Learning for change: Blockchain - its rise and origins

As Francisco Santos begins to introduce his session on ‘’Social innovation and blockchains’’ he explains that since he started his thesis on blockchains, he realised how diverse the world of social innovation can be. He asks the audience what social innovation is and the answers are plural.

The introduction of the first laws of technology tackle the idea that technological advancement is neither good or bad, but neutral. Bitcoin as a digital currency and even blockchains are seen as ledgers and Santos is quick to explain the story of Mr. Nakamoto, the inventor of bitcoin. At this point the session is taking a classroom vibe and it’s interesting to see the participants in the panel interacting and answering questions while reflecting on the anonymity paradigm that reflects bitcoin and its currency crashes.

‘’What do you work for?’’ Santos asks the audience. ‘’For the money’’ someone in the audience answers.

The globality and workability of bitcoin’s processor's- the miner's- helps the audience understand that there is the creation of a chain in order to make the currency go from place A from place B. Miner's are paid in bitcoins so just like the participant, these individuals work for the money.

‘’What do you call a blue bitcoin? A blue bitcoin’’. Francisco clarifies that the meaning of things affects how they are shared. And that effectively means that there is a new possibility for a new financialization of the world.

Ethereum is a good example of the use of blockchains- and this is blockchain 2.0. The revolutionary idea behind this is the introduction of contracts. This mechanism works for the creation of smart contracts. But how can we develop more projects like this? How can we transition to a world of sharing economies?

‘’Take Uber for example’’ is there a possibility of making it more centralised and introduce a contract system like the one from Ethereum? In the end, technology is neither good or bad.

For the speaker blockchains are the future. Working towards a circular economy is a part of social innovation and it could work with a coordination of efforts between businesses, governments and of course, citizens.

But the bitcoin market value is still somehow unstable- which causes the instability of tokens and lead to massive inflation- ‘’10,000 bitcoins for a pizza’’- but there is a positive note here, if bitcoin works to buy pizza, we can use it for many other things. Nevertheless, as for the example of inflation, there are other challenges faced by bitcoin- hacking, scaling, scamming, forking, robbery and lack of legal ownership.

With some guidance from Santos, the audience begins designing an example blockchain in smaller groups.

A system where time can be used to hire individuals to perform a specific services while contributing to the pensions of the elderly and a database that would record the genetic history of seeds by providing transparency to the agricultural chains are some of the ideas proposed by the participants. Santos is able to prove his initial point that the utilization and potential of blockchains are (and could be) the future of social innovation.

At this point of the session, the conclusion is somehow natural- we need to generate a narrative that keeps the collective together- but where will that narrative lie? Smart contracts? Francisco Santos says the discussion on blockchains is hard to conclude but hopefully more sessions like these will come generating discussion, ideas and plans for the future.