Grasping Blockchain — W1
Designers | Alex Newson • David Han • Sue Heeyeon An • Tatiana Bohsali
External Partner | This Ain’t Rock’n’ Roll
Brief | Design a way to materialise blockchain
I had a very blurry concept of blockchain technology, pretty much close to zero. After the briefing session by Charlie Waterhouse and Clive Russell from This Ain’t Rock’n’Roll, a lot of questions emerged. What is Blockchain? How does it work exactly? Is it only about cryptocurrency? To find answers to these continuous questions, I dived straight into secondary research scoping the blockchain technology itself and Alex and Tatiana looked into the value of Money.
Research
I understood the idea and the aim behind the blockchain, a digital ledger is to decentralise the governance power and distribute it to the individuals by sharing and giving all access to all datas in real time without intermediary. To make this happen, people on the network work collaboratively by verifying the blocks (datas) together in order to add it onto the chain. Yet, my question was - is it truly a decentralised system? By looking at the consensus mechanisms the blockchain uses, especially the Proof of Work (PoW) of Bitcoin, I thought it does not serve the purpose of decentralisation fully. It gives the authority to a specific group of people only who has access to the computational power to update the data onto the blocks which brings up a concern of equality, creating a division (fig 1).
Fig 1. Blockchain Research. Image by Sue
Whereas Algorand developed a new consensus mechanism called Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS) using a Verifiable Random Function (VRF), randomising the people who validates the transactions inside the network. This shares the power to everyone who simply holds an account and blurs the division within the system. From my point of view, blockchain and this mechanism shares a similar value with the Brixton Pound. Brixton Pound moves away from the centralised traditional models and encourages a sustainable local economy by empowering people to make circulating positive feedback in the Brixton economy. This is even present in the design of the bank note by making it relevant to their own local identity.
The most intriguing aspect of blockchain was Smart Contract and Non Fungible Token (NFT). Smart Contract removes domination of power from the middleman but directly connects ‘buyer’ and ‘seller’. Simply put, it saves data in the shared backend allowing people to access the data whenever the condition has been met. For example, hosts and customers would be able to interact and access the property immediately and automatically if Smart Contract is implemented on Airbnb. Furthermore, NFT introduces originality to every digital property from twitter to animations. The aspect I was really interested in was putting value in the ‘original’, giving property rights on the internet and people owning something digital while we are living in the world where people are so used to ‘copy and paste’.
Fig 2. Algorand and Brixton Pound. Image by Sue
Fig 3. Smart Contract and NFT. Image by Sue
Fig 4. Blockchain Generation. Image by David
Fig 5. Development of Consensus Mechanism. Image by David
Values and Metaphors
What is the value of money? What is money even? It was interesting to see how the form of money altered throughout the time, from physical objects to current virtual tokens. From Alex and Tatiana’s research, money seemed to be any material property that people use to exchange something. What was crucial was trust and I thought this applied similar to Blockchain as well. It was building trust through verifying the transactions together, building a concrete community or a society. They have also done artefact analysis of objects that shares similar values and to redefine the value of money. This made us move onto the notion of metaphors by Lackoff and Johnson, seeking different viewpoints on money and blockchain.
Fig 6. Artefact Analysis. Image by Tatiana and Alex
Reflection
The blockchain technology was such a complex system which was very challenging to grasp immediately. There was a massive amount of information to digest and different aspects to discover further. If so, which aspect of blockchain are we materialising? Then how do we introduce this concept to make it understandable to people?
Fig 7. Presentation. Image by Ines.
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Bibliography
Conway, L. (2021) Blockchain Explained. Available at: https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/blockchain.asp (Accessed: 23 April 2021).
Chen, J and Micali, S. (2017) Algorand. Available at: https://algorandcom.cdn.prismic.io/algorandcom%2Fece77f38-75b3-44de-bc7f-805f0e53a8d9_theoretical.pdf (Accessed: 24 April 2021).
Design Museum (n.d) Q&A with Brixton Pound / Brixtopia. Available at: https://designmuseum.org/exhibitions/hope-to-nope-graphics-and-politics-2008-18/hope-to-nope-in-depth/qa-with-brixton-poundbrixtopia (Accessed: 24 April 2021).
Greenfield, A. (2018) Radical Technologies: The Design of Everyday Life. London: Verso.
Nakamoto, S. (2008) ‘Bitcoin: A Peer-to-Peer Electronic Cash System’. Available at:https://bitcoin.org/bitcoin.pdf (Accessed: 23 April 2021)