In this special last episode, we look back on Season 1 of TBH. We went into this season with many questions about how to build token-based products. These ranged from the philosophical  (Why?) to the operational (How?). In many ways, the questions we asked reflected our intellectual journeys as founders.

We spoke to some of the most insightful operators in this space—diving into the messy details of building token-based products. For this retrospective episode, we recap what we learned and what we still don’t know. 

We hope you enjoyed Season 1 as much as we did while making it! If you have thoughts on Season 1 and/or suggestions for Season 2, we’re @sariazout and @joey_debruin on Twitter. 

Until next time,

Sari & Joey 

The internet enabled the Passion Economy. It gave creators the ability to monetize their 100 true fans. But in doing so, it had some inevitable side effects. First, it gave platforms significant power and influence over the lives of countless individuals. Second, a lot of the financial upside derived from the massive success of these platforms accrued to a small group of individuals.

Our guest today had a front row seat to this. Working for a16z back then, she saw exactly how it happened and who benefited from the wild success of these platforms. 

Of course we’re talking about Every’s very own Li Jin. 

If you’ve been a longtime reader of Means of Creation, you’ve probably noticed this philosophical shift. From initially being excited about the potential of the Passion Economy, Li has been spending a lot of her time reading, thinking, and writing about what a fair internet could look like. An internet where network participants (creators, users, moderators, and so on) own a part of the network they add value to; and derive the financial upside from their success. 

Our conversation with Li gave us a lot to think about. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did! 

DAOs are often framed as exciting new ways to organize our resources. And they undoubtedly are. But how we organize our resources ultimately determines how we organize ourselves—something that has profoundly changed because of the internet. 

In a world where online strangers can establish trust and coordinate resources in meaningful ways, communities are no longer geographically bound. Groups of individuals around the world share economies and governance, while physically residing thousands of miles apart.  

Given all this, what could the future of human coordination look like? 

Our guest today has spent a lot of time thinking deeply about this very question. Jon Hillis is the founder of Cabin DAO: a decentralized city for creators. It is one of the most interesting experiments in building tokenized communities that have a shared culture, economy, and governance structure. Jon is using tokens and the functionality they enable to reimagine social contracts from the ground up.

This was a fascinating conversation - we hope you enjoy it as much as we did!