My vision and personal mission
I wrote about my personal mission: "to pay all of humanity for the use of the commons, and let everyone touch and shape the commons again." I would add to that now "to make commons more common." I wrote about some ways to do that.
These components form a framework for building the world that fits my person mission. Without them, anything else I build will tend to worsen the problems I'm trying to address. (To understand why, please read Progress and Poverty by Henry George.)
Please also check out Giveth, CLR.Fund and Gitcoin which are long time friends of BrightID, and help to provide funding to public goods (and commons).
The components
I'll list six components and mention how they work together. They are:
Unitap, BrightID (with Aura), Attention Streams, Celeste, Gardens, and Median Vote.
There are other technologies that underpin them, which are part of the vast technological commons which has already been built.
Unitap
Unitap is way to distribute universal dividends. It's a platform for "universal dividends with choice," a concept I discuss in this article.
Stage
Unitap launched in 2022. It started by distributing gas tokens and is adding networks. It will soon expand to distribute project tokens and offer free raffles for NFTs.
Depends on
BrightID
Works well with
Attention Streams, Gardens
BrightID
BrightID is a way to ensure that a person can only claim something once (for example, a dividend or a right to vote). It does this by analyzing social connections in a privacy-preserving way: no personal information is shared with anyone except those that already know it. Apps using BrightID don't get to see a user's BrightID, they just get a signed verification from a BrightID node attesting that the user is only using the app with one account.
Aura is the latest verification method used by BrightID.
Stage
BrightID launched in 2019, and has been continually improving since then. You can view apps using it and stats here.
Depended on by
Unitap, Median Vote, Celeste
Attention Streams
Attention Streams is a way to pay people to find great ideas. It’s important for increasing engagement with a commons or a DAO. My idea for a land trust that pays a universal dividend could be administered using Attention Streams.
Stage
A team was commissioned in 2022 to integrate Attention Streams with SongADAO to rank and categorize SongADay's over 5000 songs. At the time of this writing, the team has not yet delivered the integration, but they've written the necessary smart contracts.
Depends on
Celeste
Works well with
Unitap, Gardens
Celeste
Celeste is a subjective oracle used to resolve disputes arising from optimistic actions. It does so in a predictable, inclusive, and democratic fashion.
Stage
Celeste is a core component of all Gardens DAOs.
Depends on
BrightID
Depended on by
Gardens, Attention Streams
Gardens
Gardens are a type of DAO featuring "TAO voting" which ensures that proposals are in line with a DAO's written covenant. They also feature "conviction voting" which reduces voter fatigue by allowing votes to grow in strength and pass without a quorum.
Stage
1Hive, the first Gardens DAO launched in 2020, and since then several other DAOs have launched with the Gardens model.
Depends on
Celeste
Works well with
Attention Streams, Unitap, Median Vote
Median Vote
A simple, democratic method to answer a numerical question.
From the Agora document:
During a voting cycle, voters can select a value between a defined minimum and maximum (and change their vote as often as they wish). When the voting cycle ends, the median vote value is used.
Stage
Not yet implemented
Depends on
BrightID
Works well with
Gardens
Work on a better world
If you're interested in working on one of these components, contact me on keybase or discord.