30 August 2022

Fidál, 11 Asmá’ (Names), 179 B.E

Seen

A female Hentz orbweaver (Neoscona crucifera) on her way to lie in wait in the soffit for whatever unsuspecting future meal gets stuck in the massive web below her.

Done

Started outlining the potential use of peer-to-peer distributed ledger technology (DLT) in documenting the flow of human value in social systems. I began posting about it today to the Raising The Value of Learning Slack group:

If NFTs (here’s an article that describes the terminology in more detail: What is NFT and what does it mean in blockchain?) can “own” the commons, this moves the conversation into legal questions concerning ownership (or control over use) of real and personal property. Shortly after blockchain technology came on the scene with the introduction of the term bitcoin in late 2008, several of us, like Sam Rose (here’s a recently published paper that Sam contributed to about food systems dynamics: Food Security as Ethics and Social Responsibility: An Application of the Food Abundance Index in an Urban Setting) and Paul Hartzog, who were collaborating on an USDA-SCRI-RPI grant (awarded in 2008) focused on local food systems in Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, considered the possibility of using blockchain to create an inventory of resources in order to track their flows (traceability) in a local food system from production and processing to distribution and preparation. The concern wasn’t over ownership, necessarily, but of mapping exchanges throughout the value chain and developing frameworks with which we could see where interruptions occurred in the flows, determine causes, and seek solutions. We were a little too far ahead of the game some 10+ years ago, but now this approach is gaining (or is in position to gain) more traction.

According to the Holochain Projects webpage: “Holochain represents a new concept in software architecture and provides unique qualities that neither Web 2.0 nor blockchain offer.” It also includes a blurb about use cases:

Why distributed apps?

Holochain is designed to address the original vision of the Internet: creation of an antifragile and secure peer-to-peer computing system. Unlike client-server apps, distributed apps allow individuals to communicate directly with one another. The architecture of Holochain mimics living systems in an attempt to reach a greater level of collective coordination, scalability, and resilience as compared to existing systems which are designed around multiple single-points-of-failure.

It goes on to state that “local economies” would benefit from the use of Holochain and specifically lists timebanking as an example. This suggests that one might be able to track / trace the flow of human value exchanges in terms of one’s time in blocks associated with the use of property to yield outcomes and consequences throughout tangible and intangible processes. What an opportunity for timebanks!

As you already know, I’m getting more immersed in the combined power of virtualization, visualization and gamification to give us untold opportunities to experiment, in a virtual world (metaverse, for instance), with alternative ways to organize ourselves into social structures, in the real world, that facilitate our mutual support in securing our basic needs. A discussion in Holochain forum explores with this topic: Holochain and the Metaverse - what are the possibilities? This takes the topic of community commons into an entirely different and more expansive reality.

Noted

Astral Prospecting on Instagram and Astral Prospecting on Facebook

Marc Bosserman on Instagram Marc Bosserman on Facebook, and Marc Bosserman Music and Musings on YouTube

Tab’s Galaxy on YouTube

Quoted

We must not be content with simply following a certain course because we find our fathers pursued that course. It is the duty of everyone to investigate reality, and investigation of reality by another will not do for us. If all in the world were rich and one man poor, of what use are these riches to that man? If all the world be virtuous and a man steeped in vice, what good results are forthcoming from him? If all the world be resplendent and a man blind, where are his benefits? If all the world be in plenty and a man hungry, what sustenance does he derive? Therefore, every man must be an investigator for himself. Ideas and beliefs left by his fathers and ancestors as a heritage will not suffice, for adherence to these are but imitations, and imitations have ever been a cause of disappointment and misguidance. Be investigators of reality that you may attain the verity of truth and life. ¹