Erik is joined by Vinay Gupta, CEO of Mattereum, for a wide ranging discussion about crypto, world government, existential risks, science fiction, energy, and much more. Vinay says that venture capital is a 40-year-old model and that the ICO boom — while having its own significant drawbacks — was a huge innovation in capital formation. He explains why the blockchain is such a huge innovation with wide-ranging applications and laments the fact that people have a hard time seeing past its application in digital currency. He lays out his thoughts on why reputation systems are broken and why Facebook could in a few years’ time be essentially a credit rating agency and a digital identity system for all aspects of your life. Vinay discusses the existential risks that the world faces today, and why the lack of environmental sustainability is at the top of his list of fears. He says that he is neither a Keynesian or an Austrian, but instead subscribes to “ecological economics.” They also talk about the influence of science fiction on engineers, the idea of "network escrow," why we need a nerd in the White House, and novel ideas for generating energy. Thanks for listening — if you like what you hear, please review us on your favorite podcast platform. Check us out on the web at villageglobal.vc or get in touch with us on Twitter @villageglobal. Venture Stories is brought to you by Village Global, is hosted by co-founder and partner, Erik Torenberg and is produced by Brett Bolkowy.