13 min
Erik Bordeleau talks fabulation, finance and cryptophilosophy at Economic Space Agency Transit Lounge
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- Society & Culture
HOW TO SHORT CAPITALISM:
THE CRYPTO-POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ECSA
Economic Space Agency (ECSA) is building the next generation network infrastructure for programmable economies. Most blockchain and distributed ledger technologies applications are oriented toward the creation of distributed markets, reinforcing rather than disrupting oligarchic concentration of wealth over time and questioning what “value” is actually traded. ECSA offers something different: a fully integrated, commons-oriented approach to cryptoeconomy.
Economic Space + Cryptophilosophy + Post-Capitalism + Speculative Economy + Fabulation
I met with Erik Bordeleau at the ECSA 'Economic Space Design Program' in the Haus der Statistik Werkstatt in Berlin to find out exactly what is 'Economic Space' and how we can claim agency. The readings and notes come from the subsequent 'Token Logic Design' seminar series with Erik at the School of Disobedience, Art and the Blockchain.
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Edited transcript:
JR: Can you tell me what exactly the Economic Space Agency is? I imagine intergalatic cryptocurrencies…
EB: As it exists now comes from an initiative called ‘Robin Hood Hedge Fund Coop’ making captures on the actual financial markets. We were able to gather some money and redistribute it to projects that we found interesting. Commons-oriented projects essentially. And then blockchain and distributed ledger technologies came in. We were being Robin Hoods of the traditional markets, which can only go up to a certain point.
Then with distributed ledger technologies, you can start to imagine creating new markets or new financial stratas that you can start operating with. The way I understand it is the opportunity to create a thousand financial plateaus, from which you can start deterritorializing finance as it exists, and start making value a little bit more multi-dimensional. One of the things we used to say at ECSA is that we are stuck in a mono economy, where everything gets valued within a very narrow set of coordinates, which we call capitalism. Which generates as all we know tremendous externalities. The way forward towards a post-capitalist economy needs to be towards recognising all these values that are considered external to our economic system.
JR: What is fabulation?
EB: Fabulation is a way of saying that you can't think of the 'real' economy, as opposed to the speculative economy. The economy is always speculative, all the way down. That's not something to judge, or it's not something to deplore. It's something to accept, to deal with, so we need to accept that we are also part of self-fulfilling prophecies or processes. We are part of that.
We're a little bit lunatic at times, we are entertaining ideas that seem completely incredible. But it's part of the game. The economic game is fuelled with dreams, and fabulation is a term to name the passage from the virtual to the actual.
As one philosopher I really like says 'Only people who are dreaming can modify someone else's dream'. You can't just go up to someone and make them change their minds. You have to be meeting people in the space where they dream, they're also dreaming of something... So, the open office was organised here at Haus der Statistik which is a dream itself. But a dream with a fantastic reality..
I would like to have this collective adventure keep on going, and grow organically. So there's a mix of fantasy, craziness, crazy ambition that we express collectively, but I also want other types of intelligences that are more grounded, closer to the granular aspects of all the relationality of our lives. I want that to be more and more part of our process. Because that's how something sustainable, organic will sustain in the future. That's really important.
We're coming in with quite radical ideas but they need to be translated, converted into practices of different kinds, and that's what I envision for the future. A very multi-dimensional proliferating set of practices that share so
HOW TO SHORT CAPITALISM:
THE CRYPTO-POLITICAL ECONOMY OF ECSA
Economic Space Agency (ECSA) is building the next generation network infrastructure for programmable economies. Most blockchain and distributed ledger technologies applications are oriented toward the creation of distributed markets, reinforcing rather than disrupting oligarchic concentration of wealth over time and questioning what “value” is actually traded. ECSA offers something different: a fully integrated, commons-oriented approach to cryptoeconomy.
Economic Space + Cryptophilosophy + Post-Capitalism + Speculative Economy + Fabulation
I met with Erik Bordeleau at the ECSA 'Economic Space Design Program' in the Haus der Statistik Werkstatt in Berlin to find out exactly what is 'Economic Space' and how we can claim agency. The readings and notes come from the subsequent 'Token Logic Design' seminar series with Erik at the School of Disobedience, Art and the Blockchain.
----more----
Edited transcript:
JR: Can you tell me what exactly the Economic Space Agency is? I imagine intergalatic cryptocurrencies…
EB: As it exists now comes from an initiative called ‘Robin Hood Hedge Fund Coop’ making captures on the actual financial markets. We were able to gather some money and redistribute it to projects that we found interesting. Commons-oriented projects essentially. And then blockchain and distributed ledger technologies came in. We were being Robin Hoods of the traditional markets, which can only go up to a certain point.
Then with distributed ledger technologies, you can start to imagine creating new markets or new financial stratas that you can start operating with. The way I understand it is the opportunity to create a thousand financial plateaus, from which you can start deterritorializing finance as it exists, and start making value a little bit more multi-dimensional. One of the things we used to say at ECSA is that we are stuck in a mono economy, where everything gets valued within a very narrow set of coordinates, which we call capitalism. Which generates as all we know tremendous externalities. The way forward towards a post-capitalist economy needs to be towards recognising all these values that are considered external to our economic system.
JR: What is fabulation?
EB: Fabulation is a way of saying that you can't think of the 'real' economy, as opposed to the speculative economy. The economy is always speculative, all the way down. That's not something to judge, or it's not something to deplore. It's something to accept, to deal with, so we need to accept that we are also part of self-fulfilling prophecies or processes. We are part of that.
We're a little bit lunatic at times, we are entertaining ideas that seem completely incredible. But it's part of the game. The economic game is fuelled with dreams, and fabulation is a term to name the passage from the virtual to the actual.
As one philosopher I really like says 'Only people who are dreaming can modify someone else's dream'. You can't just go up to someone and make them change their minds. You have to be meeting people in the space where they dream, they're also dreaming of something... So, the open office was organised here at Haus der Statistik which is a dream itself. But a dream with a fantastic reality..
I would like to have this collective adventure keep on going, and grow organically. So there's a mix of fantasy, craziness, crazy ambition that we express collectively, but I also want other types of intelligences that are more grounded, closer to the granular aspects of all the relationality of our lives. I want that to be more and more part of our process. Because that's how something sustainable, organic will sustain in the future. That's really important.
We're coming in with quite radical ideas but they need to be translated, converted into practices of different kinds, and that's what I envision for the future. A very multi-dimensional proliferating set of practices that share so
13 min