(De) Centralised — W2
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
To go beyond the research we did last week, we needed to do a deeper analysis of Blockchain Technology, looking at the existing use cases. Also we thought understanding how people consider the equality of consensus mechanism is crucial, whether they feel it is a fair system or not for them to participate in. Alex and Tatiana focused on reframing the Pure Proof of Stake as a lottery to gather insights from people by holding a workshop and David and I started deeper analysis on cryptocurrencies.
Love on the Block
I started reading the ‘Love on the Block’ chapter from a book Alaistair suggested, ‘Artists Re:Thinking the Blockchain’. It introduced a concept called ‘Proof of Love’ which was very intriguing. It uses Bitcoin as a tool to add data, an encrypted vow into their transactions, not to exchange cryptocurrencies but to distribute and leave their marriage consent to be never forgotten - spreading their personal stories that they value. Also it was a way to move away from the traditional wedding ceremony being held with centralised powers. Also, there was a case where a Chinese student used blockchain to spread out her report after it got ignored by her institution.
Experiencing Blockchain in Cryptocurrency
David and I started to explore cryptocurrency platforms to experience how blockchain technology works since we both had no experience in it at all. Our aim was to add data, a text along with the transaction we planned to make, just like ‘Love on the Block’. Even though we did desk research and spoke to people who are currently using these platforms beforehand - Binance, MetaMask, MyEtherWallet and Etherscan, the whole journey was very confusing. During the process, we used four different platforms to make one single transaction, which creates a high technical barrier for the first comers (fig 2).
The cryptocurrency exchange platforms were only used as a trading ledger for a centralised finance society, far away from focusing on the most essential decentralised aspect of blockchain. The functionalities and terminologies (withdraw, deposit, fiat and trade) have great similarity to traditional banking services, even the visual languages - focusing on the investment aspect only. Furthermore, while adding hex strings into the transaction I noticed the longer the text gets the more amount of payment was required. Data = Money. The more you pay the faster the transaction is, due to the gas fee.
From the experience and research, I thought it is crucial to put the distributive, immutable and trustless concept of blockchain technology at the center. A way to expand and utilise it in a more impactful and meaningful context in our project. As Max Dovey asks “What other feelings, relations and social bonds can be re-figured as blockchain transactions?” (p. 254, Dovey. M )
Fig 1. Exploration of Cryptocurrency Platforms. Image by David and Sue.
PPoS Workshop
During the workshop, they have pointed out the PPoS consensus mechanism is not an entirely fair system being a lottery depending on the amount of stake people own. They thought everyone having an equal amount of chance to vote will give more accessibility to people to participate. Then the discussion moved onto how we can prove a person has a right to vote. Specifically, proof of identification and authenticity of it.
Vid 1. Consensus Mechanism Workshop. Edited by Sue and Voice Over by Alex.
Reflection
I had numerous questions popping up in my head from all these complex notions and insights - how do we materialise blockchain? Where can we apply blockchain and what does it mean in Brixton? What is trust in Brixton and how do we externalise this trust in a form? I noticed we were completely missing out Brixton, people in Brixton.
Fig 2. Presentation. Image by Sue.
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Bibliography
Algorand (n.d) ALGORAND’S PURE PROOF-OF-STAKE APPROACH. Available at: https://www.algorand.com/technology/pure-proof-of-stake/ (Accessed: 2 May 2021).
Catlow, R, Garrett, M, Jones, N and Skinner, S. (2017) Artists Re: thinking the Blockchain, 1(3). Torque editions & Futherfield.
CoinMarketCap (n.d) Crypto Glossary. Available at: https://coinmarketcap.com/alexandria/glossary#block-explorer (Accessed: 4 May 2021).
MetaMask (n.d) MetaMask Docs. Available at: https://docs.metamask.io/guide/ (Accessed: 4 May 2021).