Skip to content

Guest Talk with Trent Van Epps | Capital and Enclosure in Software Commons: Linux & Ethereum

Talk Trent Van Epps

Trent Van Epps examines how capital structures impact software commons and public goods production, drawing on his experience with Protocol Guild—a collective funding mechanism for Ethereum contributors. He presents comparative case studies of Linux and Ethereum to analyze the dynamics of enclosure and capital in open-source software development.

Related resources

Talk

Guest Talk with Evan Miyazono | Putting Protocols into Practice

Evan Miyazono, head of research at Protocol Labs, discusses putting protocols into practice by examining three phases: lessons learned from past protocol development at Protocol Labs (creators of IPFS and Filecoin), current work on funding mechanisms and coordination protocols for public goods, and speculative future protocol designs. He frames protocols through the lens of mechanism design and shares observations from practical experience deploying decentralized infrastructure at scale.

coordination-protocols decentralized-infrastructure governance

Evan Miyazono

Talk

Atoms, Institutions, Blockchains

Josh Stark from the Ethereum Foundation discusses the concept of 'hardness' and how blockchains create unique properties compared to other systems. He explores the relationship between atoms, institutions, and blockchains, examining what makes blockchain protocols special and how this framing applies to protocol research more broadly.

blockchains ethereum-governance governance

Josh Stark

Interview

Bridge Atlas - Episode 3: Commons | Yancey Strickler & Trent Van Epps

Yancey Strickler and Trent Van Epps discuss Ethereum through the lens of the commons in this Bridge Atlas episode. Trent, who coordinates protocol development for the Ethereum Foundation and leads Protocol Guild (a collective funding mechanism for 200+ core contributors), and Yancey, a writer focused on protocol governance, explore how decentralized systems function as shared resources and the coordination mechanisms required to sustain them.

bridge-atlas collective-funding commons

Yancey Strickler, Trent Van Epps