Learning for change : Blockchains as social innovations

We all know about the rise of bitcoin. Bitcoins are a blockchain. Can we somehow use this technology to make social innovation rise as well? This was the question that Francisco Santos asked himself, while challenging us to develop social innovative blockchains.

Bitcoin is a blockchain, a blockchain is a chain made out of blocks. Each block contains a certain amount of information. When a block is full, it will be encrypted and linked to the previous block. These blocks altogether make up the blockchain. Everybody uses the same blockchain, so nobody can corrupt the information within it. And because of the encryption each person can only read the information accessible to them.

How can we use this technology for social innovation? At the moment we know bitcoin mostly because its usage by the dark web. A blockchain by itself is nothing more than a really big ledger and is a neutral entity. We gave bitcoin a value that is expressed in money. But we can also use this technology to record other things of value.

During a group exercise, my group suggested to share time in the spirit of the sharing and participation economy. At the moment when you volunteer, you do it out of altruism. We looked for a way the stimulate people helping other people without it costing money. Our social blockchain records the time you spent for example doing groceries for a disabled person. This person rates your help and after he reviewed, you receive this time in your wallet. This time you can later use when you need help. For example when you’re old or if you just had a baby and require help. If you are truly altruistic you can of course still donate your time to the needy.

So can we use blockchain for social innovation? This session showed that yes, there are social applications to blockchain.