2026-06-14 –, Bread Coop Zone (Studio)
A panel exploring how democratic governance and technology intersect, examining cooperative models, participatory decision-making, and the role of digital infrastructure in enabling collective action.
Tara Merk is a postdoc researcher at the CNRS, Paris, an ICDE research fellow at The New School in New York and associate researcher at the Weizenbaum Institute in Berlin. Her research focuses on alternative ownership models in the digital economy, participatory (digital) governance design, open-source communities, and blockchain technology.
In her PhD thesis she explored the process of Exit to Community, i.e. transitioning organizations and technologies in the digital platform economy into community ownership and governance.
Tara has previously worked with Other Internet, Metagov, the GIZ, and as a consultant, educator and strategy analyst across the blockchain ecosystem.
Joshua Dávila is a writer and podcaster of The Blockchain Socialist focused on the intersection of technology, politics, and post-capitalist thought. Originally operating under a pseudonym, he publicly emerged with the publication of his book Blockchain Radicals: How Capitalism Ruined Crypto and How to Fix It, released by Repeater Books in 2023. He is a co-founder of the Breadchain Cooperative, which develops crypto applications from a post-capitalist perspective.
Dávila has interviewed leading voices in the crypto space such as Vitalik Buterin, Ethan Buchman, and Chris Goes, as well as critics like Cory Doctorow. He has collaborated with researchers like Primavera De Filippi to explore the ideological roots of the Network State concept. His writing has appeared in publications including Friends With Benefits and Outland, and he is the co-author of the science fiction series Katabasis Chronicles with Beth McCarthy.
Andreas Arnold is a Berlin-based social entrepreneur, cooperative strategist, and connector working at the intersection of the cooperative economy, Web3, and community-driven innovation. Trained as an Industrial Engineer and Management expert, he has spent the past 15 years exploring the transition from the sharing economy toward platform cooperatives and decentralized economic systems.
As co-founder and board member of Platform Coops eG, Andreas supports founders and organizations in building cooperative digital business models, governance structures, and alternative financing approaches. His work spans blockchain ecosystems, DAOs, DGOV, marketplaces, and cooperative finance — with a current focus on cooperative stablecoins and community-owned financial infrastructures.
Previously, Andreas led the digitalization and marketplace development for the freelancer cooperative SMartDe eG, coordinated marketplace strategy for the blockchain-based UBI project Circles, and advised Circles Coop eG on cooperative and ecosystem development.
