Good Death — Protocolized

Sarah Friend argues that protocols can generate living worlds through accumulated user attention and interaction, and that a protocol's 'death' depends on whether it successfully cultivated such a world ecosystem rather than merely existing as a technical system. Drawing on gaming communities' definitions of when an MMO becomes 'dead,' she explores how platforms, places, and social systems generate worlds that persist or perish independent of their underlying protocol's technical status.

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Cory Levinson surveys the current landscape of climate protocols, tracing how carbon markets and DeFi have collided since 2023, with projects like KlimaDAO absorbing millions of carbon credits into blockchain form and Regen Network expanding into biodiversity markets. The piece examines how these protocols are attempting to create durable market mechanisms for environmental assets despite fundamental challenges in traditional carbon crediting.

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Dispatches from Cascadia

This paper uses Cascadia as a speculative case study to explore how bioregional governance frameworks might organize communities around ecological rather than political boundaries, with bears and watershed patterns replacing state/provincial lines. Rajamohan examines how protocol-based systems could coordinate resource management and social infrastructure across overlapping ecoregions facing polycrisis challenges like climate instability and housing crises.

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Exit to Protocol

Exit to Protocol examines how protocols can facilitate graceful retirement and archival by drawing parallels to narrative closure in television, specifically how platforms and communities can transition from active operation to preserved legacy. Gong argues for a framework where protocols enable individuals and organizations to exit with dignity while preserving their work and knowledge for future reference.

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