What happens when crypto stops optimizing purely for profit and starts optimizing for people, planet, and long-term coordination?

In this episode, Amanda Cassatt sits down with Gitcoin founder Kevin Owocki to discuss Ethereum’s public goods, swallowing the Green Pill, and what onchain coordination will look like in the future.

Owocki maps the cultural fault lines inside Ethereum: the libertarian and cypherpunk roots, the rise of hyper-financialized degen culture, and the parallel effort to build something different: a regenerative ecosystem that funds public goods, sustains open source, and solves coordination failures instead of reproducing them.

The two unpack what Green Pill really means and the choice it asks of builders, how Gitcoin funded $70 million in public goods and why grants and vibes aren’t enough anymore. 

Timestamps:

00:00 Introduction to Regen and Degen

02:57 The Green Pill Movement

06:13 Public Goods in Ethereum

09:10 Funding Challenges in the Ethereum Ecosystem

12:07 Comparing Ethereum to Traditional Governments

15:00 The Evolution of Public Goods Funding

17:48 Incentive Alignment and the Tragedy of the Commons

21:04 Building Proofs for Public Goods

24:11 Ethereum's Unique Approach to Public Goods

26:48 Meditations on Moloch and Coordination Failures

29:39 Exploring Moloch and Ginsberg's Influence

30:04 Addressing Coordination Failures in Ethereum

34:48 The Future of Capitalism and Its Alternatives

39:40 Balancing Different Forms of Capital

45:03 Navigating Financial Nihilism Among Youth

47:41 Success Stories in Building Parallel Institutions

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Serotonin on X: https://x.com/serotonin  

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