Blockchain for Civic Good

Timeframe: 2018-2019

To what extent can the application of blockchain technologies be employed to promote civic empowerment? In this project, we’ve been exploring this question as well as exploring the ways in which the often claimed “disruptive potential” of blockchain and distributed ledger technologies can radically transform local civc and circular economies, can redistribute power between state and citizens, reinstate trust in civic organisations, or indeed lead to entirely new types of institutions. We’ve been examining these issues through a series of design charrettes where multi-disciplinary teams working on blockchain and civics related projects come together to develop, explore and critique future scenarios where it is assumed these technologies have matured and being repurposed by commercial entities and public and political organisations for civic purposes. Our speculations have involved creating future newspaper headlines and stories, design workbooks of future prototypes, and think piece articles and reports documenting our ideas and the concerns they raise.