The gifting economy is huge and it’s been present in society since we could even call it a society. Under capitalism, it’s been blurred into the market economy where we exchange goods and services for money or other valuables. The average US household spends 3–4k on Christmas alone. This happened in parallel with local, interconnected communities turning into individualistic, globalized entities.

We can turn this change to our advantage with the help of blockchain technology and adjacent infrastructure.

Benefits of gifting

Stronger relationships, social bonds between senders and receivers, and between different communities. This contributes to more well rounded individuals and to the overall health of the community.

More belonging, loyalty, trust, good reputation are just a few positive attachments that come with more giving, but you already know that, because getting gifts is the best.

Evidence of the reinvention of the gifting economy: buy nothing movements

There is a growing number of Facebook groups of individuals in the same location who share everything. Used furniture, clothes, goods, leftovers, everything that could still be used by someone who needed just that. Have some extra sawdust? Will be great for my guinea pigs.

How does this relate to blockchain tech, flipping it around

We work in an industry focused on p2p interactions — but peers exchange far more than just money everyone knows it’s not a good look to gift a friend cash, it’s impersonal and awkward.

But here’s why these rails make us better suited than anyone to build tools to better facilitate permissionless gifting among friends.

Connections

Since we don’t live in small villages anymore, our digital connections and context about them mean so much more. To know more about the legitimacy, characteristics and nature of our digital selves so we can connect better. It’s easier to give to those we share some context with than a total stranger.

Just how it makes you feel better that “you have 100 shared friends with this new person who is trying to message you” would be nice to add more to that:

• they’ve also been to this concert,

• they are also pretty close to Linda one of your shared connections,

• they are also into knitting

• and have 3 of the same playlists on repeat, just like you.

Oh and of course the control over this shared information and our corners of the network comes into focus here as well. Permissionless technology can help with this.

Incentivizing giving back

A positive-sum system, where in addition to the act of giving, everyone who participates in the gift economy gets something in return, but not from the recipient. Points, credentials, a high five, reputation, a suggestion, an opportunity, or all of the above. We have to use some form of positive reinforcement to bring this back into our habits in this “global, long-distance friendship” landscape.

It’s playing out in the crypto ecosystem already, just like the “buy nothing movements”, we are also shifting metas towards “trading” things with emotional value and not just financial value. Examples: tipping $DEGEN on farcaster, sending POAPs for small events, holiday NFTs, etc.

Conclusion

The peer-to-peer economy that blockchains enabled isn’t just for trading and to replace banks, it opens the possibility for a bigger transition. There is a ton of design space left to work with, we need to grasp an experience that builds for the points above on top of all the infrastructure we have already built. Something more human, more worthwhile, something kinder.

I am building Something Sweet like that, reach out to me on Telegram @ Macylacy if you are also building or looking for products in this space. Subscribe for free to get updates!