Hello Habbit! A Game for Human Betterment Built on Blockchain.
Likely not the first app expected from a blockchain committed to promoting sustainability, but a powerful idea nontheless.
Better habits as a cannon for the environment
I used to think the top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse, and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with those we need a cultural and spiritual transformation.” — Gus Speth, Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environment
In 1962, Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring revealing to the world the deleterious effects of DDT, which until that point was widely sprayed on agricultural products and even administered to school children to protect them from fleas. Twenty five years later, in 1988, NASA scientist James Hansen testified to Congress how satellite imagery could demonstrate that the emission of carbon dioxide creates a greenhouse effect in the Earth’s atmosphere. Now thirty-five years later, the Earth is not only hotter than ever, but its heating process is accelerating, and triggering feedback loops that bode the probability of ubiquitous global warming to come.
Climate change is merely one problem we’re concerned about here at Bitgreen. The mercurial rise in obesity and diabetes is another, the vicious cycle of depression and antidepressant drug prescription another, a widening GINI coefficient showing a record gap between rich and poor yet another, and more.
So what’s an entrepreneurial team to do?
- Put on blinders and build a food delivery app
- Trust in the system that got us here in the first place
- Try as many creative ideas as we can in an attempt to counterpunch these trends
We chose Option 3.
Introducing Habbit (https://habbit.bitgreen.org), likely not the first app expected from a blockchain committed to promoting sustainability and impact initiatives. Nonetheless, Habbit is a powerful app built to help people adopt better habits and eliminate negative patterns from their lives. Designed as a fun game played over one month, our system targets root behaviors and the psychological factors that contribute to goal attainment.
The ultimate objective for Habbit is as simple and cliche as a greeting card: to improve people’s lives and wellbeing. We believe that the safer and more secure people feel, the more prone they will be to treating each other and the world around them with greater empathy and consideration. Hopefully, all of this without antidepressants. Not sorry, Pfizer.
Habit builds off of several prominent concepts in behavior modification:
Developing Conscious Routines
Conscious routines are critical components of achieving long-term behavior modification until those changes become unconscious and ingrained. This is the premise of the “habit loop” discussed in most books and research on behavior change. The habit loop is a process of identifying a behavior target, implementing a cue to trigger the behavior, and then rewarding the successful accomplishment of the behavior.
Tracking and Fast Feedback
Receiving immediate feedback is critical for learning and performance improvement, as substantiated by research. A meta-analysis by Kluger and DeNisi (1996) found that feedback interventions were most effective when delivered immediately and specifically related to performance outcomes. The faster the feedback is delivered, the stronger the connection between action and outcome, and thus learning.
Rewards and Penalties
Positive rewards reinforce desirable behaviors and increase the likelihood of their repetition. Likewise, negative penalties discourage undesirable behaviors and reduce the likelihood of their repetition. Habbit tactically uses rewards and penalties to develop conditioned patterns that ease individuals into modifying their habits to achieve their desired targets.
Social Accountability
The game insists that individuals play in social accountability groups. Drawing from youth sports teams, Habbit engenders a sense of accountability of players to themselves and to their peers, which increases motivation and commitment to goals. Social accountability groups also create a container to receive feedback, advice and encouragement from teammates.
Duration
Each Habbit game is played over the course of one month. Studies show that it takes a minimum of 24 days to implement a new habit and up to 200 days to solidify it. Just so there is no ambiguity: repetition is key, and so is length of repetition.
White-labeling
Ultimately Bitgreen aims to white-label the infrastructure for coaches, trainers, therapists and researchers to create customized and thematic games for their networks. We are also curious how academics could use anonymized data to discern linkages among behaviors and their effects on physical, mental and emotional health.
Thank you’s
The list goes on and on who to credit for inspiring this product. A few names that come to mind: James Clear for Atomic Habits, BJ Fogg for Tiny Habits, Charles Duhigg for Power of Habit, Martin Seligman for his contribution to Positive Psychology, Tim Ferriss for seeding my brain with the concept of optimization with 4 Hour Workweek a decade ago, Brian Johnson for sharing ancient wisdom with a contemporary spin, all of the players who share their lives, aspirations, triumphs and failures, and to the many heroes who I look up to.
Let’s improve ourselves to improve the world. Cleaning our own house comes first.
Adam
About Bitgreen
Bitgreen is a leading blockchain project built in the Polkadot ecosystem conceived to advance sustainability and impact initiatives. It focuses on financing renewable energy, conservation, and carbon credits, and developing other creative constructs to promote human betterment.
Find us at https://bitgreen.org
Play Habbit for free at https://habbit.bitgreen.org
