software engineers and entry-level workers, and why the very thing that makes LLMs so powerful — their dependence on collective human data — is also what makes them uniquely vulnerable to organized pressure from below.
This episode is sponsored by NYM, the world's most private VPN. Unlike traditional VPNs, Nym uses a decentralized mixnet to scramble your internet data — hiding who you're talking to, when, and how often. You can switch between full mixnet mode for maximum anonymity, or a faster VPN mode for everyday use.
Use the code blockchainsocialist when signing up and get an extra month!
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you find content like this important consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@[email protected]) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit. 
Support the show
ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.

The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

I spoke to UnhappyBen, head of growth and marketing at Peer (formerly known as ZKP2P) which is a service that allows you to officially delete Coinbase and every other centralized exchange account you may have. Peer is protocol that allows people to do P2P trading of crypto assets and fiat through neobanks like Revolut, Venmo, Wise, etc. while providing a high degree of privacy using zero knowledge proofs.
In case you didn't see it, I spoke about the solution in a recent video of mine where I explained how I have been helping people send funds to those in Gaza using it. We discuss how exactly it works, the political implications of what they've built and what's coming next.
This episode is sponsored by NYM, the world's most private VPN. Unlike traditional VPNs, Nym uses a decentralized mixnet to scramble your internet data — hiding who you're talking to, when, and how often. You can switch between full mixnet mode for maximum anonymity, or a faster VPN mode for everyday use.
Use the code blockchainsocialist when signing up and get an extra month!
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you find content like this important consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@[email protected]) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit. 
Support the show
ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.

The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

I spoke to Boris Mamlyuk, co-founder of Clean App an AI-powered, crowdsourced environmental app designed for users to report waste and hazards in real-time, essentially a system for reporting civic feedback. 
I had him on to talk about the app which boasts over 1 million installs, his critique of the crypto libertarian project's capture by Wall Street interests, and how decentralized technologies can strengthen the civic sphere against both state surveillance and corporate data monopolies. We also discuss the potential for blockchain to enable municipal socialism and community coordination in the wake Mamdani's election in NYC.
This episode is sponsored by NYM, the world's most private VPN. Unlike traditional VPNs, Nym uses a decentralized mixnet to scramble your internet data — hiding who you're talking to, when, and how often. You can switch between full mixnet mode for maximum anonymity, or a faster VPN mode for everyday use.
Use the code blockchainsocialist when signing up and get an extra month!
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you find content like this important consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@[email protected]) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit. 
Support the show
ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.

The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.

I spoke to Tan Zhi Xuan, Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore's Department of Computer Science and founder of the Cooperative Intelligence and Systems Lab, a research group confronting the gap between the rationalist AI alignment discourse focused on superintelligence and what is actually happening.
I had her on to talk about her work on cooperative AI (designing AI systems and institutions that promote beneficial cooperation among AI-empowered actors rather than conflict), her critique of techno-solutionist AI alignment approaches that ignore class interests and political economy, and how blockchain technologies might enable decentralized governance for a future of specialized AI agents. We also talk about the approach that Senator Bernie Sanders has taken recently in his critiques of AI companies.
This episode is sponsored by NYM, the world's most private VPN. Unlike traditional VPNs, Nym uses a decentralized mixnet to scramble your internet data — hiding who you're talking to, when, and how often. You can switch between full mixnet mode for maximum anonymity, or a faster VPN mode for everyday use.
Use the code blockchainsocialist when signing up and get an extra month!
If you liked the podcast be sure to give it a review on your preferred podcast platform. If you find content like this important consider donating to my Patreon starting at just $3 per month. It takes quite a lot of my time and resources so any amount helps. Follow me on Twitter (@TBSocialist) or Mastodon (@[email protected]) and join the r/CryptoLeftists subreddit. 
Support the show
ICYMI I've written a book about, no surprise, blockchains through a left political framework! The title is Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It and is being published through Repeater Books, the publishing house started by Mark Fisher who’s work influenced me a lot in my thinking.

The book is officially published and you use this linktree to find where you can purchase the book based on your region / country.