Call for interest to co-design Principles for Blockchain for Good
What does it mean to use ‘blockchain for good’? How do we determine a positive use of blockchain? Join the collaborative effort to define the principles for the growing and maturing, decentralized technology space.
Written by:
Jessica Salama, Razali Samsudin, Lucas Zaehringer, Maciej Bulanda
The aim of the “blockchain for good guiding principles” initiative is to establish a universal manifesto, a compass of sorts, created by and for the people and organizations that want to harness blockchain technology for good and achieve positive social and environmental impact.
“Technology, like art, is a soaring exercise of the human imagination” — Daniel Bell
Why do we need guiding principles?
As blockchain is reaching the masses, humans are using their imagination to shape this foundation of technology in plenty of ways. The new magical blocks seem to redefine the ways values are created, shared and stored across individuals, organizations, and public institutions.
Smart contracts, NFT, Web3, Crypto, and the 4good movement are spreading across all forms of blockchain, as new applications and ecosystems emerge. They range from all areas of society to generate positive outcomes for the betterment of energy systems, democracy, financial inclusion, supply chains, healthcare, digital arts and content, education and sciences, and climate change mitigation.
With these transformative tools and technology at hand comes great responsibility and great dilemmas: go public or private; be in control, or let go; ensure immutability or trade it over efficiency; how to be “green”? etc. These choices will have a fundamental impact on our future and they are already being made by global players who have stormed the Web3 space in the last few years. In this decentralised new reality, there is an inherent vacuum of principles and values, which is often being taken advantage of for particular interests.
It is in this context that the global community of change-makers: users, designers, impact and sustainability practitioners, members of academia, shall come together and define a framework of guidelines for those who want to harness blockchain for good, and those who want to call their projects as “positive blockchain”, “blockchain for good”, or “for impact”.
What were our guidelines so far?
Since 2017, a shared understanding of the positive social and environmental potential of blockchain applications is what has led a growing group of individuals around the world to create a PositiveBlockchain community. Today, as a community-led non-profit association we are mapping blockchain use-cases advancing the sustainable development goals (SDGs). Five years later, as blockchain space has matured, we believe that now more than ever people involved in this space “for good” need a further alignment to share the same language and unite behind shared principles, to recognize and strengthen their efforts.
We acknowledge and recognize the existing references and standards, which already exist such as the Sustainable Development Goals — which remain the global guidelines for positive impact, or the Principles for Digital Development — which practically advise how to do it with digital tools. In our research, however, we observed a lack of shared definitions and missing principles in the area of blockchain for sustainable development and therefore are calling for contributions to co-design them.
How do we get there?
Mindful of the inclusivity and transparency we do not want to define these principles alone. To begin the process somewhere we propose themes and areas that the principles (or any other preferred name) should cover:
- Green impact & carbon intensity of blockchain systems
- Inclusivity by design, user-centricity
- Focus on education
- Collaboration
- Access and participation
- Open-source
- Data-driven decision making
- Scalability
This is just a list to plant a seed for discussion and co-creation. In order to come up with the right set of principles, we propose the following timeline and process:
- 27.03 (extended): last day to sign up to become co-designer of the Principles
- 19.04 - 8am CET: co-design workshop and ideation #2
- 25.04 - 5pm CET: co-design workshop and ideation #1
- 02.05: launch of stakeholder consultation (survey)
- 15.05: collecting inputs and formalizing the principles
- 15.06: communication of the principles
Join the movement by registering here!
