simondlr #23 - Seasons

One of my favourite recent podcast discoveries has been Mat Dryhurst & Holly Herndon’s “Interdependence”. Shortened versions available for free, while Patreon gives access to the full interviews. A lot of great discussions around building more collaborative futures. I like that they incorporate not only technologists, but also musicians, writers, and activists. I also enjoy *their* perspectives, which is to me what makes a podcast go from good, to great. It’s interesting discussions you get to be a fly in the room for.

One recent podcast with the Zora inspired me to write an article on the concept of using seasons in community tokens.

https://blog.simondlr.com/posts/seasons-longevity-in-community-tokens

Seasons

Speaking of seasons (of the climate variety). I don’t doubt that many of us has experience a strange sense of time during 2020. It all undulating, stretching, and compressing at the same time. For some reason, I’m reminded of this scene from the cult classic, Donnie Darko. On some days we just kind of coast along, with our intention energy beam guiding the way. Before we know it feels like April, while it is October.

It is strange to me that summer is around the corner when it doesn’t quite feel like winter happened at all (in the Southern Hemisphere). Such is pandemic time.

Hope Runners of Gridlock!

My debut novel. A week away! I’m so excited. I’ve received 82 pre-orders which I’m immensely grateful for! Can’t wait to share the world and the characters with you all. It’s still available for pre-order on Amazon and Gumroad. With Gumroad you can pay-what-you-want and it excludes extra goodies (like a companion guide and a music EP).

https://blog.simondlr.com/hope-runners-of-gridlock

I asked my brother to read and review the novel. I value his opinion extremely highly because we often talk about storytelling for hours on end. It’s obviously impartial, but it made me happy at least to see that he enjoyed it.

That being said. I still have some final touches to do, so I’m making this newsletter a bit shorter than usual.

Links!

Christie’s + Crypto Art

No doubt the past few weeks in the crypto-art space has been incredibly exciting. There’s a lot here to unpack, including the involvement of musicians like RAC, 3lau, and Boys Noize. What’s also interesting is how the digital art collectible scene has found its way into the traditional art world.

Continuous Agreement For Future Equity

A lot of the new crypto primitives could readily be used and employed in the real world (if the legal innovation happened). It’s great to see Fairmint trying to bridge the gap, allowing companies to more readily do continuous fundraising.

Token Engineering Commons

I’ve been following the proposals and work on the Token Engineering Commons for quite a while and happy to see it’s finally kicking off. Particularly salient as Nobel Prizes are being given out for economists that start to think like engineers.

Kowloon Walled City

One of the most interesting historical neighbours in the world. The Kowloon Wallet City. It inspired some scenes in my novel. This artistic cross-section is a great re-imagining of what life must have been like.

Blockchain And the Creative Arts

If you are interested in understanding and delving down the exciting rabbit hole of how the creative arts are intersecting with the blockchain, look no further than this exhaustive compendium.

That’s it for now folks!

Will chat again soon after the launch of my novel! See you on the flipside.

Enjoy the sunset!

Simon