Techquitable

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 inseparable04:47 The hidden costs of democracy: governance as labor09:44 Attention scarcity vs. collective abundance12:59 “To look is to labor”: attention as work18:45 Designing ethically for people’s attention22:18 Case study 1: DAOstack and prediction markets for governance27:20 Case study 2: Stewards and delegated attention31:25 Case study 3: The limits of automation37:31 Five heuristics for designing attention-aware governance46:34 How to evolve attention economies as organizations scale56:27 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 explained09:29 - Why CLARITY’s framework is more durable13:53 - Incentivizing rights-less tokens: “race-to-the-bottom stuff”16:01 - The danger of bad incentives19:36 - VC token sales: 60% in initial Senate draft vs. 5–20% in House bill22:28 - Decentralized governance: protections in CLARITY vs. Senate26:37 - What “amazing” SEC exemptions could look like28:54 - SEC vs. CFTC: who should regulate token markets30:32 - The importance of a hard-coded decentralization test& much more.For more: Subscribe to the DRC's monthly report.

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 innovation04:03 - Why work on blockchain and emerging tech?07:50 - Developer liability and regulation16:37 - Building policy infrastructure into networks26:05 - How regulators keep pace with AI and crypto33:26 - Advice for students and early-career builders38:00 - 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 background01:35 - Why George launched Cap Hill Crypto03:31 - Educating DC policymakers about decentralization05:15 - Insights into House-Senate collaboration on stablecoin bills06:56 - Exploring the partisan dynamics of crypto policy in 202409:55 - 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

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 - Intro01:03 - Why MiCA mentions decentralization but doesn’t define it clearly04:58 - ESMA’s closest attempt: the “permissionless” standard06:31 - Critique of Denmark’s decentralization paper08:10 - 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 approach17:08 - How European regulators compare to the SEC on decentralization22:30 - Why the term “decentralization” may be overrated25:45 - A practical approach for lawmakers: reverse-engineer from DeFi best practices& much more.