Brixstop

This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll,

with MA:UX

2021

This Ain’t Rock ’n Roll, the creators of the Brixton Pound, has planned to develop the currency into a digital tokenised version with the Algorand blockchain. To support the initiative, our brief challenged us to design a way to materialise the blockchain.

In collaboration with This Ain’t Rock ‘n’ Roll, we have created the Brixspot, a series of autonomous shops found all over Brixton. The shop owns itself through blockchain technology, and people can donate items in exchange for others. The machine will track your experience through a hidden camera documenting your transaction and a voice-over guiding (and judging) your performance.

In more detail

However, this experience is not for everyone. It can only be activated with a secret code shared by your trusted connections. Brixspot initially bought its shares from its investors, thus claiming its ownership. By donating, you will be part of its community. As the shop owns itself, you will not manage it. Instead, you’ll be participating in making important decisions, such as voting for proposals for the next Brixspot theme. Indeed, the kind of exchangeable objects varies by season.

Let’s go through
more detailed process
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Desk Research

In short, the blockchain is a decentralised ledger system. It is most commonly used to record transactions across several computers connected through a peer-to-peer network. It is immutable and transparent, which makes it trustworthy.

Co-Designing Workshop

To acquire new perspectives and explore alternative blockchain applications, we conducted a co-designing workshop in which people would experience and question the blockchain’s consensus mechanism through the Pure Proof of Stake (PPoS). It is a voting system relying on how much stake you have; the latter allows you to play the lottery a certain number of times. What was interesting is that we found everyone questioning the validity of the system: “Why do I have to deposit something to participate? Why can’t this be more simple?”.

Visit to Brixton

A short trip to the heart of our project was unavoidable. Amongst our findings were a moveable bookstore, in which people can donate their books or take other ones for free. We also heard about a communal fridge in which people can exchange food. These two examples successfully highlight the sense of community and trust among Brixton residents.

Ideation

During our Crazy-8 session, we realised that a common point for our ideas would be an exchange of items of any kind to support each other as a community. Blockchain technology would be used to store and collect the data. This suggestion quickly led us to the idea: A shop that owns itself.

As a DAO, it would own itself by buying itself from its initial investors after gathering enough funds. Similarly to Plantoids, it would also be able to reproduce itself. It could invite people to submit proposals for the realisation of its next venue in a different location in Brixton.

Further development
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Speed Dating and Prototyping

The speed datings followed by testing sessions were incredibly insightful and revealed the need for massive shifts in our designs. Some participants made us feel like we did not reach the intentions we were willing to reach. Questions about the possible vandalism act, theft, and even finding an incentive for the “pay as you feel scheme” were all still there.