Blockchain technology can do more than save cities
For a bunch of years, I’ve been mildly obsessed with how blockchain technology (the computer infrastructure that serves as the foundation for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin) can be used in urban planning. I’ve written about ways that non-fungible tokens (NFTs), largely popular as collectibles and get-rich-quick schemes, are also a powerful new mechanism for organizing urban affairs and policy. I even wrote and published a book as an NFT.
More recently, I have been experimenting with using AI-powered blockchain frameworks to better organize community participation in housing policy at the local government level. With support from the Progress and Policy Institute, I wrote a couple reports about this work.
In the midst of all of this, a couple of my students and I came up with a new way for people to collaborate online around writing stories. We built a software application on the MATIC blockchain that allows anyone across the Internet to suggest a sentence in a story, others vote it up or down, and then more sentences are contributed. The entire process is recorded on the decentralized ledgers of the MATIC blockchain and each author is appropriately attributed. Perhaps more important than attribution, in the event that the story has commercial value, the sale of the story would automatically generate royalty income for all the authors.
In today’s era of contested intellectual property rights, this platform, what we call Collaborate Story Lab, provides a way for authors to write together and share ownership and future income together.
The project builds on a very old creative process called the Exquisite Corpse, where each participant does a drawing or piece of writing and passes their work to the next contributor - resulting in an original (and often fantastic) creative work.
I’m happy to share with you that our “Exquisite Corpse” website has launched in Beta mode: https://collaborativestorylab.vercel.app/ so please check it out and let me know your thoughts.
Just a head’s up: there is a minor barrier to access, you need to set up a digital wallet. If you’re under 25, I’m sure you already have one that you use for Kalsi to bet on sports, but otherwise you will need to take a few steps. The good news is we posted a guide and there are thousands of other ones out there online. I’m also happy to walk you through the process. It will most certainly be worth it!
Happy writing!
Best,
Justin