Events
Live cast SESSION #2: Values in the blockchain city
The smart city imagined the city as a patchwork of platforms and services to be used by it’s inhabitants and visitors as customers. When blockchain is added to the mix, should we instead imagine the city as a licence, continuously updated and different for each individual? If algorithmic ‘smart’ contracts become the arbiters of rights and distributors of fees and degrees of access, blockchains need to be investigated for the values they support. Will a blockchain city be a fair city? Could urban blockchains be used to create common resources, like housing?
Perhaps blockchains could be designed to support an alternative economic model, one that puts ecological concerns and solidarity central. What if smart contracts were made to strive for equality among inhabitants? Or are blockchains inextricably tied to capitalist logics and will they always quantify and ultimately economize everything they touch? Who has a say in the design of these complex technological systems? What are the possibilities for opening up the design of urban systems to grassroots organizers?