Making commitments wherever you are

What if we could set and formalise our agreements and commitments, for a place and a time, to enable hyper-local economic zones with specific rules made by us, for us?

The idea of CivicBlocks was developed in the Blockchain City Lab at Design & the City in Amsterdam by James Stewart, Max Dovey & Corina Angheloiu in collaboration with Design Informatics. This group of participants during the Blockchain City workshop questioned the traditional and common norms and rules that govern our relationships and activities to enable communities to join location-based funds available only to the whole group rather than individuals. The example of marriage was chosen for its traditional, fixed, legal configuration which they updated into a mobile, contemporary, digital smart contract to open up the opportunity for communities and publics more generally to join finances for a specific purpose over a flexible period of time.

Taking inspiration from marriage rituals in other cultures, e. g. pagan celtic handfasting, the team designed their app allowing participants to create a temporary social economic contract, or Handfastr, by tapping the marriage button on their phone whilst being in proximity to one or several partners within a marriage zone. Sealing a romantic, social or communal agreement in the blockchain can join holiday or project finances as bitcoin wallets for the duration of a few days or as long as the members agree. For the duration of this bond, the participants are only able to spend coins if they are in close physical proximity with one another.

Handfastr – making commitments wherever you are from Corina A. on Vimeo.