Making the blockchain civic

Elsden, Chris; Gloerich, Inte; Spaa, Anne; Vines, John; Waal, Martijn de

doi:10.1145/3305364

Cited by 12 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…As an outcome of a speculative design workshop-in which the authors of this chapter participated-on a future in which such a rule of code has been realized, Elsden et al (2019b) introduce the concept The city as a license as a lens to understand and explore what such a shift may entail. The city as a license, is described as "a future in which (semi-)autonomous digital systems administer rights and access to a broad variety of urban resources."…”

Section: Algorithmic Regulation and The City As A Licensementioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, with blockchain-based DAOs, parking places could be programmed to autonomously run a parking service, encoding particular rights and priorities in smart contracts with regard to whom is entitled to use a parking space under what conditions. The city as a whole could then be understood as "a series of licenses to make use of or contribute to the production of particular services such as parking, health, housing, energy or schooling" (Elsden et al, 2019b). It is important to note that this lens was introduced as a heuristic to critically explore the impact of DLTs, not as a design objective in itself.…”

Section: Algorithmic Regulation and The City As A Licensementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Blockchain solutions, aided by smart contracts and cryptocurrencies, likely aim for beneficial social outcomes in highly specific problem areas. To deal with overwhelming numbers of tourists, a city like Amsterdam might put in place tokens that are worth more in less crowded areas of the city, drawing tourists out of the congested city center (Elsden et al, 2019b), and perhaps release those conditions in offseason or off-hour periods. Locals on social welfare might at the same time receive their benefits in a specific token that limits their use to particular white-listed outlets or items, an update of current systems of welfare administration that surveil the poor disproportionately (Maréchal, 2018).…”

Section: The Blockchain As a Normative Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…this workshop, and Adam van Heerden, Irene Kamp, Merel Willemsen, Aspasia Beneti, Nina Fistal, Ben Schouten, Bodo Balasz, Geert Lovink, Chandar van der Zande, Shaun Lawson, Belen Barros Pena, Arthi Manohar, and Nicolai Brodersen Hansen for their participation. An account of the workshop was written up in Elsden et al [2019b].…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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The City as a License. Implications of Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers for Urban Governance

Gloerich

Waal

Ferri

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Cities

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Distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) such as blockchain have in recent years been presented as a new general-purpose technology that could underlie many aspects of social and economic life, including civics and urban governance. In an urban context, over the past few years, a number of actors have started to explore the application of distributed ledgers in amongst others smart city services as well as in blockchain for good and urban commons-projects. DLTs could become the administrative backbones of such projects, as the technology can be set-up as an administration, management and allocation tool for urban resources. With the addition of smart contracts, DLTs can further automate the processing of data and execution of decisions in urban resource management through algorithmic governance. This means that the technological set-up and design of such DLT based systems could have large implications for the ways urban resources are governed. Positive contributions are expected to be made toward (local) democracy, transparent governance, decentralization, and citizen empowerment. We argue that to fully scrutinize the implications for urban governance, a critical analysis of distributed ledger technologies is necessary. In this contribution, we explore the lens of “the city as a license” for such a critical analysis. Through this lens, the city is framed as a “rights-management-system,” operated through DLT technology. Building upon Lefebvrian a right to the city-discourses, such an approach allows to ask important questions about the implications of DLTs for the democratic governance of cities in an open, inclusive urban culture. Through a technological exploration combined with a speculative approach, and guided by our interest in the rights management and agency that blockchains have been claimed to provide to their users, we trace six important issues: quantification; blockchain as a normative apparatus; the complicated relationship between transparency and accountability; the centralizing forces that act on blockchains; the degrees to which algorithmic rules can embed democratic law-making and enforcing; and finally, the limits of blockchain's trustlessness.

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Section: Algorithmic Regulation and The City As A Licensementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Algorithmic Regulation and The City As A Licensementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: The Blockchain As a Normative Apparatusmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

The City as a License. Implications of Blockchain and Distributed Ledgers for Urban Governance

Gloerich

Waal

Ferri

et al. 2020

Front. Sustain. Cities

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…Smart contracts have the potential to provide certainty around data and computation, offering a secure, programmatic method to enable people, objects and spaces to transact without the need for trusted third parties. Previous work has clarified the distinguising features of these technologies in relation to HCI and design, discussing the importance of linking new designs and applications with lived experience [5], and in particular involving publics in civic development [6]. Using a fusion of location-based IoT and DLT to verify and secure location data, the work in this paper explores how people, organisations and existing services could collaborate in providing new services that use location data as part of transactions.…”

Section: Data and Decentralisation In Transport And Logisticsmentioning

confidence: 99%

GeoPact

Tallyn

Revans

Morgan

et al. 2020

Proceedings of the 2020 ACM Designing Interactive Systems Conference

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This paper presents GeoPact, an assembly of technological objects that materialises location-aware smart contracts using internet of things and digital ledger technologies. Such contracts may facilitate the creation of distributed systems and services for transport and logistics that are locally constructed and adaptable, thus supporting specific community needs and sustainable objectives. However the technological infrastructures that underpin these systems are complex, making it difficult to engage publics in design processes. GeoPact grounds infrastructure in relatable physical activities, that are linked with holistic views of the system, and creates new experiences for public engagement. In these activities participants were invited to roleplay as couriers, and to progress through delivery scenarios which were governed by smart contracts. Participants and spectators were then encouraged to discuss their reactions, concerns and ideas. This paper illustrates the GeoPact assembly and reflects on our engagement activities.

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