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Blog iconScott Auriat
Feb 28

The Network is the Notes, not the Song - The Blockchain is the Building Blocks, not the Building.

In the realm of creativity and innovation, distinguishing between the components that make up a whole and the whole itself poses a philosophical conundrum. How do the pieces and whole fit together? Not literally, but figuratively. There is clearly something emergent, such that the whole is greater than the parts. The song is more than just a collection of notes. But where does one end and the other begin? This analogy sheds light on an overlooked aspect of innovation: the balance between prov...

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Quadratically Funding Dominant Assurance Contracts: A Path to Public Goods at Scale

Quadratically Funding Dominant Assurance Contracts: A Path to Public Goods at Scale

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(E)there(U)m - Ethereum, the EU, and the Quest for Codes

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The Geography of the Metaverse

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How to Solve a Prisoners Dilemma - Part 2/4

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The Network is the Notes, not the Song - The Blockchain is the Building Blocks, not the Building.

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Serendipity and why Cities are Accidentally Brilliant

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Scott Auriat

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I am an Economist, history nut, Web3 and Tech enthusiast, and lover of emergent order. Welcome to Escaping Zero!

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Scott Auriat

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Quadratically Funding Dominant Assurance Contracts: A Path to Public Goods at Scale
Blog iconScott Auriat
Jun 20
TLDRDominant Assurance Contracts as a way to finance public goods, particularly in the context of Web3, have been discussed but as of yet they have not been tried. Quadratic Funding is a powerful tool to fund public goods but has a critical shortcoming. I propose a two-phased strategy for raising funds for public goods that require a set amount for their successful realization by merging these two methods. It is believed that such a combination will address several pressing challenges associa...
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Blog iconScott Auriat
Jun 8
The Economics of Authenticity
Economics, like physics, has a few fundamental principles upon which it builds. One is simple, supply and demand determine prices. The more people demand, everything else held constant, the price goes up. The more people supply, keeping other factors constant, the price goes down, and vice versa. It is not simple and sometimes impossible to apply this principle to non-tangible and abstract things. Take, for example, love or friendship. In this light, the value of art in terms of demand and su...
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Apr 7
Is a War with the Machines (AI) Inevitable?
The following are some musings about AI in the context of international relations theories (IR). IR studies how nations interact with other nations. If we think of AI as a new nation (of sorts), what are the options for how we would relate? The short answer is that war is not the logical outcome, given a critical condition. ____________________________________________ Unless you've been living under a rock, you're probably aware of the growing concerns about the potentially catastro...
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Mar 22
Making DAOs Credibly Decentralized
There is a parallel to be drawn between blockchains and DAOs. DAOs are built on blockchains, but they don't reach consensus in the same manner, nor should they. Blockchains strive for "credible neutrality." Meaning, no one should be able to take over a blockchain like Ethereum; no single individual can control it or force an illegitimate transaction to be recorded, nor can anyone censor someone else's use of the protocol. DAOs are organizations that operate on "credibly neutral" pro...
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Feb 23
Crypto and War
Evaluating the use of Crypto/Blockchain Technology during the War in Ukraine As a society, we are constantly putting freedoms on trial. I mean this metaphorically, but I also mean it very practically. We continuously assess even the most mundane day-to-day freedoms. Should people be allowed to jaywalk? Buy a given financial asset? Be able to smoke inside? These are all questions of personal liberty. We continuously ask individually and on a social level if a given action, or freedom, is more ...
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Feb 10
(E)there(U)m - Ethereum, the EU, and the Quest for Codes
Ethereum, and blockchain in general were created to serve the same purpose as the European Union (EU). They are both meant to be a baselayer to harmonize humanity. A set of codes for coordination. Without context, I imagine this makes little sense and my emphasis on the EU may appear random. The reason I focus on the EU is it represents the most recent large-scale effort to establish a system of laws applicable to multiple nations. Is Ethereum also such an experiment? It does represent a set ...
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Jan 20
Tokenized Economic Zones
Special Economic Zones (SEZs) are perhaps the most impactful innovation of the past half-century. Their incredible accent has lifted millions, arguably billions, out of poverty. They have permanently cemented trading networks between countries and ushered in an era of globalization, and they are probably the reason the clothes you are wearing were made in the country they were made in. Yet, many have never heard of them, and very few could provide a coherent definition of what they are. And l...
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Jan 17
The Geography of the Metaverse
What causes poverty? Why are some countries so much richer than others? Much ink has been spilled trying to answer these questions. Despite this, a consensus answer is yet to be reached. Many believe geographic shortcomings are the culprit. Countries with poor geographic endowments, poor soil, etc., are destined to be poor. Others point to the lack of good governance. The list goes on, and often causes are suggested to be interrelated, meaning it might be an interaction of many factors. Sorti...
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Jan 10
How to Solve a Prisoners Dilemma - Part 2/4
War and DilemmasUpon listening to the narrative of the classic prisoner's dilemma (refer to the provided link), it is natural for one's mind to seek a simple solution. In my imagination, before their capture, I envisioned the prisoners making a pact to stand by each other and not betray one another. This seems plausible, doesn't it? The problem would be resolved. Similarly, the characters in the bar scene needed to reach an agreement to work together (see my last blog post for ...
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Dec 20
How to Solve a Prisoners Dilemma - Part ¼
A Beautiful Mind - An Ugly ProblemThe prisoner's dilemma is a situation in which rational individuals, fully aware of the consequences of their actions, choose not to cooperate even though it would be in their best interest to do so. Given self-interest, the actors end up in a situation that is paradoxically not in anyone's best interest. If this sounds contradictory, it is, and it has baffled many great minds. One notable figure associated with the prisoner's dilemma is econom...
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Dec 13
The Coordination Game
It might be a shock to many to learn that there is no definitive answer to the question of when the first computer was invented. Indeed, what `computation’ is precisely is more of a philosophical debate than a practical one. Computers do computations, which are calculations that follow a well-defined model, which humans also do – so are humans the first computers….? You see the transition to philosophy. With this note, let's ask a more straightforward question – when did a computer, as w...
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Dec 5
Serendipity and why Cities are Accidentally Brilliant
Why are cities such hubs of innovation and productivity? Consider the following from Triumph of the City by economist Edward Glaeser.Americans who live in metropolitan areas with more than a million residents are, on average, more than 50 percent more productive than Americans who live in smaller metropolitan areas.To further illustrate this phenomenon consider the following.In 2010**,* in the journal Nature, a pair of physicists at the Santa Fe Institute showed that when the population of a ...