In my last blog post I shared my optimism about blockchain. I felt it was important to expand on the pessimistic view as well. Truthfully, I hold both perspectives in tension and it is a continual internal struggle of deciding which is most authentic and true at any given time.

Like many technologists, blockchain technology starting with Bitcoin has been fascinating. I spent my share of 2017-2018 participating in speculation alongside tech coworkers, though only with money I was willing to lose (and I did lose most of it). I watched most of Tim Roughgarden's lectures about the math and theory behind blockchain, much of which was a repeat of my Computer Science masters degree coursework in distributed systems. I've also explored making my own smart contracts, learning a lot from this excellent video.

This blog post is Part 3 in a series about platform cooperatives and blockchain. Read the series introduction here.

This blog post is Part 2 in a series about platform cooperatives and blockchain. Read the series introduction here.

This blog post is Part 1 in a series about platform cooperatives and blockchain. Read the series introduction here.

Introduction to a blog post series reflecting on what platform cooperatives and blockchain-based decentralized applications can learn from one another.