Components for a Better World

My vision and personal mission

I wrote about my personal mission here: "to pay all of humanity for the use of the commons, and let everyone touch and shape the commons again." I would add to that now "to make commons more common." I wrote about some ways to do that here.

These components form a framework for building the world that fits my person mission. Without them, anything else I build will tend to worsen the problems I'm trying to address. (To understand why, please read Progress and Poverty by Henry George.)

The components

I'll list seven components and mention how they depend on each other or work well together. They are:

Unitap, BrightID (with Aura), Attention Streams, Celeste, Gardens, Median Vote, and Agora.

There are other technologies that underpin them, most of which are part of the vast technological commons which has already been built.

Please also check out Giveth, CLR.Fund and Gitcoin which are long time friends of BrightID, and help to provide funding to public goods (and commons).

Unitap

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1527967729390608386/MAHKDylh_400x400.jpg

Unitap is way to distribute universal dividends. It's a platform for "universal dividends with choice," a concept I discuss in this article.

Stage

Unitap launched in 2022. It started by distributing gas tokens and is adding networks. It will soon expand to distribute project tokens and offer prize raffles for NFTs.

Depends on

BrightID

Depended on by

Agora

Works well with

Attention Streams, Gardens

BrightID

https://forum.brightid.org/uploads/db2410/original/1X/c2251a1a8d9170b90d0631f7ebcec917aa06b3b0.png

BrightID is a way to ensure that a person can only claim something once (for example, a dividend or a right to vote). It does this by analyzing social connections in a privacy-preserving way: no personal information is shared with anyone except those that already know it. Apps using BrightID don't get to see a user's BrightID, they just get a signed verification from a BrightID node attesting that the user is only using the app with one account.

Aura is the latest verification method used by BrightID.

Stage

BrightID launched in 2019, and has been continually improving since then. You can view apps using it and stats here.

Depended on by

Unitap, Median Vote, Celeste

Attention Streams

Attention Streams is a way to pay people to find great ideas. This is important for increasing engagement with a commons or a DAO. My idea for a land trust that pays a universal dividend could be administered using Attention Streams.

Stage

A team was commissioned in 2022 to integrate Attention Streams with SongADAO to rank and categorize SongADay's over 5000 songs. At the time of this writing, the team has not yet delivered the integration, but they've written the necessary smart contracts.

Depends on

Celeste

Works well with

Unitap, Gardens

Celeste

https://miro.medium.com/max/690/1*u6oHmYdNmTCJzcNQF8_rcA.png

Celeste is a subjective oracle used to resolve disputes arising from optimistic actions. It does so in a predictable, inclusive, and democratic fashion.

Stage

Celeste is a core component of all Gardens DAOs.

Depends on

BrightID

Depended on by

Gardens, Attention Streams, Agora

Gardens

Gardens are a type of DAO featuring "TAO voting" which ensures that proposals are in line with a DAO's written covenant. They also feature "conviction voting" which reduces voter fatigue by allowing votes to grow in strength and pass without a quorum.

Stage

1Hive, the first Gardens DAO launched in 2020, and since then several other DAOs have launched with the Gardens model.

Depends on

Celeste

Works well with

Attention Streams, Unitap, Median Vote

Median Vote

A simple, democratic method to answer a numerical question.

Stage

Not yet implemented

Depends on

BrightID

Depended on by

Agora

Works well with

Gardens

Agora

Democratic stable money.

Stage

Not yet implemented

Depends on

Median Vote, Celeste, Unitap

Work on a better world

If you're interested in working on one of these components, contact me on keybase or discord.