Distroid Issue 9
Welcome to Distroid, a monthly newsletter featuring the latest on the impact of emerging technologies and digital transformation on society, with an emphasis on counter-movements.
Distroid is put together by Charles (Ledgerback Digital Commons Research Cooperative).
It includes links to the latest research, useful articles, videos, podcasts, tweets, tools, project updates and events. Expect a new edition at the end of every month and be sure to share and subscribe!
Requests For Collaboration
Recently, Charlie Fisher came to the LDCRC Slack asking for assistance on how blockchain (and cryptocurrencies and DAOs) can be used for citizen-led governance of a revolving equity fund for land purchases.
If you are knowledgeable (or have the desire to learn) about this area or you are working on a project involving blockchain use-cases in financing land (or real estate) purchases, or you know someone who is, please send Charlie Fisher a message on Slack with your contact information and how you can help him on his project.
Here is Charlie Fisher’s initial message he posted on Slack detailing his project:
Hi! Not quite sure if I'm in the right place yet but I enjoyed going through the links above. I work for an architecture co-operative in Oxford and doing PhD research on citizen-led affordable housing models.
I landed here because I'm working with five councils in Oxfordshire (UK) to establish a £1-5m revolving equity fund for land purchase. Primarily for citizen-led housing but that's just the entry-point (rewilding, growing, energy).
In my job I help groups of people set up the legal, financial and people-organising basis for community land trusts including advice on withdrawable share offers. I'm just coming to the potential of scale through digital as I get involved in bigger schemes (e.g. I currently have the task of suggesting approaches to creative governance for a new Garden Village of over 2000 homes).
For the equity fund I'm trying to work out if we could use a form of citizen-governed distributed finance to sit alongside the co-operative organisations so a) we don't get slowed down by the structures that council officers/politicians sit within b) reduce cost and time-wastage of administering an equity fund manually and c) the value system for why projects get funded is discussed and decided at a neighbourhood or city scale.
This could be just the governance platform or it could be a token backed by stable land assets around Oxford.
I've been to courses and events on DAOs/DHOs/DiSCOs and my focus would still be on the human relationships - I don't yet know if incorporating ideas from blockchain/DLT projects will be a distraction to actually getting land projects funded. I'm used to running funding decisions on Loomio.
I've started forming a list of examples but nothing that fits exactly so far. Getting involved in the Seeds community has been useful and the Greenpoint Land Reserve has similar elements.
Research
Exit To Community: Strategies for Multi-Stakeholder Ownership in the Platform Economy
Blockchain & the SDGs: How Decentralisation Can Make a Difference
Articles
Indie.vc: Unicorns Are Out, Profits Are In (Possible Paywall)
The Imitation of Consciousness: On the Present and Future of Natural Language Processing
Curve Drama Intensifies as New Proposals Target alUSD and Saddle Finance
The Linux Foundation dives into machine learning with Open Voice Network, dataset licence launches
What Most Critics Miss About NFTs: The Participants Are Non-Fungible Too
Cryptocurrency Blockchains Don’t Need To Be Energy Intensive
Videos/Podcast
Jaan Tallinn on Avoiding Civilizational Pitfalls and Surviving the 21st Century
Creating anti-rival tokens for collaboration and sharing in ATARCA
Tools
Guides and Resources
Project Updates
Events/Hackathons
Opportunities
Call for Papers
Grants
Tweets
Games
Thank you for reading this edition of Distroid! I hope you liked it. Be sure to subscribe to get the next edition in your inbox.
Also, if you have something you think should be included in the next edition, or something you think we should do differently with the format—send us a Tweet or leave a comment!
If you are looking for assistance in brainstorming, desk research, or help finding collaborators for your project, please send us an email at ledgerback@gmail.com or come to our Slack and we will try to assist you the best we can.
Lastly, keep up with what I’m reading by joining the LDCRC’s Hypothesis group.
LDCRC is a 501(c)(3) independent research institute for independent scholars and enthusiasts studying the impact of emerging technologies and digital transformation on society.
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