![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/pasted-image-0.png\")
![\"Fan](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/magazine-sports-fan-tokens-75x75.jpg\")
<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n ![\"Icelandic](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/themes\/jnews\/assets\/img\/jeg-empty.png\")
<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
Legal threats started pouring in, telling the group that the ETC should be distributed, despite the fact that \u201cWe were just normal people, we didn\u2019t have a company,\u201d he says looking back. All the members of the group jumped on planes and \u201cflew to Switzerland to figure out legal representation, and it was the first time we all met in person.\u201d Eventually, the funds were returned through a DApp that Green\u2019s team coded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![\"Disco](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/disco-doge-1024x768.png\")
If you haven\u2019t ridden around Burning Man on a giant Disco Doge, you haven\u2019t lived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbout a year later in November 2017, the team had similar success rescuing $210 million from the Parity multisig wallet hack<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to tell everyone, \u2018Hey, guess what? We stole all this money, but you can trust us because we already gave back all the money in The DAO,\u2019\u201d Green recalls. But he explains that this was risky for the now-public team because anyone could use Google to find out where they \u2014 and thus, the private keys \u2014 could be found. That night, Green \u201cslept on a mattress with a baseball bat in front of the door,\u201d fearing someone might come to take the keys by force.<\/p>\nHacking is not the only way in which Green has put himself at risk in the name of his principles. When the autonomous region of Catalonia attempted<\/a> to vote for independence from Spain in 2017, Green went to a polling station to act as a human shield to protect the electoral process from \u201cthe police, who were beating people to steal the ballots.\u201d This experience convinced Green that decentralized governance on the blockchain can only work efficiently if people are able to run their nodes without relying on centralized internet providers. The result was DAppNode, which helps people around the world set up peer-to-peer infrastructure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n![\"Griff](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/doge-1-resize.jpg\")
Green wearing his signature Santa suit while discussing charity initiatives with controversial philanthropist Brock Pierce at Burning Man 2018. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrom engineer to Ecuadorian evangelist<\/h4>\n
Green was born in Spokane, Washington, where he graduated from high school in the mid-2000s. He was interested in designing planes and rocketships but decided not to pursue mechanical engineering after he realized that much of the industry was oriented toward military applications. Instead, he went into chemical engineering at the University of Washington in 2003.<\/p>\n
At the end of his studies in 2006, he interned at biopharmaceutical firm Amgen, where he helped \u201cgenetically engineer Chinese hamster ovary cells to produce human proteins,\u201d he recalls, describing a \u201ccreepy process\u201d in a laboratory filled with vats of blood. Later, he worked as a research assistant at his alma mater, turning algae into carbon-neutral fuel.<\/p>\n
He soon found himself employed as an \u201corganizer of a really weird political movement in Seattle\u201d called \u201cSave Our Sonics\u201c trying to lobby the local government to keep NBA basketball team the Seattle SuperSonics from relocating to Oklahoma. His efforts ended with disappointment when the mayor \u201csold the team away anyway with just the stroke of a pen,\u201d just as a judge was about to rule in the team\u2019s favor. This left Green with an \u201cimpression of political movements being outmatched and outgunned\u201d by corrupt elites.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/dioge-3a.jpg\")
An alter to DOGE at Burning Man. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
In 2007, Green joined SNC-Lavalin, a large construction and engineering firm, as a process engineer where he \u201chad an ethical dilemma\u201d regarding a job requirement to create a structure that sent highly acidic water into the ocean in a country with weak environmental regulations. He \u201ctried to tweak the calculation a little bit\u201d in order to decrease the pollution level and give the ocean ecosystem a break. His suggestions were not accepted, and \u201cNow, there\u2019s a pipe that I designed pumping shit into the ocean, and that really weighs on me,\u201d he says in a somber manner.<\/p>\n
When layoffs came around in 2008, he had been putting his paychecks into gold and silver, as he had recently started \u201cfeeling like the whole system is a corrupt conspiracy.\u201d He bought a pop-top van that he drove to Burning Man, a counterculture event held each summer in the Nevada desert. Something about the experience inspired him to see the world, and he took off on an adventure that never ended \u2014 precious metals in tow.<\/p>\n
He traveled around, volunteering in Ecuador and Columbia the first year and India and Southeast Asia the next, always returning \u201chome\u201c to Burning Man in August. Along the way, he learned about Bitcoin and bought some with $3,000 worth of gold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
In 2013, his BTC \u201cwent to $24,000 \u2014 I was used to living really cheaply, like $3 per night hostels with cold showers,\u201d he recalls. Green saw potential and became so obsessed with Bitcoin that he told his girlfriend, \u201cYou\u2019re great and all, but I like Bitcoin more, and I\u2019m going to Ecuador, and I\u2019m going to be the Andreas Antonopoulos<\/a> of Ecuador,\u201d referring to a desire to bring cryptocurrency to the country with which he had fallen in love during his travels.<\/p>\n\u201cI became obsessed. My girlfriend got jealous \u2014 we literally broke up because she was jealous of Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Ecuador, Green went around college campuses, popping into random computer science classes to give presentations about Bitcoin and teach everyone how to set up a wallet, which he would then fund with a small amount, asking each person to find three new people to send a fraction of their coins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d knock on the classroom door unannounced, and I\u2019d be like, \u2018Hey, I want to give everyone in this classroom a little bit of Bitcoin and explain it to them.\u2019 I\u2019d say five times out of seven, they let me in,\u201d Green recalls with a laugh. Soon, however, he saw that Ecuador was moving to ban Bitcoin, so he abandoned his missionary post. \u201cI had to bail,\u201d he recounts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n![\"Griff](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/doge-2-1024x390.png\")
Griff Green\u2019s Burning Man camp banner, featuring the Silk Road camel with religious iconography, replacing baby Jesus with a Doge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe giving principle<\/h4>\n
Green organizes DECENTRAL and DOGECENTRAL, two cryptocurrency-themed camps at Burning Man, which is a radically oriented 10-day festival founded upon 10 principles including radical inclusion, gifting, radical self-reliance and civic responsibility. With the camps, Green aims to \u201cbuild a bridge between the Burning Man community and the crypto community so there can be an exchange of ideas and culture,\u201d something he feels \u201ccan change the world somehow.\u201d The two communities have much in common as socially critical movements but tend toward opposing extremes regarding economic philosophy.<\/p>\n
Swayed by his experiences in both political activism and engineering, Green is critical of the \u201chyper capitalism\u201d that he sees in the cryptocurrency industry. \u201cIf all you know is capitalism, then you\u2019re just going to do capitalism better, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s necessarily the right thing. But hey, look, there\u2019s this gift economy!\u201d he says, referring to what is known as the \u201cgifting principle\u201c at Burning Man, where money and any kind of trade or barter is banned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to say, \u2018Wow! Look at what economics really is \u2014 let\u2019s go a step beyond capitalism and start looking at how we can coordinate value production.\u2019\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Green thinks of economies like games \u2014 one can play the game in a capitalist manner to benefit themselves or they can play for the benefit of others. This desire to create an economic environment that rewards people for doing societal good inspired him to start crypto donation platform Giveth in late 2016. \u201cWhat if we integrate values and culture as part of the economic system?\u201d he ponders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Icelandic](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/10\/magazine-Iceland-firsthand-75x75.jpg\")
<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
Legal threats started pouring in, telling the group that the ETC should be distributed, despite the fact that \u201cWe were just normal people, we didn\u2019t have a company,\u201d he says looking back. All the members of the group jumped on planes and \u201cflew to Switzerland to figure out legal representation, and it was the first time we all met in person.\u201d Eventually, the funds were returned through a DApp that Green\u2019s team coded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIf you haven\u2019t ridden around Burning Man on a giant Disco Doge, you haven\u2019t lived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbout a year later in November 2017, the team had similar success rescuing $210 million from the Parity multisig wallet hack<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to tell everyone, \u2018Hey, guess what? We stole all this money, but you can trust us because we already gave back all the money in The DAO,\u2019\u201d Green recalls. But he explains that this was risky for the now-public team because anyone could use Google to find out where they \u2014 and thus, the private keys \u2014 could be found. That night, Green \u201cslept on a mattress with a baseball bat in front of the door,\u201d fearing someone might come to take the keys by force.<\/p>\nHacking is not the only way in which Green has put himself at risk in the name of his principles. When the autonomous region of Catalonia attempted<\/a> to vote for independence from Spain in 2017, Green went to a polling station to act as a human shield to protect the electoral process from \u201cthe police, who were beating people to steal the ballots.\u201d This experience convinced Green that decentralized governance on the blockchain can only work efficiently if people are able to run their nodes without relying on centralized internet providers. The result was DAppNode, which helps people around the world set up peer-to-peer infrastructure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nGreen wearing his signature Santa suit while discussing charity initiatives with controversial philanthropist Brock Pierce at Burning Man 2018. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrom engineer to Ecuadorian evangelist<\/h4>\n
Green was born in Spokane, Washington, where he graduated from high school in the mid-2000s. He was interested in designing planes and rocketships but decided not to pursue mechanical engineering after he realized that much of the industry was oriented toward military applications. Instead, he went into chemical engineering at the University of Washington in 2003.<\/p>\n
At the end of his studies in 2006, he interned at biopharmaceutical firm Amgen, where he helped \u201cgenetically engineer Chinese hamster ovary cells to produce human proteins,\u201d he recalls, describing a \u201ccreepy process\u201d in a laboratory filled with vats of blood. Later, he worked as a research assistant at his alma mater, turning algae into carbon-neutral fuel.<\/p>\n
He soon found himself employed as an \u201corganizer of a really weird political movement in Seattle\u201d called \u201cSave Our Sonics\u201c trying to lobby the local government to keep NBA basketball team the Seattle SuperSonics from relocating to Oklahoma. His efforts ended with disappointment when the mayor \u201csold the team away anyway with just the stroke of a pen,\u201d just as a judge was about to rule in the team\u2019s favor. This left Green with an \u201cimpression of political movements being outmatched and outgunned\u201d by corrupt elites.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nAn alter to DOGE at Burning Man. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
In 2007, Green joined SNC-Lavalin, a large construction and engineering firm, as a process engineer where he \u201chad an ethical dilemma\u201d regarding a job requirement to create a structure that sent highly acidic water into the ocean in a country with weak environmental regulations. He \u201ctried to tweak the calculation a little bit\u201d in order to decrease the pollution level and give the ocean ecosystem a break. His suggestions were not accepted, and \u201cNow, there\u2019s a pipe that I designed pumping shit into the ocean, and that really weighs on me,\u201d he says in a somber manner.<\/p>\n
When layoffs came around in 2008, he had been putting his paychecks into gold and silver, as he had recently started \u201cfeeling like the whole system is a corrupt conspiracy.\u201d He bought a pop-top van that he drove to Burning Man, a counterculture event held each summer in the Nevada desert. Something about the experience inspired him to see the world, and he took off on an adventure that never ended \u2014 precious metals in tow.<\/p>\n
He traveled around, volunteering in Ecuador and Columbia the first year and India and Southeast Asia the next, always returning \u201chome\u201c to Burning Man in August. Along the way, he learned about Bitcoin and bought some with $3,000 worth of gold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
In 2013, his BTC \u201cwent to $24,000 \u2014 I was used to living really cheaply, like $3 per night hostels with cold showers,\u201d he recalls. Green saw potential and became so obsessed with Bitcoin that he told his girlfriend, \u201cYou\u2019re great and all, but I like Bitcoin more, and I\u2019m going to Ecuador, and I\u2019m going to be the Andreas Antonopoulos<\/a> of Ecuador,\u201d referring to a desire to bring cryptocurrency to the country with which he had fallen in love during his travels.<\/p>\n\u201cI became obsessed. My girlfriend got jealous \u2014 we literally broke up because she was jealous of Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Ecuador, Green went around college campuses, popping into random computer science classes to give presentations about Bitcoin and teach everyone how to set up a wallet, which he would then fund with a small amount, asking each person to find three new people to send a fraction of their coins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d knock on the classroom door unannounced, and I\u2019d be like, \u2018Hey, I want to give everyone in this classroom a little bit of Bitcoin and explain it to them.\u2019 I\u2019d say five times out of seven, they let me in,\u201d Green recalls with a laugh. Soon, however, he saw that Ecuador was moving to ban Bitcoin, so he abandoned his missionary post. \u201cI had to bail,\u201d he recounts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nGriff Green\u2019s Burning Man camp banner, featuring the Silk Road camel with religious iconography, replacing baby Jesus with a Doge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe giving principle<\/h4>\n
Green organizes DECENTRAL and DOGECENTRAL, two cryptocurrency-themed camps at Burning Man, which is a radically oriented 10-day festival founded upon 10 principles including radical inclusion, gifting, radical self-reliance and civic responsibility. With the camps, Green aims to \u201cbuild a bridge between the Burning Man community and the crypto community so there can be an exchange of ideas and culture,\u201d something he feels \u201ccan change the world somehow.\u201d The two communities have much in common as socially critical movements but tend toward opposing extremes regarding economic philosophy.<\/p>\n
Swayed by his experiences in both political activism and engineering, Green is critical of the \u201chyper capitalism\u201d that he sees in the cryptocurrency industry. \u201cIf all you know is capitalism, then you\u2019re just going to do capitalism better, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s necessarily the right thing. But hey, look, there\u2019s this gift economy!\u201d he says, referring to what is known as the \u201cgifting principle\u201c at Burning Man, where money and any kind of trade or barter is banned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to say, \u2018Wow! Look at what economics really is \u2014 let\u2019s go a step beyond capitalism and start looking at how we can coordinate value production.\u2019\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Green thinks of economies like games \u2014 one can play the game in a capitalist manner to benefit themselves or they can play for the benefit of others. This desire to create an economic environment that rewards people for doing societal good inspired him to start crypto donation platform Giveth in late 2016. \u201cWhat if we integrate values and culture as part of the economic system?\u201d he ponders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Crypto](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/MAG-crypto-city-Tokyo-75x75.jpg\")
<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
Legal threats started pouring in, telling the group that the ETC should be distributed, despite the fact that \u201cWe were just normal people, we didn\u2019t have a company,\u201d he says looking back. All the members of the group jumped on planes and \u201cflew to Switzerland to figure out legal representation, and it was the first time we all met in person.\u201d Eventually, the funds were returned through a DApp that Green\u2019s team coded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIf you haven\u2019t ridden around Burning Man on a giant Disco Doge, you haven\u2019t lived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbout a year later in November 2017, the team had similar success rescuing $210 million from the Parity multisig wallet hack<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to tell everyone, \u2018Hey, guess what? We stole all this money, but you can trust us because we already gave back all the money in The DAO,\u2019\u201d Green recalls. But he explains that this was risky for the now-public team because anyone could use Google to find out where they \u2014 and thus, the private keys \u2014 could be found. That night, Green \u201cslept on a mattress with a baseball bat in front of the door,\u201d fearing someone might come to take the keys by force.<\/p>\nHacking is not the only way in which Green has put himself at risk in the name of his principles. When the autonomous region of Catalonia attempted<\/a> to vote for independence from Spain in 2017, Green went to a polling station to act as a human shield to protect the electoral process from \u201cthe police, who were beating people to steal the ballots.\u201d This experience convinced Green that decentralized governance on the blockchain can only work efficiently if people are able to run their nodes without relying on centralized internet providers. The result was DAppNode, which helps people around the world set up peer-to-peer infrastructure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nGreen wearing his signature Santa suit while discussing charity initiatives with controversial philanthropist Brock Pierce at Burning Man 2018. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrom engineer to Ecuadorian evangelist<\/h4>\n
Green was born in Spokane, Washington, where he graduated from high school in the mid-2000s. He was interested in designing planes and rocketships but decided not to pursue mechanical engineering after he realized that much of the industry was oriented toward military applications. Instead, he went into chemical engineering at the University of Washington in 2003.<\/p>\n
At the end of his studies in 2006, he interned at biopharmaceutical firm Amgen, where he helped \u201cgenetically engineer Chinese hamster ovary cells to produce human proteins,\u201d he recalls, describing a \u201ccreepy process\u201d in a laboratory filled with vats of blood. Later, he worked as a research assistant at his alma mater, turning algae into carbon-neutral fuel.<\/p>\n
He soon found himself employed as an \u201corganizer of a really weird political movement in Seattle\u201d called \u201cSave Our Sonics\u201c trying to lobby the local government to keep NBA basketball team the Seattle SuperSonics from relocating to Oklahoma. His efforts ended with disappointment when the mayor \u201csold the team away anyway with just the stroke of a pen,\u201d just as a judge was about to rule in the team\u2019s favor. This left Green with an \u201cimpression of political movements being outmatched and outgunned\u201d by corrupt elites.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nAn alter to DOGE at Burning Man. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
In 2007, Green joined SNC-Lavalin, a large construction and engineering firm, as a process engineer where he \u201chad an ethical dilemma\u201d regarding a job requirement to create a structure that sent highly acidic water into the ocean in a country with weak environmental regulations. He \u201ctried to tweak the calculation a little bit\u201d in order to decrease the pollution level and give the ocean ecosystem a break. His suggestions were not accepted, and \u201cNow, there\u2019s a pipe that I designed pumping shit into the ocean, and that really weighs on me,\u201d he says in a somber manner.<\/p>\n
When layoffs came around in 2008, he had been putting his paychecks into gold and silver, as he had recently started \u201cfeeling like the whole system is a corrupt conspiracy.\u201d He bought a pop-top van that he drove to Burning Man, a counterculture event held each summer in the Nevada desert. Something about the experience inspired him to see the world, and he took off on an adventure that never ended \u2014 precious metals in tow.<\/p>\n
He traveled around, volunteering in Ecuador and Columbia the first year and India and Southeast Asia the next, always returning \u201chome\u201c to Burning Man in August. Along the way, he learned about Bitcoin and bought some with $3,000 worth of gold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
In 2013, his BTC \u201cwent to $24,000 \u2014 I was used to living really cheaply, like $3 per night hostels with cold showers,\u201d he recalls. Green saw potential and became so obsessed with Bitcoin that he told his girlfriend, \u201cYou\u2019re great and all, but I like Bitcoin more, and I\u2019m going to Ecuador, and I\u2019m going to be the Andreas Antonopoulos<\/a> of Ecuador,\u201d referring to a desire to bring cryptocurrency to the country with which he had fallen in love during his travels.<\/p>\n\u201cI became obsessed. My girlfriend got jealous \u2014 we literally broke up because she was jealous of Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Ecuador, Green went around college campuses, popping into random computer science classes to give presentations about Bitcoin and teach everyone how to set up a wallet, which he would then fund with a small amount, asking each person to find three new people to send a fraction of their coins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d knock on the classroom door unannounced, and I\u2019d be like, \u2018Hey, I want to give everyone in this classroom a little bit of Bitcoin and explain it to them.\u2019 I\u2019d say five times out of seven, they let me in,\u201d Green recalls with a laugh. Soon, however, he saw that Ecuador was moving to ban Bitcoin, so he abandoned his missionary post. \u201cI had to bail,\u201d he recounts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nGriff Green\u2019s Burning Man camp banner, featuring the Silk Road camel with religious iconography, replacing baby Jesus with a Doge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe giving principle<\/h4>\n
Green organizes DECENTRAL and DOGECENTRAL, two cryptocurrency-themed camps at Burning Man, which is a radically oriented 10-day festival founded upon 10 principles including radical inclusion, gifting, radical self-reliance and civic responsibility. With the camps, Green aims to \u201cbuild a bridge between the Burning Man community and the crypto community so there can be an exchange of ideas and culture,\u201d something he feels \u201ccan change the world somehow.\u201d The two communities have much in common as socially critical movements but tend toward opposing extremes regarding economic philosophy.<\/p>\n
Swayed by his experiences in both political activism and engineering, Green is critical of the \u201chyper capitalism\u201d that he sees in the cryptocurrency industry. \u201cIf all you know is capitalism, then you\u2019re just going to do capitalism better, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s necessarily the right thing. But hey, look, there\u2019s this gift economy!\u201d he says, referring to what is known as the \u201cgifting principle\u201c at Burning Man, where money and any kind of trade or barter is banned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to say, \u2018Wow! Look at what economics really is \u2014 let\u2019s go a step beyond capitalism and start looking at how we can coordinate value production.\u2019\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Green thinks of economies like games \u2014 one can play the game in a capitalist manner to benefit themselves or they can play for the benefit of others. This desire to create an economic environment that rewards people for doing societal good inspired him to start crypto donation platform Giveth in late 2016. \u201cWhat if we integrate values and culture as part of the economic system?\u201d he ponders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Before](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/MAGAZINE-Before-NFTs-Surging-interest-in-pre-CryptoPunk-collectibles-75x75.jpg\")
<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
Legal threats started pouring in, telling the group that the ETC should be distributed, despite the fact that \u201cWe were just normal people, we didn\u2019t have a company,\u201d he says looking back. All the members of the group jumped on planes and \u201cflew to Switzerland to figure out legal representation, and it was the first time we all met in person.\u201d Eventually, the funds were returned through a DApp that Green\u2019s team coded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIf you haven\u2019t ridden around Burning Man on a giant Disco Doge, you haven\u2019t lived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbout a year later in November 2017, the team had similar success rescuing $210 million from the Parity multisig wallet hack<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to tell everyone, \u2018Hey, guess what? We stole all this money, but you can trust us because we already gave back all the money in The DAO,\u2019\u201d Green recalls. But he explains that this was risky for the now-public team because anyone could use Google to find out where they \u2014 and thus, the private keys \u2014 could be found. That night, Green \u201cslept on a mattress with a baseball bat in front of the door,\u201d fearing someone might come to take the keys by force.<\/p>\nHacking is not the only way in which Green has put himself at risk in the name of his principles. When the autonomous region of Catalonia attempted<\/a> to vote for independence from Spain in 2017, Green went to a polling station to act as a human shield to protect the electoral process from \u201cthe police, who were beating people to steal the ballots.\u201d This experience convinced Green that decentralized governance on the blockchain can only work efficiently if people are able to run their nodes without relying on centralized internet providers. The result was DAppNode, which helps people around the world set up peer-to-peer infrastructure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nGreen wearing his signature Santa suit while discussing charity initiatives with controversial philanthropist Brock Pierce at Burning Man 2018. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrom engineer to Ecuadorian evangelist<\/h4>\n
Green was born in Spokane, Washington, where he graduated from high school in the mid-2000s. He was interested in designing planes and rocketships but decided not to pursue mechanical engineering after he realized that much of the industry was oriented toward military applications. Instead, he went into chemical engineering at the University of Washington in 2003.<\/p>\n
At the end of his studies in 2006, he interned at biopharmaceutical firm Amgen, where he helped \u201cgenetically engineer Chinese hamster ovary cells to produce human proteins,\u201d he recalls, describing a \u201ccreepy process\u201d in a laboratory filled with vats of blood. Later, he worked as a research assistant at his alma mater, turning algae into carbon-neutral fuel.<\/p>\n
He soon found himself employed as an \u201corganizer of a really weird political movement in Seattle\u201d called \u201cSave Our Sonics\u201c trying to lobby the local government to keep NBA basketball team the Seattle SuperSonics from relocating to Oklahoma. His efforts ended with disappointment when the mayor \u201csold the team away anyway with just the stroke of a pen,\u201d just as a judge was about to rule in the team\u2019s favor. This left Green with an \u201cimpression of political movements being outmatched and outgunned\u201d by corrupt elites.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nAn alter to DOGE at Burning Man. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
In 2007, Green joined SNC-Lavalin, a large construction and engineering firm, as a process engineer where he \u201chad an ethical dilemma\u201d regarding a job requirement to create a structure that sent highly acidic water into the ocean in a country with weak environmental regulations. He \u201ctried to tweak the calculation a little bit\u201d in order to decrease the pollution level and give the ocean ecosystem a break. His suggestions were not accepted, and \u201cNow, there\u2019s a pipe that I designed pumping shit into the ocean, and that really weighs on me,\u201d he says in a somber manner.<\/p>\n
When layoffs came around in 2008, he had been putting his paychecks into gold and silver, as he had recently started \u201cfeeling like the whole system is a corrupt conspiracy.\u201d He bought a pop-top van that he drove to Burning Man, a counterculture event held each summer in the Nevada desert. Something about the experience inspired him to see the world, and he took off on an adventure that never ended \u2014 precious metals in tow.<\/p>\n
He traveled around, volunteering in Ecuador and Columbia the first year and India and Southeast Asia the next, always returning \u201chome\u201c to Burning Man in August. Along the way, he learned about Bitcoin and bought some with $3,000 worth of gold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
In 2013, his BTC \u201cwent to $24,000 \u2014 I was used to living really cheaply, like $3 per night hostels with cold showers,\u201d he recalls. Green saw potential and became so obsessed with Bitcoin that he told his girlfriend, \u201cYou\u2019re great and all, but I like Bitcoin more, and I\u2019m going to Ecuador, and I\u2019m going to be the Andreas Antonopoulos<\/a> of Ecuador,\u201d referring to a desire to bring cryptocurrency to the country with which he had fallen in love during his travels.<\/p>\n\u201cI became obsessed. My girlfriend got jealous \u2014 we literally broke up because she was jealous of Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Ecuador, Green went around college campuses, popping into random computer science classes to give presentations about Bitcoin and teach everyone how to set up a wallet, which he would then fund with a small amount, asking each person to find three new people to send a fraction of their coins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d knock on the classroom door unannounced, and I\u2019d be like, \u2018Hey, I want to give everyone in this classroom a little bit of Bitcoin and explain it to them.\u2019 I\u2019d say five times out of seven, they let me in,\u201d Green recalls with a laugh. Soon, however, he saw that Ecuador was moving to ban Bitcoin, so he abandoned his missionary post. \u201cI had to bail,\u201d he recounts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nGriff Green\u2019s Burning Man camp banner, featuring the Silk Road camel with religious iconography, replacing baby Jesus with a Doge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe giving principle<\/h4>\n
Green organizes DECENTRAL and DOGECENTRAL, two cryptocurrency-themed camps at Burning Man, which is a radically oriented 10-day festival founded upon 10 principles including radical inclusion, gifting, radical self-reliance and civic responsibility. With the camps, Green aims to \u201cbuild a bridge between the Burning Man community and the crypto community so there can be an exchange of ideas and culture,\u201d something he feels \u201ccan change the world somehow.\u201d The two communities have much in common as socially critical movements but tend toward opposing extremes regarding economic philosophy.<\/p>\n
Swayed by his experiences in both political activism and engineering, Green is critical of the \u201chyper capitalism\u201d that he sees in the cryptocurrency industry. \u201cIf all you know is capitalism, then you\u2019re just going to do capitalism better, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s necessarily the right thing. But hey, look, there\u2019s this gift economy!\u201d he says, referring to what is known as the \u201cgifting principle\u201c at Burning Man, where money and any kind of trade or barter is banned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to say, \u2018Wow! Look at what economics really is \u2014 let\u2019s go a step beyond capitalism and start looking at how we can coordinate value production.\u2019\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Green thinks of economies like games \u2014 one can play the game in a capitalist manner to benefit themselves or they can play for the benefit of others. This desire to create an economic environment that rewards people for doing societal good inspired him to start crypto donation platform Giveth in late 2016. \u201cWhat if we integrate values and culture as part of the economic system?\u201d he ponders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"Bitcoin](\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/magazine-Crypto-isnt-a-good-tool-for-ransomware-75x75.jpg\")
<\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
Legal threats started pouring in, telling the group that the ETC should be distributed, despite the fact that \u201cWe were just normal people, we didn\u2019t have a company,\u201d he says looking back. All the members of the group jumped on planes and \u201cflew to Switzerland to figure out legal representation, and it was the first time we all met in person.\u201d Eventually, the funds were returned through a DApp that Green\u2019s team coded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nIf you haven\u2019t ridden around Burning Man on a giant Disco Doge, you haven\u2019t lived.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAbout a year later in November 2017, the team had similar success rescuing $210 million from the Parity multisig wallet hack<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to tell everyone, \u2018Hey, guess what? We stole all this money, but you can trust us because we already gave back all the money in The DAO,\u2019\u201d Green recalls. But he explains that this was risky for the now-public team because anyone could use Google to find out where they \u2014 and thus, the private keys \u2014 could be found. That night, Green \u201cslept on a mattress with a baseball bat in front of the door,\u201d fearing someone might come to take the keys by force.<\/p>\nHacking is not the only way in which Green has put himself at risk in the name of his principles. When the autonomous region of Catalonia attempted<\/a> to vote for independence from Spain in 2017, Green went to a polling station to act as a human shield to protect the electoral process from \u201cthe police, who were beating people to steal the ballots.\u201d This experience convinced Green that decentralized governance on the blockchain can only work efficiently if people are able to run their nodes without relying on centralized internet providers. The result was DAppNode, which helps people around the world set up peer-to-peer infrastructure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nGreen wearing his signature Santa suit while discussing charity initiatives with controversial philanthropist Brock Pierce at Burning Man 2018. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrom engineer to Ecuadorian evangelist<\/h4>\n
Green was born in Spokane, Washington, where he graduated from high school in the mid-2000s. He was interested in designing planes and rocketships but decided not to pursue mechanical engineering after he realized that much of the industry was oriented toward military applications. Instead, he went into chemical engineering at the University of Washington in 2003.<\/p>\n
At the end of his studies in 2006, he interned at biopharmaceutical firm Amgen, where he helped \u201cgenetically engineer Chinese hamster ovary cells to produce human proteins,\u201d he recalls, describing a \u201ccreepy process\u201d in a laboratory filled with vats of blood. Later, he worked as a research assistant at his alma mater, turning algae into carbon-neutral fuel.<\/p>\n
He soon found himself employed as an \u201corganizer of a really weird political movement in Seattle\u201d called \u201cSave Our Sonics\u201c trying to lobby the local government to keep NBA basketball team the Seattle SuperSonics from relocating to Oklahoma. His efforts ended with disappointment when the mayor \u201csold the team away anyway with just the stroke of a pen,\u201d just as a judge was about to rule in the team\u2019s favor. This left Green with an \u201cimpression of political movements being outmatched and outgunned\u201d by corrupt elites.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nAn alter to DOGE at Burning Man. (Pic: Elias Ahonen)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n <\/p>\n
In 2007, Green joined SNC-Lavalin, a large construction and engineering firm, as a process engineer where he \u201chad an ethical dilemma\u201d regarding a job requirement to create a structure that sent highly acidic water into the ocean in a country with weak environmental regulations. He \u201ctried to tweak the calculation a little bit\u201d in order to decrease the pollution level and give the ocean ecosystem a break. His suggestions were not accepted, and \u201cNow, there\u2019s a pipe that I designed pumping shit into the ocean, and that really weighs on me,\u201d he says in a somber manner.<\/p>\n
When layoffs came around in 2008, he had been putting his paychecks into gold and silver, as he had recently started \u201cfeeling like the whole system is a corrupt conspiracy.\u201d He bought a pop-top van that he drove to Burning Man, a counterculture event held each summer in the Nevada desert. Something about the experience inspired him to see the world, and he took off on an adventure that never ended \u2014 precious metals in tow.<\/p>\n
He traveled around, volunteering in Ecuador and Columbia the first year and India and Southeast Asia the next, always returning \u201chome\u201c to Burning Man in August. Along the way, he learned about Bitcoin and bought some with $3,000 worth of gold.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n \n \n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Fan tokens: Day trading your favorite sports team<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 7, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n What it\u2019s like when the banks collapse: Iceland 2008 firsthand<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 5, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Crypto City: Guide to Tokyo<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> October 1, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Before NFTs: Surging interest in pre-CryptoPunk collectibles<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 27, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\n \n \n <\/div><\/a>\n <\/div>\n \n \n Bitcoin ledger as a secret weapon in war against ransomware<\/a><\/h3>\n <\/i> September 16, 2021<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/article>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/p>\n
In 2013, his BTC \u201cwent to $24,000 \u2014 I was used to living really cheaply, like $3 per night hostels with cold showers,\u201d he recalls. Green saw potential and became so obsessed with Bitcoin that he told his girlfriend, \u201cYou\u2019re great and all, but I like Bitcoin more, and I\u2019m going to Ecuador, and I\u2019m going to be the Andreas Antonopoulos<\/a> of Ecuador,\u201d referring to a desire to bring cryptocurrency to the country with which he had fallen in love during his travels.<\/p>\n\u201cI became obsessed. My girlfriend got jealous \u2014 we literally broke up because she was jealous of Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
In Ecuador, Green went around college campuses, popping into random computer science classes to give presentations about Bitcoin and teach everyone how to set up a wallet, which he would then fund with a small amount, asking each person to find three new people to send a fraction of their coins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d knock on the classroom door unannounced, and I\u2019d be like, \u2018Hey, I want to give everyone in this classroom a little bit of Bitcoin and explain it to them.\u2019 I\u2019d say five times out of seven, they let me in,\u201d Green recalls with a laugh. Soon, however, he saw that Ecuador was moving to ban Bitcoin, so he abandoned his missionary post. \u201cI had to bail,\u201d he recounts.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nGriff Green\u2019s Burning Man camp banner, featuring the Silk Road camel with religious iconography, replacing baby Jesus with a Doge.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nThe giving principle<\/h4>\n
Green organizes DECENTRAL and DOGECENTRAL, two cryptocurrency-themed camps at Burning Man, which is a radically oriented 10-day festival founded upon 10 principles including radical inclusion, gifting, radical self-reliance and civic responsibility. With the camps, Green aims to \u201cbuild a bridge between the Burning Man community and the crypto community so there can be an exchange of ideas and culture,\u201d something he feels \u201ccan change the world somehow.\u201d The two communities have much in common as socially critical movements but tend toward opposing extremes regarding economic philosophy.<\/p>\n
Swayed by his experiences in both political activism and engineering, Green is critical of the \u201chyper capitalism\u201d that he sees in the cryptocurrency industry. \u201cIf all you know is capitalism, then you\u2019re just going to do capitalism better, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s necessarily the right thing. But hey, look, there\u2019s this gift economy!\u201d he says, referring to what is known as the \u201cgifting principle\u201c at Burning Man, where money and any kind of trade or barter is banned.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe goal is to say, \u2018Wow! Look at what economics really is \u2014 let\u2019s go a step beyond capitalism and start looking at how we can coordinate value production.\u2019\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Green thinks of economies like games \u2014 one can play the game in a capitalist manner to benefit themselves or they can play for the benefit of others. This desire to create an economic environment that rewards people for doing societal good inspired him to start crypto donation platform Giveth in late 2016. \u201cWhat if we integrate values and culture as part of the economic system?\u201d he ponders.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Legal threats started pouring in, telling the group that the ETC should be distributed, despite the fact that \u201cWe were just normal people, we didn\u2019t have a company,\u201d he says looking back. All the members of the group jumped on planes and \u201cflew to Switzerland to figure out legal representation, and it was the first time we all met in person.\u201d Eventually, the funds were returned through a DApp that Green\u2019s team coded.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n About a year later in November 2017, the team had similar success rescuing $210 million from the Parity multisig wallet hack<\/a>. \u201cWe wanted to tell everyone, \u2018Hey, guess what? We stole all this money, but you can trust us because we already gave back all the money in The DAO,\u2019\u201d Green recalls. But he explains that this was risky for the now-public team because anyone could use Google to find out where they \u2014 and thus, the private keys \u2014 could be found. That night, Green \u201cslept on a mattress with a baseball bat in front of the door,\u201d fearing someone might come to take the keys by force.<\/p>\n Hacking is not the only way in which Green has put himself at risk in the name of his principles. When the autonomous region of Catalonia attempted<\/a> to vote for independence from Spain in 2017, Green went to a polling station to act as a human shield to protect the electoral process from \u201cthe police, who were beating people to steal the ballots.\u201d This experience convinced Green that decentralized governance on the blockchain can only work efficiently if people are able to run their nodes without relying on centralized internet providers. The result was DAppNode, which helps people around the world set up peer-to-peer infrastructure.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Green was born in Spokane, Washington, where he graduated from high school in the mid-2000s. He was interested in designing planes and rocketships but decided not to pursue mechanical engineering after he realized that much of the industry was oriented toward military applications. Instead, he went into chemical engineering at the University of Washington in 2003.<\/p>\n At the end of his studies in 2006, he interned at biopharmaceutical firm Amgen, where he helped \u201cgenetically engineer Chinese hamster ovary cells to produce human proteins,\u201d he recalls, describing a \u201ccreepy process\u201d in a laboratory filled with vats of blood. Later, he worked as a research assistant at his alma mater, turning algae into carbon-neutral fuel.<\/p>\n He soon found himself employed as an \u201corganizer of a really weird political movement in Seattle\u201d called \u201cSave Our Sonics\u201c trying to lobby the local government to keep NBA basketball team the Seattle SuperSonics from relocating to Oklahoma. His efforts ended with disappointment when the mayor \u201csold the team away anyway with just the stroke of a pen,\u201d just as a judge was about to rule in the team\u2019s favor. This left Green with an \u201cimpression of political movements being outmatched and outgunned\u201d by corrupt elites.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2007, Green joined SNC-Lavalin, a large construction and engineering firm, as a process engineer where he \u201chad an ethical dilemma\u201d regarding a job requirement to create a structure that sent highly acidic water into the ocean in a country with weak environmental regulations. He \u201ctried to tweak the calculation a little bit\u201d in order to decrease the pollution level and give the ocean ecosystem a break. His suggestions were not accepted, and \u201cNow, there\u2019s a pipe that I designed pumping shit into the ocean, and that really weighs on me,\u201d he says in a somber manner.<\/p>\n When layoffs came around in 2008, he had been putting his paychecks into gold and silver, as he had recently started \u201cfeeling like the whole system is a corrupt conspiracy.\u201d He bought a pop-top van that he drove to Burning Man, a counterculture event held each summer in the Nevada desert. Something about the experience inspired him to see the world, and he took off on an adventure that never ended \u2014 precious metals in tow.<\/p>\n He traveled around, volunteering in Ecuador and Columbia the first year and India and Southeast Asia the next, always returning \u201chome\u201c to Burning Man in August. Along the way, he learned about Bitcoin and bought some with $3,000 worth of gold.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n In 2013, his BTC \u201cwent to $24,000 \u2014 I was used to living really cheaply, like $3 per night hostels with cold showers,\u201d he recalls. Green saw potential and became so obsessed with Bitcoin that he told his girlfriend, \u201cYou\u2019re great and all, but I like Bitcoin more, and I\u2019m going to Ecuador, and I\u2019m going to be the Andreas Antonopoulos<\/a> of Ecuador,\u201d referring to a desire to bring cryptocurrency to the country with which he had fallen in love during his travels.<\/p>\n \u201cI became obsessed. My girlfriend got jealous \u2014 we literally broke up because she was jealous of Bitcoin.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n In Ecuador, Green went around college campuses, popping into random computer science classes to give presentations about Bitcoin and teach everyone how to set up a wallet, which he would then fund with a small amount, asking each person to find three new people to send a fraction of their coins.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d knock on the classroom door unannounced, and I\u2019d be like, \u2018Hey, I want to give everyone in this classroom a little bit of Bitcoin and explain it to them.\u2019 I\u2019d say five times out of seven, they let me in,\u201d Green recalls with a laugh. Soon, however, he saw that Ecuador was moving to ban Bitcoin, so he abandoned his missionary post. \u201cI had to bail,\u201d he recounts.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Green organizes DECENTRAL and DOGECENTRAL, two cryptocurrency-themed camps at Burning Man, which is a radically oriented 10-day festival founded upon 10 principles including radical inclusion, gifting, radical self-reliance and civic responsibility. With the camps, Green aims to \u201cbuild a bridge between the Burning Man community and the crypto community so there can be an exchange of ideas and culture,\u201d something he feels \u201ccan change the world somehow.\u201d The two communities have much in common as socially critical movements but tend toward opposing extremes regarding economic philosophy.<\/p>\n Swayed by his experiences in both political activism and engineering, Green is critical of the \u201chyper capitalism\u201d that he sees in the cryptocurrency industry. \u201cIf all you know is capitalism, then you\u2019re just going to do capitalism better, and I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s necessarily the right thing. But hey, look, there\u2019s this gift economy!\u201d he says, referring to what is known as the \u201cgifting principle\u201c at Burning Man, where money and any kind of trade or barter is banned.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is to say, \u2018Wow! Look at what economics really is \u2014 let\u2019s go a step beyond capitalism and start looking at how we can coordinate value production.\u2019\u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Green thinks of economies like games \u2014 one can play the game in a capitalist manner to benefit themselves or they can play for the benefit of others. This desire to create an economic environment that rewards people for doing societal good inspired him to start crypto donation platform Giveth in late 2016. \u201cWhat if we integrate values and culture as part of the economic system?\u201d he ponders.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nFrom engineer to Ecuadorian evangelist<\/h4>\n
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The giving principle<\/h4>\n