Safeguarding Ethereum's Soul: Protocol Guild and governing the digital commons

The Blockchain Socialist

In this episode I spoke with Trent Van Epps, who is part of the Ethereum Foundation and a key member of Protocol Guild (PG). PG is a collective of 152 Ethereum core protocol contributors who are curated to receive public good funding from ecosystem sponsors. In turn, this is meant to balance incentives for contributors to work on the Ethereum protocol and prevent high contributor turnover.

During the interview we discuss how Ethereum is actually governed more publicly than people realize, the need for alternatives to venture capital, and how other digital commons like the Linux OS is governed. We also deep dive into how PG works and why their vision for public goods funding is different than others.
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1. Safeguarding Ethereum's Soul: Protocol Guild and governing the digital commons (00:00:00)

2. Understanding Ethereum's Governance Structures (00:00:09)

3. Ethereum as a Digital Commons (00:14:55)

4. Polycentrism and Funding in Ethereum (00:21:27)

5. Cultural Artifacts and Funding via Protocols (00:36:55)

6. ETFs and Public Goods Funding in Ethereum (00:49:19)

7. Protocol Guild (01:05:27)