The attention economy and online governance, with Nathan Schneider

The attention economy and online governance, with Nathan Schneider

Nathan Schneider (@ntnsndr), professor of media studies at the University of Colorado Boulder and director of the Media Economies Design Lab, joined the Decentralization Research Center's podcast to discuss his new paper, “Online Governance Surfaces and Attention Economies,” how attention functions as labor, and what it means to design governance systems that respect people’s time and focus. Timestamps: 02:31 Why attention and governance are inseparable 04:47 The hidden costs of democracy: governance as labor 09:44 Attention scarcity vs. collective abundance 12:59 “To look is to labor”: attention as work 18:45 Designing ethically for people’s attention 22:18 Case study 1: DAOstack and prediction markets for governance 27:20 Case study 2: Stewards and delegated attention 31:25 Case study 3: The limits of automation 37:31 Five heuristics for designing attention-aware governance 46:34 How to evolve attention economies as organizations scale 56:27 Upcoming projects from Nathan’s lab and Metagov

The importance of control criteria in crypto legislation with Gabriel Shapiro

Gabriel Shapiro, a crypto lawyer and founder of MetaLeX, joins the Decentralization Research Center’s Connor Spelliscy to discuss market structure legislation, limiting principles for Howey, ancillary assets, and the risks of incentivizing useless tokens. Timestamps: 02:37 - Are there limiting principles for Howey? 06:11 - Prior Senate draft vs. CLARITY Act: ancillary assets explained 09:29 - Why CLARITY’s framework is more durable 13:53 - Incentivizing rights-less tokens: “race-to-the-bottom stuff” 16:01 - The danger of bad incentives 19:36 - VC token sales: 60% in initial Senate draft vs. 5–20% in House bill 22:28 - Decentralized governance: protections in CLARITY vs. Senate 26:37 - What “amazing” SEC exemptions could look like 28:54 - SEC vs. CFTC: who should regulate token markets 30:32 - The importance of a hard-coded decentralization test & much more. For more: Subscribe to the DRC's monthly report [https://drc.beehiiv.com/].

Rules for the next generation of financial infrastructure, with Jane Khodarkovsky and Nikhil Raghuveera

Jane Khodarkovsky, a former federal prosecutor who is now a partner at Arktouros, and Nikhil Raghuveera, co-founder and CEO of Predicate, join the Decentralization Research Center’s Tony Douglas to discuss regulation by enforcement, developer liability, privacy tools, AI agents, and how to responsibly build the next generation of financial infrastructure. Timestamps: 01:42 - From public service to blockchain innovation 04:03 - Why work on blockchain and emerging tech? 07:50 - Developer liability and regulation 16:37 - Building policy infrastructure into networks 26:05 - How regulators keep pace with AI and crypto 33:26 - Advice for students and early-career builders 38:00 - Closing thoughts and reflections & much more.

Crypto education in Washington, with George Leonardo

How does bipartisan education occur in Washington? Where can it be improved? George Leonardo (@CapHillCrypto) of Cap Hill Crypto joins the Techquitable podcast to discuss what he's seeing on the Hill. Timestamps:  00:00 - Introduction and background 01:35 - Why George launched Cap Hill Crypto 03:31 - Educating DC policymakers about decentralization 05:15 - Insights into House-Senate collaboration on stablecoin bills 06:56 - Exploring the partisan dynamics of crypto policy in 2024 09:55 - George's outlook for crypto policy this Congress & much more.  You can also listen to the full episode on the podcast player of your choice, here: https://podfollow.com/1730611363 [https://podfollow.com/1730611363]

Decentralization under MiCA, with Jonathan Galea

Jonathan Galea (@ImpermanentGain), counsel at Cahill, Gordon, & Reindel LLP, joins Connor Spelliscy (@c_spelliscy) to break down the evolving definition of decentralization under MiCA and the broader EU regulatory framework. They explore what “sufficient decentralization” means in Europe, how regulators like ESMA and national authorities like Denmark’s FSA are approaching DeFi, and what U.S. policymakers can learn from the EU's years-long legislative process. Timestamps: 00:00 - Intro 01:03 - Why MiCA mentions decentralization but doesn’t define it clearly 04:58 - ESMA’s closest attempt: the “permissionless” standard 06:31 - Critique of Denmark’s decentralization paper 08:10 - The importance of the definition of a CASP (crypto asset service provider) 13:30 - Will DeFi see real exemptions under MiCA? 14:58 - The EU's risk-based, “light touch” DeFi approach 17:08 - How European regulators compare to the SEC on decentralization 22:30 - Why the term “decentralization” may be overrated 25:45 - A practical approach for lawmakers: reverse-engineer from DeFi best practices & much more.