If I Only Had a Heart: A DisCO Manifesto The text of the DisCO Manifesto is licensed under a Peer Production, P2P Attribution-ConditionalNonCommercial-ShareAlikeLicense. Read more about the PPL here: Think Global, Print Local and licensing for the Commons. See licensing for images here. If I Only had a Heart: a DisCO manifesto — Value Sovereignty, Care Work, Commons and Distributed Cooperative Organizations

“If we can’t take care of each other now, when the world is going to shit, how are we ever going to make it?”

— Gary Shteyngart, Super Sad True Love Story.

A joint publication by DisCO.coop, the Transnational Institute and Guerrilla Media Collective 4 Contents You say Potato, Isay Chapter 2 Rage Against theMachineand Science Friction Chapter 1 Introduction If I Can’t Dance…Foreword byRuth Catlow Design andImages Acknowledgements Authorship Credits Tecktonic: Nextsteps on the DisCOdancefloor Don’t leave methis way: Who’s dancing at thisDisCO? The Last Chapter 7 Don’t stop ‘till you get enough —radical workplace democracy Good Times: DisCOsinReal Life Open-Value Co-ops for Radical Workplace Democracy Chapter 6 We Are Family: introducing theDisCO CAT Oriented and Care Turn the Beat Around: Community Algorithmic Trusts Chapter 5 Guerrilla Translation andthe DisCOGovernance Model and theGuerrilla Media Collective Punk Elegance: The Story of Guerrilla Translation Chapter 4 Saved My Life Last Night ADistributed Cooperative Chapter 3 Autonomous/Cooperative Decentralized /Distributed ...... Dance: The Future isUnwritten ...... Cooperativism Decentralized: ...... Semantics Matter Organization ...... 30 24 21 20 14 10 76 76 75 74 69 67 64 61 58 56 52 41 38 46 6 5 Contents If I Can’t Dance… Foreword by Ruth Catlow

6 2 1 ofcommon care andvalue. pools new moves toco-create andmovementscooperation, for working people, andtoform on the dancefloor of planetary-scale to jointogether with the crypto-economists and how do we DisCOs throwand inviteget the door them?” whole open new tribes DAOs Cooperatives Distributed or blockchainsdo we Open to “Why need helpus?” to understand behaviour notjust maths. of economic flows. for economicstthe need She alsoasserted tousequalitative data and patterns of humaninteractions, of value, andtheirco-production were thesource change. andsocial political Prize-winning TheNobel economist that believed rules According toElinorOstrom institutions are what economics inturn, shape and, forming new ventures together. Neither, ismoney. funnilyenough, — incentives, andsecrecy —are penalties notanatural for most point starting people future. However thecore concepts of DAOs inthe activity of theshared (orotherwise) andtoenjoy distributed thebenefits be that were before blockchains; impossible toagree onhow risks andrewards should resourcesto pool andform joint-ventures, withoutcontrol from thecentre, inways Autonomous Organisations, promise toallow toexchange people economic value, more forms distributed of governance. TheDisCO’s cousins, theDecentralised like me, yearn toseevaried collectives of self-organised empowered through people The DisCO manifesto and a inducesskip in the step to those who, a song in the heart Wall, 2017. Derek. As Julio Linares likes DAO tosay: “The that putontheblockchain can be Elinor Ostrom’s Rules for Radicals 2 By reframing thequestion “How from, can , PlutoPress, London. 1 and crypto-economic mechanism design andcrypto-economic is not the real dao is notthereal (orway, inChinese)” 7 If I Can’t Dance… Foreword by Ruth Catlow If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto 8 of thelivingsystem inconstantof inneed constant flux, renewal. Itdiscourages us systemsIt encourages checks, whole-body in which economic flows arepart just one thecurrent DAOsphere.necrotic mechanisms for that interacting withledgers pervade abstract anddangerouslynew injectionfor jointventures theotherwise isacrucial DisCOs’ attention of conditionsthoseinvolved onlocal andthecorporeal bodies inthe there never willbe.” embrace difference. Because there isnomagic appfor platform And cooperativism. in community organizing that andmethods negotiate foster trust, hierarchies, and ways toembrace notonlytechnical solutions, whohave butalsopeople experience machines. and“intelligent” and theuseslimitsof “We “trustless” tofind need DisCOs about though is their emphasis on livedexperience,special care andrelations, or institutions, enable willeach apattern of interactionsbetween itsmembers. What is free (at first) from judicial constraints. These autonomous ‘ownerless’ organisations, invitation to imagine, design and buildthe organisations wefrom theground up, need of organisation zero-cost near cost both Thisisabout creation. efficiencies, andan all DAOs isthedevelopment of interoperable, source open legal contracts, witha within thelaws locally (at least until we can change them). cooperation across national borders (on- andoff-chain) while operating 3. Why DAOs? Why distributed? To maximizeradical andemancipatory these systems are onlynow more widelyacknowledged. to be starting our harmful economic systems. The huge cost andenvironmental to social justice of of intersectional approaches, narratives through currently themisleading ignored of They alsoacknowledgethe care thevalue work andsurvival. vitaltohuman prosperity cooperatives applythelogicof feminist economists like MarilynWaring, toaccount for economics andaccounting toinclude care for living systems. 2. Why Open-Value Cooperativism? Because we need toexpandour rewarded for whilecommitting theirlabour values. social toshared 3 economic systems (andpolitics andsociety inturn). 1. Why co-operatives? Because we needtoinject democracy into our Cooperatives.DisCOs are toforming anapproach Open Distributed So what are DisCOs andwhy dowe them?Let’s need take thisonetrack at atime. 4 competitive orextractive behavior.” resourcespooling around desire communal to to andashared benefit “avoid anti- themaximizationabout of profits.” Cooperatives succeed when values are aligned “decidemembers on the values of the enterprise, which don’t necessarily to be need investment, rather thaninvestment shareholders, from third-party co-operative Blockchain Just Isn’t AsRadical AsYou Want ItTo Be Past, Present, Future: toCryptonetworks From Co-ops 4 (O’Dwyer, 2018) 3 Co-operatives offer away Co-operatives tobe for people , by Rachel O’Dwyer, 2018 by Jesse Walden, 2019. Funded by direct member The promise of

Open-value just arrived from someforeign that land, we want toadoptandcoordinate with. … andwe allknow that dance thebest are alive floors withariot of new moves that The famousanarcha-feminist EmmaGoldmansaid “ toourlivesand intentionsback together, andthenext collaboration challenge. and mechanism design, weturnour finished fromattention thequest for theperfect, AsCo-Founding andCo-Artistic Director, Marc with Garrett, of Furtherfield, Ruth Catlow isaleading authority network onemancipatory cultures, practices andpoetics. Find out more at www.furtherfield.org If Ican’t dance, it’s notmy revolution!” ; www.decal.is

9 If I Can’t Dance… Foreword by Ruth Catlow 10 Introduction principles Accounting, andFeminist Economics. Following that, we’ll offer the of theDisCO framework precedents for decentralised models. Thenwe’ll down break we’ll how talkabout cooperatives and thecommons historical provide important intelligence). andAI(artificial contextNext, the neoliberal of techno-determinism We’ll trends and interests alsoexplore intheblockchain worrying space, particularly stand for “ Intelligence. From there, we’ll explain and by providing acritical of overview blockchain technologies, DAOs andArtificial We’ll Autonomous Organizations, orDAOs. It’sform. alsoanalternative of organization toanothertype Decentralized called want towork together inacooperative, andfeminist economic commons-oriented, What’s a DisCO? It’s a set of organisational and practices tools for groups who of people Organizations, orDisCOs. represents adeepdive Cooperative intoDistributed “If IOnlyHadaHeart” FutureThe isUnwritten ops for Radical Workplace Democracy Trusts andCare Cooperativism Oriented Collective ofGuerrilla TranslationandtheGuerrillaMedia Elegance: Story The A Distributed Cooperative Organization Saved MyLife say Potato, Isay Decentralized: Matter Semantics Chapter 1: hour toread: This publication intoseven isdivided chapters andwilltake you approximately one examine the role of supposedly disruptive technologies in social change technologiesexamine insocial disruptive therole of supposedly , a 21st-century expansion on theoriginalseven, a21st-century cooperative principles. | distributed” over “decentralized Rage Against theMachineand Science Friction Chapter 5: : theCommons andP2P, Open-Value Cooperativism, Open

Turn Around:Community Algorithmic theBeat ” and compare DisCOs to DAOs | | “cooperative” over “autonomous.” Chapter 7: Chapter 6: | the four maincomponents Chapter 3: | The Last Dance: Last The | Chapter 4: Open-Value Co- Chapter 2: , and why we Seven DisCO Last Night Last Punk You

11 Introduction 12 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto about about ops, Commons, Feminism, Source Open communities, theprecariat, etc.) andtalk various demographics which are explicitly within the DisCO framework included andBlockchain of Ledger Distributed the potential technologies. We alsodiscuss the and how we believe that DisCOs represent amore positive useof realistic andsocially The publication endsby radical of edge Platform Co-ops. aDisCO anddiscussing thecharacteristicsbe of Open-Value Cooperativism —the radical workplace democracy that holds, even encodes, andvalues thegoals of thecollective. We thenaskwhat where value tracking takes place andhow we conceive itasahuman/machine hybrid ustothe Thisleads end. at“trustlessness”, theother with“trustworthy” andhow of aspectrum we seeitaspart blockchain space. We alsoquestion oneof thedefining features of theblockchain: The DisCO can work other.DisCOs andhow witheach withinaparticular nodes recognition of reproductive or“Care work”. We alsodiscuss thefederation strategy for commons generating “Love work”, agency/paid work”, “Livelihood andtheexplicit Collective,in GuerrillaMedia withitsvarious value streams for tracking pro-bono/ Media Collective.Media There follows of anoverview the from the Next, we’ll explain why DisCOs were notconceived asatheory, butinstead arose On thesubjectof links: ifyou are thistextversion, you reading inaprinted can find terminology. resources,further andincluding extensive for footnotes those notfamiliarwiththe public. We’ve tostrike tried abalanceby providing descriptions, hyperlinking to that results alienating amongthese movements can be —both andtothegeneral to its communities terms andcultural references, in specific and of course thejargon and conceptsto describe from the We want the foster economic counterpowers capitalism. against predatory collectives for theprecariata usefultool to inself-organizing intopurpose-oriented of software fittheneeds people architecture. We believestrongly thatbe DisCOs can of people, organizationon the needs a to distributed making be as based opposed lived experience inGuerrillaTranslation Collective andMedia andwhat to itmeans It also brings together to but oftenour which misunderstood. is sometimes alluded of view, point with theblockchain particular space from avery that of thecommons, Why didwe writethispublication? andinteracting Because we’ve observing been Distributed Ledger Technology Ledger Distributed next section where we are withtheDisCO project lived experience collective of acommons-oriented DisCO Manifesto explores theissue of which care ismostly work, absent inthe proposing ourconceptproposing for thefuture of work Community Algorithmic Trust, orDisCO CAT to reach as many as possible. people We’ve taken the time looks like looks by at takingacloser look what to itmeans Commons/P2P (orDLT) spaces. Each of thesemovements speaks rightnow andwhere we’re bound. , Open CooperativeOpen governance/economic model : GuerrillaTranslation/ , Feminist Economic — , theplatform restoration used used (Co- —

DisCO andthemovements itintersects. compiled listan ordered of allthehyperlinks 5 for time, here isa For more resources onDisCOs, visitourwebsite: please Available at https://youtu.be/60bZmRtA6LQ in thisplaylist Watch A (Very) Short Introduction to DisCOs simplified summary simplified . 5 Thesematerials willhelpenrich your understanding of in thiswebpage for those familiarwithblockchains andDAOs. by Guerrilla MediaCollective . All of the embedded videosare . All of theembedded DisCO.Coop . Ifyou’re pressed 13 Introduction Rage Against the ChMachine and Science 14 aptFriction er 1 are away to achieve that. values we imprint in oureconomic systems. DisCOs, like Kasparov’s centaur chess, more nuanced inthedesignandusage of technologies explicit by being the about dominance ormachine aren’t distrust theonlyoptionsontable —we alot can be economicthe political, andhuman agendas intoitsmachine Machine DNA. imprinted often obfuscate theseissues, while theaffordances heavily on of depend atechnology ecosystems relationships. andsocial We’re toagree. inclined can technology Infact, feel that there thantechnology, are thingsmuch more important like ourcollapsing consequences of thecultof progress. But is farfrom thisreaction universal. Many likepat responses “automation”, or“artificial intelligence”; just theinevitable Questions the future about of society, are oftenand humanity met with work, able todefeat supercomputers similar player-computer hybrids. Players withaverage computers were, onoccasion, centaur chess Asoneof theinnovators approach. amore conciliatory tried of what would become the evolution intelligence of artificial and machine learning. Kasparov subsequently Deep Bluewas later by IBM,butthe1997match dismantled marked to have abuginthemachine’s been code. critical move as“human-like”, during thesecond match, described was later theorised he accused IBMof relying onhumanconsultants duringthegame. Aparticularly Kasparov was devastated. Hecouldn’t comprehend what hadjust taken place. Initially, Blue finished Kasparov repeat itselfduringthisrematch. Afteraseriesof victories, defeats anddraws, encounter — the Grandmaster Deep Blue a year had beaten earlier. didn’t But history Deep Blueinaseriesof matches. Thiswas Kasparov’s andthemachine’s second KasparovIn 1997, chess grandmaster faced off Garry against the IBM supercomputer , he began playing, hebegan with theassistance off inastaggering 19moves. significantly superior toDeepBlue. significantly superior

of computers against other a turningpoint Deep in 15 Rage Against the Machine and Science Friction 16 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto and shortsighted. But asasociety,and shortsighted. withtheseissues will todealing ourapproach prescriptive prioritization of techno-normative solutions can come across as naive With resource aquantifiable scarcity danger posing andenergy for humanity, the 8 7 6 reliable andtrustworthy. Um-yay? and messiness out of could institutions, designed simply be making our futures more thatgoes intoimmutable, by encoding rules self-executing systems, humanerror existing monopolies. How would they accomplish Theargument theseloftygoals? would revolutionize the market, maximize organizational efficiency anddismantle interaction. contracts, this—sometimes sometimeswithand—think about entitiesthat can executebased payments, penalties, andenforce levy termsand as tothecreationThe promise contracts of of led somethingknown smart soon allow for thecreation of decentralisedprograms andapplications. the popularisation of ledger technologies, ofthe digitalcurrency blockchains Bitcoin,thepotential called (more broadly accountingincorruptible systems. asthe“ Originallydeveloped what you toknow doneed isthat blockchains andtheoretically synchronised, are shared, materials come For highlyrecommended. introductory of ourargument, thepurposes This isnottheplace tooffer thorough explanations blockchains; about simultaneously exciting, andoverhyped: terrifying, theblockchain. ourfutures, to“disrupt” Among thetechnologies predicted onestands outas inyourentangled life andfuture. technology,becoming isdefinitelycrazy andis more technology about you, andmore which we totackle choose thosechallenges. even Inshort, ifyou’re notcrazyabout andevenalways human, technological by informed frameworks thesocial, be with via voting rightsormarket mechanisms. DAOs thoughtof can asasetof alsobe institutional protocols that are Blockchain Basics to the Blockchain,introduction we recommend single to each otherandthesystem.”to each — it’s never that humansare removed, itisalways that there isa reconfiguration of the role of humans in relation determines which wallets can receive from payment theDAO etc. Andthisthenbecomes theinteresting question always someform it’s of humaninteraction, just aquestion of where andhow — theCurator, for example, that through capital/coin voting remains anissue (asidentity ontheblockchain). Jaya KlaraBrekke is adds“There DAOs that get DAO, tractiontoday (Moloch DAO, Leap ETH DAO) onhumaninteraction butonly are focused enforced programmatically, often coordinating withhumans, bots, orothercontracts. Despite this, most of the DLT/Open Source experts Thisisanadmittedlysimplistic descriptionof theBlockchain Contracts. andSmart For anaccessible yet thorough Yes, One of plural. the most common misunderstandings of blockchain stems from treating it as if there was a Decentralised Autonomous Organizations blockchain. It’s of withmany technology iterations. butatype notatrademarkorbrand, 8 The latter half of 2014 saw a deluge of proposals describing how DAOs . although smart contractssmart Sam Hart not every DLTnot every is a blockchain and Eleftherios Diakomichalis — snippets of code —snippets tacked which intotheledgers this videocourse , orDAOs. Theseare blockchain- add that DAOs can incorporate human entities , aswell asDanielDrescher’s excellent book, ) was advanced in2013with trustless without 7 ” backdrop for much human distributed 6

other

single version of the truth.” In February In 2019, February Facebook, truth.” the 2.7 the billion-person of version single blockchainpermissioned processed has already cartels,and drug manipulatedinterest rates, andpromotes mass deforestation Take HSBCfor example —you remember, that thebank billionsof future. tech dollarsin distributed inthenear a minimumof double-digit According toarecent paths tostalk you. but remember, BigTech onyou, andsometimestakes still hasacrush unpredictable taking into account much againstLevied thehype, theseresults have sometosay led that blockchains are pretty estimates comparing ittothat of thenational consumption of Ireland orDenmark. consumption of most blockchain validation systems — contrast that to Facebook’s daily active users low toSilicon whencompared Valley giants. Theworld’s topranked dApp has 10 9 From Meanwhile, adoptionof blockchain taleisthat newof alternatives thiscautionary worked are being onby many projects. of the oft-repeatedthe credibility promises of immutabilityandsecurity. Theupside the Ethereum community. same namewhich promise. The name “DAO” by a wasspeculative tarnished also badly venture of the projectson blockchain-based found that so far, most have what andhype theresults? about factor, Despitetheirhighvisibility aresearch study Five theexcitement years on, around theblockchain andDAOs hasn’t but abated, A understanding. understanding. to a The development of Ethereum theinterest Contracts sparked inSmart andDAOs. and deploy decentralized applications contracts such assmart andothercomplex legal andfinancial applications.” permissioned permissioned public good for nothing good Ethos.io’s toEthereum article introductory blockchain, where anyone can access andcontribute, aslongthey have thetechnical and means blockchain . Yes, you correctly: read that’s one suffered ahack sosevere existing gender, race andpower hierarchies Forbes list transactions tothetuneof $250bn places limitsonwhocan access, transact andvalidate asopposed in thenetwork, . Othersquestion theirpromises of decentralization when 10 9 The which, which, resulting fork 1.56 , 50 mega banks and corporations are poised toinvest andcorporations, 50mega banks are poised according totheirliterature billion : “Ethereum is an open platform: “Ethereum isan open that enables developers tobuild dApps dailyusers. Ontheflipside, theenergy that itprovoked significant contention in in the code and community undermined inthecode andcommunity undermined (decentralized applications) remains remains terrifyingly high remains terrifyingly laundered moneylaundered for terrorists thousand through FXEverywhere, its underdelivered three-hundred users three-hundred , ensures “A shared, . The jury isstill out . Thejury on their ? HSBC , with 1300 17 Rage Against the Machine and Science Friction 18 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto their own bottom-line goals, andof course, even more power. inthattech, they influence itsdevelopment, prioritiesand eventual outcomes to attain andcorporations banks thenbecomethat the“soul” these“solidly trustworthy” of the atproposition andunsurprisingly best a few monthsand Facebook announces Libra(June 2019),a system blockchain-based democracy withina manipulation, thrives experiment whosebusiness model social onhostility, andsocial surveillance Commission levies a $5billionfine for violating a consent decree, what counterforces or overcome them?WhenFacebook doesn’t even missastheUSFederal abeat Trade problems Whoisgoing thesetechnologies toaddressthe humanandsocietal pose? consumptionenergy problems are of thesoulpreceding abrilliantnew dawn where theurgent technical, and scaling, DAOs Some like tocompare the their visionwould prevail. ends, dead only indulge unlimited thelikelihood of buttoincrease afuture where Jews corporation that assisted Nazi Germany in supercomputer ontopof many yearsexperiments anddefeats, of failed butthe Deep Blue a year to faceIt took Kasparov again and defeat IBM built its him. persisted untilthey were persisted proven capital tonot They hadthenecessary right. tothestate of theInternetafter thedot-com darknight bubble, atemporary “acquired” of ateam humans current state of disillusionmentaround theblockchain and overcome by coded by of thesamecoded team developers identifying, segregatingidentifying, and exterminating previously enmeshed indeveloping previously enmeshed acivic publicly-funded human ingenuity EUproject dubious cryptocurrency . But what about . Fast forward . Consider

Someone call Emma Goldman, we’reSomeone call EmmaGoldman, going Technologies. cooperative, assessment of andpurposeful of Ledger Distributed thepotentials Like Kasparov andthecentaur chess players, we thinkit’s timefor amore sober, can stand possibly intheway of BigTech? DisCO dancing . 19 Rage Against the Machine and Science Friction You say Potato, I say Decentralized: ChSemantics 20 aptMatter er2 12 11 represent how they relate, by onlinenetworks ornot. whethersupported sleepandaffection, andthesetopologies thatnourishment, need withbodies beings a different angleonthis. orcomputer node Behindeach there are livinghuman which builtoncomputer orservers. areThere’s generally tobe nodes assumed also Baran’s networks, diagram peer-to-peer istrotted todescribe outadnauseam belowfigure toillustrate network topologies: Paul Baran Decentralized /Distributed these willtake, andwhohastheagency. Yes, it’s power, about again. “autonomous”? So, why use “distributed” over “decentralized”, and “cooperative” instead of as described also been of a subset DAOs the ofcurtain, in a brief glimpse the man behind — although, have underlying assumptions. DAOs andDisCOs agree of ontheimportance organization To contrast DisCOs and DAOs, it is useful to examine some of the relevant semantics and prioritizing world), Cooperative the Distributed Organization corrective proposes by measures andmaledominated techno-deterministic rescuing the baby from the DAO bathwater. If DAOs have arguably individualistic, been As we’ve Cooperative DisCOs orDistributed Organizations hinted, are ourway of

frameworks of DisCO. a fascinating towards proposal mainlygeared USlegal entities, butquitedistinct from thecultural/structural degrees of explicitvarying feminism. Conferenceon the Block The Bitcoin community is In 2015,someof ourcolleagues called contributed toamodel ’s classic 1964series, mutual support 12 Precision inthesetermscan helpdefinewhat form of horizontalism , Women in Blockchain Global 91% men Decentralized, Autonomous , cooperativism cooperativism , 96% of Ethereum users are male On Distributed CommunicationsOn Distributed and 11 (a persistent complaint (apersistent against thetech and Crypto-Knitting Circles Crypto-Knitting care work among people Corporations Distributed Distributed . Initiatives such as Collaborative are welcome exceptions with . , introduced the introduced She256 Organizations , the . Women . It’s 21 You say Potato, I say Decentralized: Semantics Matter 22 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto “decentralized” and“distributed” are interchangeably often used butthey aren’t current world order (central of power points access). andlimited Theothertwo, Centralized you topologies know of already they our form about, the backbone 14 13 For example, theBitcoin network privileges access thosewithearly totheprotocol connectivity amongnodes, network architecture hidesapower structure.” Decentralized networks of the boast the issue of Beyond network considerations, we prefer to use “distributed” to explicitly highlight are nodes accordingto each totheirneed.” systems where certain end-to-end Thisdescribes a receiver orsender:astheoldsonggoes, “from according each totheircapacity, or even sever italtogether. oredges,main branches informational can tothesmallernodes disperse bandwidth synonymous.really Theformer by ischaracterised tree-like where the structures capacity toengender more accountablecapacity forms of trust.” Platform Cooperativism’s co-founder Nathan Schneider of more dominanthubs asmallnumber orless controlOften enough, how can interact. nodes In on investments can’t andservers, compete centralized with technologies. Decentralized systems become more cost-intensive astheygrow, but true‘end-to-end’ ordistributed this video systems grow instrength andresilience astheyadduserswhopooltheirresources. not inherently privileged, inotherwords, inherently privileged, allhave similar power orcapacity. power

Dmytri Kleiner Dmytri . As Spanish cyberpunk theorist David cyberpunk Spanish deUgarte 13 but notabout thepower andinfluence dynamics of eachnode. Distributed networks Distributed can actas node ensure that every explains why decentralized systems, theirdependency with states : “The measure of a technology should be its of should be measure atechnology : “The says, “Every 14

structures structures well asamongsubgroups of anorganization. Secondly, we refer power todistributed we address power distributed among individuals structures When we favour “distributed” over “decentralized”, we are referring totwo things. First, below.describe Throughgovernancegoals? specific and federation/replicabilitypatterns that we will initsdecisions.network andparticipate So, how can we achieve thesestructural talents, andpreferences, personalities allhave thesame rightstocontribute tothe vertical systems), andthat inanetwork tohave while“peers” are expected different recent anthropological studies nodes/persons can engage of fluidmodes governance inconsented, (somethingthat federated To clear, be by “distributed” we enforcedequality, are notdescribingartificially but them eat of thedecentralised center can take thewholenetwork down ifthey sochoose. Let of elevatedposition privilege andpower theguardians toincrease: which isdesigned Yes, anyone butonlyifyou’re inthenetwork, can participate intheory from starting a currencies the dubioushonourof having coefficient aGini(inequality) 15 in (i.e., the technology, access early to its use) and with the

server farms server be deployed onalargebe scale. transition instead?) optionsare andonlyviable mature for smallscale pilots until lessenoughto resource-hungry for Proofneed of Work system problematic remains structurally (why not usethat for energy aclean and DLTs ingeneral willbecome less intensive over time. We maintainthat thecomputational/resource intensity useof afterenergy Bitcoin all isnotsodirty the pernicious effects ofthe pernicious Bitcoin’s use energy This is, a nopunintended, (Bitcoin) cake heterarchical . between Decentralized technologies donotguaranteedecentralized outcomes running on running theorganization andotherDisCOs. hotly contested ! and dirty power dirty equipotential telluswas thenormbefore the advent of predominantly issue! Bitcoin devotees have madethe Trumpian claim that research on , while amounts to“Fake News other sources 15 tomintnew coins. Bitcoin Asaresult, holds systems. that means all Thisbasically assure usthat consumption theenergy of Bitcoin .” Meanwhile, someauthors claim that the economic privilege within higher thanmost fiat anorganization, as to invest . 23 You say Potato, I say Decentralized: Semantics Matter 24 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto characteristics of DAOs: Berkman KleinCenter researcher Primavera deFilippi summarizedthemain In a Autonomous/Cooperative decentralised systems whileoffering more diverse ecologies of power andinfluence. tohighlighttheunevenit asaflexibleDisCOs arepower designed goal. dynamics of however, not, One does achieve distribution by merely proclaimingitandthensetting visionary article visionary and video lecture titled titled Ethereum: Freenet or Skynet? Harvard/ happened since DeepBlue’shappened 1997victory. upandengage courtesy insomefuture speculation, of IBMandwhatthe scary has Matrix, 2001:ASpace Odyssey, MoonisaHarshMistress, The ExMachina to nuke humanity. But there of are plenty dystopian from AIfantasiestochoose — Skynet DAOs: control,mass social which of thetwo optionsseemsmore likely? DeFilippi warns that In aprevailing economy political and growth, onunquestioned surveillance hell-bent down tolock structures thecurrent hegemony intoaninescapable, one. cybernetic and automate processes, tedious they could deployed by alsobe theexisting power drastically lower thecost of horizontal collaboration, social cutthebureaucratic fat Autonomous, self-sufficient,positive decentralized… Whileonthe side, DAOs could theycontract can create for andpay andwieldtheirown services: economic power. pedantic,Not butdidyou tobe get that theirown They earn second money, part? and — — — — — — , you may intheTerminator recall, isthemega-computer franchise that decides that must everyone abide by, withoutany constitutional constraints.” exclusively) regulated by self-enforcing contracts, which establish the rules “...could totheestablishment that lead of is(almost atotalitariansociety of thenetwork. network), andtheircode isexecuted inadecentralizednode mannerby every intotheblockchainbut instead are encoded (which totheentire isdistributed Finally, they are andprocessingbandwidth power). they provide inorder othersfor topay theresources (such as they need Secondly, they are obligation to, torespond for responsible any orbe requests madeby them. on theblockchain, they theircreators, nolonger need norare they underany First ofthey are all, decentralized self-sufficient autonomous , since they server, donotsubsist onaspecific in the sense that once they’ve been created created been inthesensethat once they’ve inthat they charge usersfor theservices , etc. —aswe turn The The 25 You say Potato, I say Decentralized: Semantics Matter 26 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto us astray, we are asrecentwild after all, research demonstrates that before our dominantcultures lead onthewildassumption that humansareare acooperative based —notso species cooperative innature. Organizations where thelegal andtechnological infrastructures weOn theotherhand, can creating start organizations and which distributed are both outsiders toholdaccountable. to advance certain values andinterests, for impossible which would virtually be intelligence running weof dystopian could encounter machine-porn, this:a IBM may have DeepBlue, dismantled down butfurther thespeculative rabbit hole often take thesame path. autonomous contracts, organizations onsmart running corporations andstates will their centralized control. Similarly, whenoffered theenticement of decentralized could welcome DAOs contracts onsmart ways aspowerful running toconsolidate have more incommon withcorporations thandifferences, inthesensethat both resources,through theirsheerspeed, andfirst-mover advantages. Inany case, states companies typically so longasitstays of thegame.” withintherules Aquaintcomment considering how business –touseitsresources andengage itsprofits toincrease inactivitiesdesigned of responsibility other consideration. isonesocial AsMiltonFriedman putit:“There any development, profitweapons unethical willtrump business orcorruption, the growth- and profit-oriented logic of capitalist organizations. When enticed by complex matter with positive and negative aspects This isn’t itsinvestment calling about outIBMinparticular; source inopen isa aficionado toseewhere thisnarrative is going. blockchain research and of view.” point orpolitical apartisan espouse Thecompany isalso do otherthings, like Trump administration’s Watson likes todothingslike powers the development thefree of software Linux, operating system incidentally, which, The 16 criss-cross —you have of machines humansdeliberately that building certain types damage other humans.” Jaya KlaraBrekke isnocommon versus humanity adds“There acommon machine intelligence. Thealliances International Business Machines Corporation IBM’s successor toDeepBlue, naturally for wired cooperation participating inTrump’sparticipating council security make make autonomously cybersecurity (read (read cybersecurity implementation the rules of thegame,the rules eclipsing thepowers of nation-states 16 misguiding cancer patients on a Watson . You don’t have aspeculative tobe fiction decentralized surveillance) surveillance) (IBM)iswell knownof for itssupport . . Apart from . Apart . Our critique is aimed more at. Ourcritiqueis aimed , and possibly assisting, andpossibly the system andprogrammed policies self-sufficient whilst claiming to“not winning at Jeopardy . IBMalsolikes to not slacking on artificial artificial , 18 17 offeringlegal structures islands of resistance incapitalist markets. formalized the ancestral practice co-ops ofcooperation, commoning into applicable since the1840s. at state thesame timeasthemodern andenterprisewere, andhave legally existed the blockchain oreven theInternettotackle thischallenge. Cooperatives were created have to take account of these human realities. We didn’t have to wait for the advent of for human fulfillmentand institutions,stable social organizations thenourdistributed organizational autonomy Ifwe idea? agree such a good that cooperation isessential Let’s Individualandcollective take stock. autonomy are desirable, butis create spaces, andorganizations infrastructures for thisinstinct toexpress itself. to meethumanneeds have theCommons as —understood are created phrase, inrelations, isanillusion:individualsare notonlyembedded buttheiridentities “self-madeindividuals. Theso-called man”, asidefrom gender thepersistent biasof the itisonlythrough cooperation of Infact, thatthe idea cooperation. we can thrive as tendencyortheinstinct as apolitical for to humanself-expression, isnotopposed hypotheses. than confirming game-theory laboratory-tested Autonomy, DisCOs are

Alive: TheInsurgent Power of the matter of blockchain human control asmuch aspossible. Read more in environment that affects us, andautonomy inDAOs, asused which isexplicitly removing about for thepossibility These ideas are further expressed are further inourcolleagues Theseideas David Bollier andSilke Helfrich’s latest book Jaya Klara Brekke “What makes usreally different“What to isourability put ourheadstogether andto dothings that neitheroneof uscould doalone, to create new resources that we couldn’t create Alice Roberts andMichaelTomasello on alone. It’s really all about communicating andcollaborating andworking together.” associationis through haswritten thedifference about autonomy between political asmeaning , pp. 93-110and203-209. Explicitly bridging relationships. Whenthehumaninstinct tocooperate matures, we . 18 If humans are indeed thecooperative Ifhumansare indeed species, thenweto need t instead of individualistic and based on building trust rather onbuildingtrust instead of individualistic andbased Commons . omnipresent yet often invisibilized livingsystems theperceived dividebetween autonomy and Disassembling theTrust Machine: Three cutsonthepolitical What MakesWhat usHuman . AsTomasello says: more 17 understood understood control over the Free, Fair and automated

27 You say Potato, I say Decentralized: Semantics Matter 28 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto co-ops, there are intheDisCO mixer. moreco-ops, ingredients What are thesesectors?Beyond theblockchain of spaceandthe ideas Commons and solutions. that urgently tobuildbetter strategic need alliances todevelop creative, inclusive same time, they onbuildingsynergies focus sectors amongrelated butoften siloed entrepreneurship, andfinancialization pervasive economic inequality. tofight Atthe entirely feasiblevisionfor new andradical forms of ownership, governance, technologies toprioritize takingcare of humanbeings. They constitute anaffirmative, DisCOs are our proposal to use the power of and peer-to-peer ledger distributed dangers.purposes, withallthepredictable socio-environmental the blindinstrumentalization of DAOs for speculative, technocratic, andcapitalist whilealso providing critiqueand referenceits benefits anecessary point against chess, we thinkthat anaccommodationist tothemachine approach can letusharness the culture of theCommons andCooperative movements. Like Kasparov’s centaur collaborations that make useof thesalvageable good affordances of DLTs alongwith transformative economies catamarans, bridges, anddata linestoconnect otherandto themtoeach On theflipside, if bettercooperatives are islandsinasea of capitalism, we need organizations. decentralise anddistribute power through networked, ledger-based distributed with triumphsandfailures,tacit andfactual, that can strengthen toeffectively efforts Cooperatives andtheCommons usthat teach there isanexisting of knowledge, body maximizing dynamics. undergo inorder tocome totermswiththesedeviations from normative, profit- the difficult conversations and stagespersonal development of that humans must These thingsare noteasy. Automating themaway noteliminate for does theneed guarantee distribution of power andwealth whiledemocratising decisionmaking. considerations which must precede any cooperatives technological design, legally peer-to-peer/Web 3.0/DLT movement, heterogeneous asitis. from thecultural Apart lessons forCooperatives thewholedecentralised/ important and Commons bear . Our view of cooperation in this context includes 29 You say Potato, I say Decentralized: Semantics Matter Last Night A Distributed Cooperative ChOrganization 30 Saved My aptLife er3 DisCO DNA: of movements thedisruptive aspects below, noted which have intothe baked been structures, we find itcuriousthat blockchain projects don’t seemtoinclude key of DLTs.the potential Despiteclaims of decentralizing andchallenging existing power influences of other forms andmovements thatbenefits intoapracticalfrom toolkit frameworkDisCOs are aculturalandstructural combining several and aspects — — — — — — and social relationshipsand social remain inalienable. Examples include regulates its market relations sothecore of itscommon aspects wealth Open-value accounting enables of and labor, effort and enable better and more fair distributions of incomes. toallowproject retrospective are documented analysis of thedistributions Open-Value AnyShare Economy.Solidarity Examplesinclude and P2Pmovements alongwiththeworld of cooperatives and andtheSocial Platform Cooperativism viewed can of astheexperimental be edge thework of co-ops Open work. transnationally-networked andenvironmental cooperatives onsocial focused Cooperativism Open networks Source Software water distribution irrigation systems for acts of commoning. Examplesinclude through technological infrastructures. P2Pprovides anenabling infrastructure relations in human networks, social non-coercive happening often augmented between themarket orState. Peer toPeer non-hierarchical, orP2Pdescribes systems for the long-term stewarding of resources, often flowering in the cracks CommonsThe and P2P and andthe Accounting so much more , Mutual AidNetwork self organized urban spaces self organized urban :

These are locally grounded, commons-oriented and commons-oriented These are grounded, locally , exploring convergences between the Commons : Aform of accounting where contributions toashared : Commons self-organised are community led, . value sovereignty , social currencies social . Enspiral cooperatively managed forests , , Fairmondo distributed manufacturing distributed , orhow acommons self- , Free/Libre andOpen- , L’Atelier Paysan Sensorica , , , 31 Last Night A Distributed Cooperative Organization Saved My Life 32 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto responsible stewardsresponsible andrestorers, notdominators anddestructors, of nature. or immigration status, andtheexplicit acknowledgement of ourintegralrole as representation of class, race, gender identity, sexual orientation,ability, and/ Other inalienable values inherent totheDisCO blender factorinaninclusive 21 20 19 without incorporating two Feminist additionalmainingredients: Economics and inthe Commons, tousincomplete firmly embedded seemed Open Cooperativism andhow they relate totheircousinsCo-ops inthePlatform Coop movement Source,Open andtheCooperatives. Overthelast few years, we have Cooperativism came asaconvergenceOpen about of three movements: theCommons, environmental stewardship “externalities.” absentee profit maximization that —the same ideas gave riseto calling care work and reward value, its While theblockchain spacehasexcelled notionsof how indisrupting totrack and explicitly so. All economic systems andecological onsocial are factors, dependent andDisCOs

Permaculture, Occupy/15-M, DIY/DIT andahost of otherthings. own guitar influences, our collective bringsahostpersonal andnot immediately apparent othermorevalues to Accounting ( That is, as“masculine,” often described system acknowledging pervasive alongstanding, of patriarchy. Thesame way Red HotChilliPeppers guitarist John Frusciante For aquick overview, here are infographics for — particular DisCO blender. particular Sci-Fi (andcyber/solarpunk Theseinclude punkrock, ChaosMagick, inparticular), — abound intoeconomic andemotionallabor interdependency theory. in often-invisibilized factorssuch humanconnection, ascare andunpaid work, economy,” of idea “the amoreproposes holistic tothevery approach factoring intheblockchain persistent space.— somethingvery Feminist Economics sovereignty by challenging normative Feminist Economics invisible usto… which leads work, Backfeed 1 21 and

, yet are often hidden. 2 , ) and CoMakery concept Feminist Economics of value remains about inmainstream anchored ideas and : This school of: Thisschool economic value thoughtalsoasserts MetaMaps . 20 P2P andtheCommons . Open-Value Accounting alsohighlights 19 notionsof economic abstraction once cited Robert De Niro and Harpo Marxas Robert DeNiro andHarpo , Open Cooperativism Open examined Open examined Open . Although Examples , Open-Value our further, resulting in active creation of commons, and transnational nature), we have taken the premise orientation towardprinciples (statutory multipleconstituents, thecommon good, Open-Value accounting. Cooperativism hasfour Open Whereas non-prescriptive 22 DisCOs are: point, asastarting With Co-ops Open guidelines for socially- organizations. andenvironmentally-oriented highlyefficient, cooperative aswell tradition, asPlatform Cooperativism toarrive andOpen at aseriesof cooperatives have theirshortcomings. onthe DisCOs are cooperatives distributed based The Seven DisCOPrinciples

Theseshortcomings are inthefollowing analysed chapters. 5. 4. 3. 2. 1. Geared towardGeared positive outcomes in key areas: DisCO formission) and care work performed that commitment, materialliving entity to itssocial needs inputsandfidelity performed Centered on care work: capitalist economy. to create andculturalcounterpower political totheprevailing corporate/ and (following the Transnational: or physical (productive infrastructure, deliberation spaces, machinery, etc.) digital (code, legal protocols documentation, practices, andbest design, etc.) throughcreated market wealth andgenerate new forms of resources. shared These new commons are enterprises that exploit resources, shared DisCOs steward existing common Active ofcommons: creators constituents. suppliers, clients, reproductive andaffective labor,backers, financial etc. as actions. Beyond workers, this may communities, include neighbouring contributors whetherpresent inallvalue chains oraffected by thecoop’s Multi-constituent: organizational processes, andtechnical/legal statutes. organizations these values productive in their cultural, and embed notby profitguided andenvironmental but by social priorities. Individual value flows (mutual trust and support structures). structures). andsupport (mutualtrust for ofthecollective thehealth Open- “Design Global, Manufacture Local”“Design Global, logic are shared at level are shared theglobal enterprises withlike-minded While physical iskept production andneeds-based local Value DisCOs extend decision making andownership toall and Cooperativism — Cooperativism We distinguish of between two care types work: that value-tracked Commons work. may pro bono be 22 Theseven DisCO principlesbuildontheexisting Unlike behavior thetypical of market

original seven cooperative principles Click here the individual persons withinthe the individualpersons (where thecollective isseenas a the basic DNAthe basic of theDisCO. tojumpthat section. In DisCOs, is production ), knowledge, resources , but , but 33 Last Night A Distributed Cooperative Organization Saved My Life 34 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto 23 for ethicalcapacity judgement andcare. empowering machines (intentionally ornot)inways that marginalize thehuman centaur chess —usingmachine power for thehardest calculation butwithout work, practices. Kasparov’s echoes theDisCO framework, Theresulting idea, intentwith feminist economics —withouryears of experience inP2Pand commons-oriented the existing elements— blockchain, cooperatives, commons open-value systems, what blockchains could dofor usandworking backwards from there, we combined practicehow totheuseof tobringamore human-centered DLTs. Instead of asking our field and ofopening vision to the broader context, we can now offer our take on Wait —weren’t we just blockchain? talkingabout Yes, butafter check ahard reality DisCOs.oriented Cooperativism provides aconceptual framework for purpose- buildingresilient, in Commonsgrounded practices, and show technological sophistication. Open-Value of tomorrow must how learn resource torespect limitsandecological boundaries, be notionsof thefuture are speculative,Granted, butwe believe that theorganizations networked age. expands andsupercharges themfor viable post-capitalist futures andthedigital, Open-Value onthe Cooperativism isbased experimental Open-Value Cooperativism as atheory, withDisCOs asitspractice. andthenthemore radical, cooperatives Co-ops to Platform toOpen (digital)Co-ops, Cooperativism could viewed asacontinuum,extending be from traditional writings on on‘endbased toend’ offline, (oreven partially inthe case of Secure ScuttleButt) systems. Seealso concept.structural Whilesomehave thelatter criticised (see together intransnationalbound economic networks. solidarity For aculturaland usfederation isequally Our ideas around federation Ourideas are largely influenced by the concept of 7. 6. support whilestill achieving alargersupport through federation. impact andmutual onsmallgroup trust based can Each be node tofunction. Internet, This dynamicresembles how TCP/IP allows anetwork of networks, the allows thefederation toachieve critical mass withoutregimenting allparts. structures, replicate themselves through astandard the animating logic. By contrast, DisCOs, anddifferentiated asdistributed a worldview from acenter andforces initspathtoconform everything to goals, federations are held together by commitments. shared Scaling extends Primed for federation: priorities, andmore. payments,to allDisCO members, inturninfluencingdecisionmaking, work valueare tracked metrics. through complementary Value tracking isapplied market value, pro-bono/commons-generating value, andcare work value — Reimagining theoriginandflows of value: Counterantidisintermediation Whilenetworks may ormay notshare common toseewhere we’re coming from. existing seven cooperative here and Three types of valueThree types —productive Phyles here ), our structural view of), ourstructural federation is —theseare communities of interest federation protocol principles 23 Dmytri Kleiner’s that but will solve what is, primarilynegotiated andshouldremain, by people. same time, we actively or implying that reject the notion of tech techno-solutionism by them in secure transparent distributed ledger encoding technologies We believe that Whatof theDisCO vision? part we’ve are as theneeds identified effectiveness of agroup. material andlegal of realities everyday life andstate power that remain relevant tothe contracts. designsinaseriesof smart itself totheembedded Itmust contend withthe executing programs. Furthermore, the human processes that through facilitated DeepBluefans)very can self- be (sorry We’d rather use a lighter-handed totheemergent, approach unpredictableand of focus attention, onethat practices. subordinatesprimary social self-governance. dichotomy of The very off/onchain elevates the blockchain as the believe that tech design can solve themessy problems of humandisagreement and for example. However, there anideological can tendencyindeveloper be circles to agreements that intothelatter, get encoded contracts through smart andDAOs, about of governance,When speaking working people intheblockchain spaceoften talk balance. different directions. Creating self-organized resilient, communities an artful requires areinacommons,Culture interdependent andstructure butthey alsocan pullin into recognizable legal and institutional forms, and enables certain capabilities. and visionsfor thefuture, and governance between strengthen ourcollaborative culture. There isafundamentaltensioninallcommons technology, protocols orgovernance models. tofacilitate Theseare onlytools and To clear, be cooperative distributed practices should capitalistespecially ones. bybut oneless individualistic, susceptible toco-optation self-interested factions, tech narratives.minded toafuture They that point above, includes thetrends outlined constructivea vital, role in advancing a different vision of the future and more socially- ontheblockchainhappening stage. ADisCO’s coding architectures can play andtools of valueIn developing we hadtoaddress theDisCO model, there-engineering — — — — — — — — — — — — — — off-chain and on-chain Aimed towardAimed notscaling federation, value metrics Complementary Care work basis Networks transnationally Actively creates commons Multiple constituents served mission Socio-environmental each of these patterns couldmadestronger be ofthesepatterns each andmore culture , or that which defines the group’s motivations shared structure dimensions — the former describing the human structure , orthat which formalizes thegroup culture of alivingcommunity cannot limit never be solely dependent on solely dependent be . At the 35 Last Night A Distributed Cooperative Organization Saved My Life 36 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto 25 24 projects are raisinggargantuan amountsof capital through InitialCoin Offerings, or fusiongoes nuclear Just promising the(decentralized, as autonomous) moon. paper tonotehere isthat DisCOs areimportant nottheoretical for fodder agrandiosewhite trends have evolved What’s and matured intothepatterns inthissection. outlined would incorporate allthedifferent intheP2P trends identified Foundation. These to theworld of action scholar ElinorOstrom spoke “ about informing thiswork tocreate commons Noted somethingtangibleandpractical. But more importantly, we are committed andcurrents totakingallthelessons, theory attractive andshareable for commoners andcommunities worldwide. and community empowerment strategies to make the Commons and P2P accessible, through dynamics through the collaborates regularly with many DLT innovators. these P2PF has also researched and contrasted them prove they aren’t The P2PFoundation dead). hastracked theevolution of blockchains Satoshi Nakamoto to achieve change. societal itwas Infact, oneof thefirst places where theelusive 2005 have deeplyinvolved been in its organizational development. P2PFwas founded includes long-termOur team coreof the members team what grounds dowe suggest anambitiousalternative such asDisCO? Our criticism of the overhyped claims for the blockchain so, timid, hasnot been on

the and decentralized governance andleadership, onchain andoff ( ( decentralization, blockchains ( andthearts Meanwhile, othercore DisCO development have members team extensive experience intheworlds of “ SUPERMARKT Satoshi Nakamoto to catalogue, research and advocate for P2P and Commons alternatives in order credits section credits Commons Transition ), Commons-oriented data), Commons-oriented DLT management andtheInternetof Things( for more info ontheDisCO team. ” isthepseudonym by themysterious used creator orcreators of Bitcoin. 24 shared shared , “it’s 20years inthefuture and ,” andin2013we avehicle created (GuerrillaTranslation) that P2P Lab against P2P/Network dynamics their Bitcoin white paper , anotherP2PFspinoff that works narrative, withmedia, , a dedicated research, adedicated hub, andhasadvocated for them Furtherfield moving back and forth from the world of theory moving from andforth theworld back of theory , DECAL ), free/open culture andPlatform Cooperativism DGov Foundation (and they always will for more thanadecade and P2P Foundation show up , be,” many blockchain Enspiral the saying about Ocean Protocol ), andmore. Jump to occasionally to 25 (P2PF)who , AIOTI in ), Commons ways. DisCO, was anddiscover setuptoprototype of allocating methods value inP2P/ Let’s mission. group sharingasocial of people explore theway thefirst thisproject, Collective.Guerrilla Media It’s asmallscale, well-regarded project withacommitted can improvetechnology life. Theresult was GuerrillaTranslation, which evolved into We setoutwithadifferent setof andadifferent premises humanity about visionof how as we have seen ICOs, 26 are prone to thinking that most ICOs are speculative, with little down” or no value “trickled economy.to the real they In fact, and whentheprojects reach maturity. Asaplay ontheexpression Initial crowdfund Initial Coin Offerings 26 by promising disruption, revolution by and(more promising importantly, disruption, itseems) where individuals invest inblockchain projects that supposedly, will, provide great financialyieldsif constant again andagain and were all therage intheblockchain it’s put, space during2017-18.Crudely of atype repeated failure. Dot.com bubble anyone? , hype is a pied piper., hype isapied Public Public Offering you wouldn’t wrong in be gain crypto- . But 37 Last Night A Distributed Cooperative Organization Saved My Life Punk Elegance: The Story Chof Guerrilla 38 Translation aptand the Guerrilla Media er4Collective 27 a Commoner: AShort Introduction to the Life of theCommons. successful an extended sabbatical outavery from though still theproject, managing tocarry Frustration followed, (including totake thefounders) andsomemembers decided communicationmaintaining good inthecollective. issues about raised consuming background work like upkeep of relationships withalliesandclients, and reproductive tokeep work required the project healthy. Examplesinclude time- was animbalancebetweenrecognized readily productive andalltheinvisible, labour streamincreasing of work offers was flowing in. well thetranslations regarded, were thanever reaching more people andan work would necessary. be andpro-bono paid GT was thriving:thecollective was The firstback in2014 thingthatbecame wasthatclear asolid system toorganize scratch, thedevil isinthedetails. simple, butwhencreating somethingradically from new andcommons-oriented Itsounds retroactively (aka ‘pro-bono’) work. translators paying for their voluntary commissioned workpaid would go, toward mission inpart, financingthesocial by general contract communication onapaid basis. from Theproceeds this services (e.g., justice, social theenvironment, etc.) andanagency providing translation and translationcompatible collective functions:avoluntary working for activist causes conceived asaninnovative vehicle livelihood for activist translators, combining two translationcommons-oriented agency was created: Occupy and15-Mmovements still resonating inthestreets. Anew kindof P2Pand of the The story

Commons, P2P, ecology, feminism andactivismon thecollective’s Sacred EconomicsSacred Examples of GT’s translatedworks include David Bollier’s crowdfunding campaign Guerrilla Media CollectiveGuerrilla Media , the documentary the documentary Money andLife totranslate andpublishDavid Bollier’s

by Katie Teague, begins back in 2013, with the echoes of in2013,withtheechoes the back begins Think Like aCommoner 27 At thesame time, there though, Spanish Guerrilla Translation (GT)

and hundreds of andvideos onthe and hundreds articles The campaign featured Thecampaign and English

websites. and CharlesEisenstein’s Think Like Think . Itwas the 39 Punk Elegance: The Story of Guerrilla Translation and the Guerrilla Media Collective 40 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto maintaining its social mission. maintaining itssocial toensure fairdistribution astablestructures of work team, andrewards whilst strong solidarity, social governance butnoclear continued offers work, of paid 201 The crowdfund succeededinitsobjectives, was andthebook PPL-licensed invarious Latin book American countries. “ Peer Production License 28 for revenue collaboration conjoined with acredible model. andmutualsupport creating theproject, reignited somethingprecious intheprocess: asafe onlinespace awildsuccess. outto be The meetingturned Thegroup culture that emerged strategya long-term for GT. survival organizations, facilitation, andgovernance tohelpdevelop thegovernance and model welcoming decentralized/non-hierarchical infieldssuch astech, experts allied To “reload” GT inanorganized andsustainable way, andvalues, itsgoals clarify learned, andestablish amore explicit governance model. By 2018, the collective it was decided high time to review five years of lessons Think Global, Print Local Think Global, goods orcommodities rathergoods thancapital or producers’ goods.” Johnwith thebarrister Magyar, it’s nota hands of owners, shareholders orabsentee speculators). According toDmytri Kleiner, of co-author thelicense hands of thevalue creators, andwhere any amongthem(andnotonlyintothe equally surplusisdistributed only allows commercial exploitation by collectives inwhich theownership of isinthe themeans production Creative Commons variant non-commercial makes thePPLanexplicitly version anti-capitalist of theCC-NC. It From theP2PFoundation’s 6 . Yet despitethesemilestones, GT still suffered from thesame mixed condition: Wiki entry on thePeerWiki Production License entry , 28 ” toenlist commercial publisherstoprintanddistribute the andaninnovative, dubbed publishingmodel distributed GT’s GT’s English copyleft license, butinstead and Spanish websites an in-person meeting an in-person copyFARleft : “This fork ontheoriginaltext: “This of the launched inAutumnlaunched of , and is intended for consumer, andisintended was held, and are committed toGT’s development as well asDisCO’s ingeneral. practices create that the DisCO framework: helped feel happy, members forcared theoretical GuerrillaTranslation andpractical work, usingmany hasbeen of the After more thanayear, many challenges andastaggering amountof deeppersonal, 30 29 work chosen bywork voluntary thetranslators); (commons-oriented “livelihood” in thecollective. Thesecorrespond tothethree DisCO value streams: “pro bono” shareholders thoughtof can as If GuerrillaTranslation be members isaco-op, theco-op wayThe best tounderstand itmay seemcounterintuitive at first: value flows, income inaDisCO. anddecisionsare handled below.logic isoutlined can Thisoverview helpenvision issues like how important inthelinkabove, read can be The fullmodel of themodel’s butasimplesummary (currently at version 3.0) Distributed Cooperative Organization (DisCO) Governance andEconomic Model of DisCOs ingeneral: aspects theculturalandstructural understanding both a complete overhaul of itsgovernance iskey Thismodel andeconomic for model. In terms of structure, the last year of Guerrilla Translation brought about activity Governance Model Guerrilla Translation andtheDisCO the Seven DisCO principles. If you want organizing tostart TOMORROW, reading start aslongitaddresses andatemplate for model DisCOs ingeneral. OtherDisCOs model can adjust itasneeded, GT’s page Medium TheDisCO governance is, model effectively, thesame astheGuerrilla Translation/Media Collective governance For more info intoGuerrillaTranslation’s achievements over thelast years, check outthe Part of theGuerrillaTranslation/Media Collective DisCO brainstorming team infull-on action. in a traditional corporate sense, holds differentbut each . For precise documentation onthesepractices, visitthe 30 Guerrilla Media CollectiveGuerrilla Media Wiki THIS GT Blog 29 types , or subscribe to , orsubscribe of shares .

41 Punk Elegance: The Story of Guerrilla Translation and the Guerrilla Media Collective 42 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto can influence decisionmakingincritical situations, such asablocked proposal. principleof “one identical tothetraditionalco-op virtually member, onevote,” shares is called value, tobenefit and distributed monetary which isthen pooled of thisvalue isprocessed through amarket (theagency) interface andisconverted into contribute according totheircapacity. All create members value kinds. of varying Part It’s strategy for economic asolidarity-based resistance that allows to allmembers the member’s share. Thisisnotacompetitive scheme influenced by game theory. themore andcare effort putintothecollectiveIn short, by amember, thelarger case, copyediting, andrelated translation, interpreting, services. subtitling, from theproductive market-based by theworker-owners work performed —inGT’s determine how on a monthly basis. much is paid The money to sharespay comes work and reproductive (paid); or care work. 32 31 characteristics. examples of value allocation anddistributions, aswell assomeof DisCO’s special CooperativeDistributed Organization Governance model So, how this work does in practice? In this economic resistance. collective decidesare worthwhile, causes. notdead-end, Thisishow DisCOs exercise for what used allowscreation the talents tobe Themodel anddistribution. members’ and build community and/or locally globally, new whileprototyping forms of value workmembers together andenvironmental for social purposes, create commons privately-owned and-managed productive infrastructures. By contrast, inaDisCO, business) employs wage to produce labor profit-maximizing through commodities of thecollective andtheCommons. Acorporation (orastart-up, orany capitalist and money, underGT’s power differently. istreated model, Thedescriptionsare down thedifferences. Whileshareholders inacorporation power accrue through of shareholdingHow contrast this type does with that of a corporation? Let’s break mechanics onboarding and value of share of type each Thefullversion of thegovernance including indetail, aspect at looks every model Each of thesethree streams are power with value sovereignty ,

, decision making

mentoring 32 , accrued viaproductive andreproductive, accrued work taken for thehealth , the , andmuch more.

legal/technical backdrop . value tracked . And, althoughthedefault decision-makingprotocol. And, is . Thevalue tracking of stream each determines ,

community rhythms 31 laypersons/introductory article to the article laypersons/introductory Shares in these three types of Shares work in these three types , we explain some practical ,

graduated sanctions all

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UX designandimplementation. website promotion, designand offers media illustration, social graphicdesign, 35 34 33 Collective legal organization) actsastheparent incommon Other points include theumbrella (theGuerrillaMedia legal structure andcare work remains thesame. pro-bono logic of livelihood, different from designorillustration for example), work, butthevalue redistribution hasitsownnode adaptations governance of thebase (astranslation model isquite Agitprop, iterations facilitation withfuture such proposed ascoding, andmore). Each Collective)in: withinthemainDisCO (Media lievarious Graphics, (Translation, nodes Collective.— the Guerrilla Media of the federation This is where strategy part comes Guerrilla Translation, Agitprop andGraphicCollective of are theirhost allnodes DisCO channels, methods. and artivist approaches prioritizingpedagogical andactivist organizationscommons-oriented andprojects through onlineandoffline the structure: Guerrilla (L-R)

Andalusia, Spain. Transition Project well asthe and allillustrations of David BollierandSilke Helfrich’s as the Economy Commons Through Urban TransitionsSocieties the Some of thegraphiccollective’s previous work includes The Commons Transition Primer Guerrilla Media Collective GuerrillaMedia isconstituted asa of Guerrilla Agitprop the isalso handling all aspects Gallagher Re-imagining Value: Insights from theCare Economy, Commons, andNature Cyberspace Timothy McKeon P2P Foundation blog Translation reports for theP2PFoundation, reports the Commoner Newsletter and Guerrilla Media CollectiveGuerrilla Media . Lara SanMamés , has since become thefirstof alarger node umbrella (andDisCO) Sara Escribano andthe , the Commons Transition website . Click Voices of theCommons Podcas , 33 Stacco Troncoso Meanwhile here Commons Strategies Group non-profit and socially oriented non-profit oriented worker and socially owned cooperative , to meetthefull GuerrillaMediaCollective team. Catalan IntegralCooperative Free, Fair andAlive: The Insurgent Power of theCommons Free, Fair andAlive . Within it , Ann MarieUtratel 35 Guerrilla Agitprop and the tools used tocoordinate used andthetools . GGC is also responsible for isalsoresponsible theoverall design . GGC , GuerrillaGraphicCollective t andthecontinuation of the campaign (see preceding as campaign footnote), and P2P Foundation

and , Silvia LópezSilvia

Value intheCommons publication 34 report, the report, advocates for websites, aswell , and Bronagh Commons

Changing website in . ,

43 Punk Elegance: The Story of Guerrilla Translation and the Guerrilla Media Collective 44 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto constituent innature Economic/Governance and commons-oriented as itscare- GMCis model. at hand. Some members willstayat Somemembers hand. inthesame “homenode,” whileotherswillactmore onthework of depending simultaneously buttheintensity theirengagement willvary trusted ins But anindividual’ssupport. istheirhome. node” “base Thisiswhere regular cooperativedistributed, organization and prioritise inter-node collaboration and To clear, be Collective, in the Guerrilla Media exist all nodes within the same even aesthetic entitiesonce acertain they scale; surpass thisistotallyuptothem. nodes. OtherDisCOs can tofederate choose intoseparategeographic, productive or In the graphic collective,independent. Design and Illustration can form their own EnglishandFrenchsimple: withintranslation, the target Spanish, can become nodes largercannot be than 15-20 people. What as the collective happens Collective.the GuerrillaMedia work. distributed 37 36 through streams. Finally, GMC is its governance model to caring for the GMC is creating a translingual knowledge commons to inspire and enable systems change. towards low-transaction, transnational cooperative structures. Itisalsocommitted to GMC is and by through its on fairness andflexibility in The contribution. collective in key areas How thiswork does inpractice? First, GMCis CollectiveHow GuerrillaMedia does fulfilltheseven DisCOs principles Wherever may by othersinthe collective(s). members be, supported they willbe as digitalnomads, oranother. addingorsubtractingtheirtimetofrom onenode demonstrate that itsadoptionconveys ahost of ideological andpractical requirements. the GuerrillaTranslation node. in are presently detailed Thisisalotmore concrete thanthisdescription may suggest. at Aquick look thegovernance will model on thenode. is depending Some flexibilityforeseen, and intools legal structure tools,Regarding thespecific they happen, where colleagues get happen, toknow othermore each closely andwhere documenting, open sourcing andsharing open documenting, centered on centered care work relations transnationally oriented oriented transnationally its federation protocols pro-bono translation work pro-bono through its are created. Anindividualmay are created. well totwo belong ormore nodes health ofhealth thecollective 36 Those are the bare essentials needed to become a node within tobecome anode essentials Thoseare needed thebare the GuerrillaTranslation Handbooks and the importance of its livelihood, pro-bono andcare value pro-bono of andtheimportance itslivelihood, by enfranchising designed fordesigned organizational flexibility andmodularity values 37 GMC’s through its , where scale never comes at acost of smallgroup , curation criteria through strategy itsfederated andorientation , published through itslanguage blogs , published specific federation protocol . Italso several layers of membership mutual support oriented towardoriented positiveoutcomes reimagines flows of value — a series of Open Source —aseriesof Open operating manualsfor itscooperative practices. and founding principles actively creates commonsactively creates further states further that nodes practises and dedication scales shared earlier shared with a focus withafocus ? It’s quite through , aswell check- multi- safe, safe, ?

Cooperativism, Contributory Accounting Contributory Cooperativism, andFeminism —can offer more nuanced, Space toprefigure how the abovefour maininfluences mentioned — Commons/P2P, in theblockchain —before expandingbeyond Ledger space—trust theDistributed work in DisCOs, we will examine one of and the divisivemost misunderstood issues for exploration transnational radical, potential Afteradeeper cooperativism. of care In thefollowing sectionswe willdelve intotheDisCO framework deeper andits DisCO framework with aneye towards small-scale experimentation. (a cooperative supermarket working in conjunction withCSAs) are allexploring the platformbooking that promotes initiatives and funds local andprojects) and and value driven onlinemarketplace), global Agitprop within GMC. and operates as aDisCO node Finally, atproject incubated theP2PFoundation, managed by iscurrently Guerrilla being and operate asDisCOs. Meanwhile, Furtherfield’s wouldn’t have existed otherwise. Existing organizations such as farms DisCOs theAmazon rainforest upfascinatingturned proposals:from preserving tocreating mentioned earlier.mentioned Let’s co-ops... cats talk about andcare-oriented diverse answers andmutually supportive tothe question of the“Future of work” not designingsoftware code for crypto-assets. Weproposition. for cared andfed, tobe whoneed are people primarilytalkingabout take itfrom there. Make nomistake, complicated thisisanexperimental, and risky withsmallpilots, istostart Our approach like Collective, theGuerrillaMedia and like.other DisCOs might look Each will emerge on its own terms, in its own context. the future isunwritten andno“ this publication. While thelessons of GMC’s development asaDisCO isinstructive, downA lotboils totheirown governance andthechallenges models expressed in But what like? mightotherDisCOs look CollectiveThe GuerrillaMedia is, above, asmentioned thefirst are noconceptual frameworks tovalidate what we are achieving inpractice. Weand practice ismoot. came upwiththeDisCO framework precisely because there Collective, IntheGuerrillaMedia andsupport. trust theneat divisionbetween theory Some of therecent — the basic DisCO framework —thebasic invariably which touniqueprototypes leads centered on craft beer manufacturing, open community art spaces and urban spacesandurban community art open centered manufacturing, oncraft beer DECAL Open Cooperativism Open (Decentralised Arts Lab) (Decentralised Arts are investigating how toadaptthemodel whitepaper Commons Transition and ” ortheoretical willdictate structure what Fairbnb DisCO (acooperative accommodation workshops we have have run , thecommons-advocacy FairMondo

self-identified DisCO. SpiralSeed (acooperative La Louve , and

45 Punk Elegance: The Story of Guerrilla Translation and the Guerrilla Media Collective Turn the Beat Around: Community ChAlgorithmic

46 Trusts and Care Oriented aptCooperativism er5 38 over thenotes, toturntheminto“Money.” Validated, trust-endowed. notesconcluded that andcounterfeit bank issued theFed simplywaves amagic wand Wilson surprise, notmany governments, trust either. Stand-upphilosopher motives? According tothedata, individuals or groups. Now, who conglomerates, endowed withthelegal tovalidate authority interactionsamong are centralized typically Intermediaries institutions like banks, governments or for thesystem intermediaries tofunctionreliably. trusted require brilliance in2008was tocreate asystem transactions for that peer-to-peer didnot isthehottest potato ontheblockchain“Trust” plate. Satoshi Nakamoto’s stroke of

Newcomers So it’s donot. backed Itisafiction bya notsimplyafiction. vast apparatus of power.” has alotof because legitimate thestate credibility hasseriousresources todeploy theirmoney. tostand behind transactions. Idon’t oraseconomic advocates. them politically policy trust Also, fiatbacked money by statepower Thisis, of course, notsosimple. David Bolliernotesthat tomake banks “Ican trust reliable, verifiable financial , musingonthedifferences between physically identical Federal Reserve- really not too many people trust banks many trust not too people trusts banks and governments banks trusts or, at their least, —andtonobody’s 38

Robert Anton 47 Turn the Beat Around: Community Algorithmic Trusts and Care Oriented Cooperativism 48 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto 39 systemsrelationships tothevery incapable of doingso, orsimplyignores it. of liability and responsibility of andpenalties. payments This, from creating apart through the machine 40 and constant engagement. Many DAO projects are happy to complicity in the face of ecological, and ethical political crises through relationality Donna Haraway we have toundertake inorder torelate. Similarly, inherlatest book, the hard stuff.” messy, thenon-financialized, shemeant By “stuff” humaninteractions Ruth Potts contend that right-libertarian imagination. Those of us on the other side of the ideological spectrum rid of all institutions andgovernments! It’s easytoseehow thisvisionengorges the conduct of interactions into the stratosphere. trustless contracts, Through smart we could (and investment) after thecreation contracts, of smart projecting thepossibilities validation. Thisistheonekeyfor third party that aspect engenderedmass salivation thatThis means you can transact insecure ways (thanks, withnoneed cryptography) “ dilemma.Bitcoin trust achieves an elegant solutiontothecentral-intermediary In thematter of money creation inparticular, Nakamoto’s proposalpresented trustlessness

Power of theCommons is notthefullstory, even orperhaps the manyBitcoin subsequently blockchainposterior and, projects. In the Commons, however, we contend that this achieve successful collaborations.” worldview,the libertarian failing to recognize dynamics (offline to the actual andsocial online) that are needed DAO/blockchain on objects, more focused space getThey’re soconfused. not relations, andthey blindly project markets) that precede andmake thecontent. We thinkthisanalysis explain helps why tech traditionalists inthe the legal status of the content-object processes and not on the social (such as commoning or private property/ This isachieved by assuming miners/validators are rationally self-interested, biasof highlightingthepolitical Staying withtheTrouble: MakingKinintheChthulucene all “Stand-up Robert philosopher” Anton Wilson explains , a political activist, apolitical andoneof the our transactions in disintermediated, peer-to-peer ways. peer-to-peer our transactions in disintermediated, Now we can get not ” by decentralizing andtransferring trust ittothewholenetwork. the Federal Reserve

encourages usto“stay withthetrouble,” tocome to termswithour everything in life can be a neatly measured, defined transaction defined inlife aneatly can measured, be everything , David BollierandSilke Helfrich comment: “...The chiefly focuses on open/closed binary , choosing to punish any, choosing deviations from the code with deferrals , outsources the difficult work of having conversations and , counterfeit currency andinterest-free money. right story. Inmaterials related to Stansted 15 Stansted huge legal problems intheareas the strange phenomenaof , asserted thatsoft stuff “the is , asserted Free, Fair andAlive: theInsurgent sanitise thismessiness 40 noted

ecofeminist

. 39

41 The is that? daring toeven onsomethingasprecious Why ascare thehoursspent measure work. DisCOs onhuman-level arethe focus still value trust, tracking at thesesmallscales, members, asaviable meant scale for theinevitable “soft buthard” stuff. But despite A given DisCO node’s own between theway you relate inyour householdandtheway you transact outsideit. direction. totrustworthy intheopposite between subverted trustless can be the spectrum So where and blockchains dotrustlessness come in?At therisk of stating theobvious, built onsweat equity, consistent relations andhonest communication. won’t through technical orfinancialadvantage bought means be be itwill —instead, and adopt these practices of before becoming the collective. a full member Your trust Fu inGuerrillaTranslation skillzintheMatrix.Infact, ittakes won’tThese culturalaspects instantly download intoyour brainlike Neo’s madKung- experience. Collective’s outofthe DisCO practical developed GuerrillaMedia framework, lived online levelnode is relations.the collective andtrusted andthehumanswithin, InDisCOs, at trust the withinaDisCO hastwo node priorities:care clear in theorganization. work Every for CooperativeA Distributed Organization, by contrast, to the humans exists in service

Primavera DeFilippi explains how blockchains can levels foster inminute14:40of of varying trust And even technically Wages for Housework , there isan Stay thetrouble? with In Chthulucene. But how can thetechno-utopian futures of someBlockchain proponents destructive stories we needto engage in:theAnthropocene, theCapitalocene andthe 41 Itallhastodowiththescale of thegroup. bigdifference There isavery built on human interaction. Even on human interaction. though these may in-depth systemin-depth titrated at certain scales, as blockchains can implement various gradual levels of trust. movement of the 1970s served to “throw movement sheets over of the 1970s served this lecture Dunbar number Dunbar tally suchprocesses? upwith to maximize mutual support andcooperation in tomaximize mutualsupport , DonnaHaraway speaks about thegenerative and for trusted nodes isaround 15-20 nodes for trusted nine months typically happen happen typically this video to learn tolearn . 49 Turn the Beat Around: Community Algorithmic Trusts and Care Oriented Cooperativism 50 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto larger mission. social value, andhave conversations open their individual contributions about totheDisCO’s their “home” node, the tracking system share and allocate interact, the nodes helps of familiarwithone another as in differentmembers may as personally nodes not be that Among the automated. nodes constitute Collective, Guerrilla Media where pro-bono, and care)(paid, to clarify work more culturally legible. earlier, As mentioned of DisCOs track work three types unrecognizedthe ghosts” of emotional and unpaid, care labour, making invisible create value through digital commons of knowledge, software, anddesign. thatinfrastructures allow tocommunicate, people self-organize ultimately, and, co- andLinux are Wikipedia examples oftrust. many forsimply too anyone people tointeractwith andget toknow well enough to projects like ortheLinuxoperating system,based Wikipedia because there are the commons. Theseinteractionsdon’t always translate well tolarge-scale, internet- on Commons such ascommunity gardens, spaces thrive forests local orneighbourhood in theCommons movement: that between commons andlarge-scale P2Psystems. systemstrustless by common bound reflects dichotomy goals an often misunderstood This distinction between small-scale, inherently trustworthy groups andlarge-scale as highlyfeasible at thesmall. here isacontinuum asthedefault from trustless normat thelarge scale totrustworthy dynamics.large trusted scale What whilemaintainingsmall-group we are describing and with the most computing power blockchain can proponents take amore associationist Instead of helpingthose turn. will concretely materialise. by promised Thisiswhere value thealleged disruption others, there are nosimpleplug-and-play mechanisms that assure that cooperation among Co-ops.” by ishonoured somecooperatives Whilethisideal by andignored The International Cooperative Alliance’s sixthcooperative principleis“Cooperation into financialinteractionswithothers, willinevitably trust arise. theissue party of third Beyond established safe thesesmall, spaces andwithinthegeneral context of entering specificity structural frameworksstructural can movements help solidarity to cooperate atlearn the : theirsenseof place, andthehumanrelations amongthosemaintaining become decentralized capitalists

difficult conversations,be algorithmically not to Commons-Based Peer Production , DisCO’s cultural , P2P P2P systems inthisway: The Commons Transition Primer managed resources (commons). thecreation andmaintenance caninfrastructures support of andco- shared scales andlevels of complexity. Thecombination of P2Ptechnical andsocial P2P andtheCommons together create asynergy for collaborations at larger describes theinteractionbetween Commons describes and 51 Turn the Beat Around: Community Algorithmic Trusts and Care Oriented Cooperativism 52 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto to interconnect andcooperate onlarger scales. DisCO provide system “lightweight” protocols projects production for commons-basedpeer boundaries, and trust act more like on small-scale commons based Guerrilla Translation Collective andtheGuerrillaMedia (anode) (anindividualDisCO) commons ororganizational nodes. decentralised nodes, toexamine DisCOs propose While theblockchain aimsto strip thepower of institutions “trusted” andgive itto We Are Family: introducing theDisCO CAT by marketabsorbed dynamics. new groups and engaging of people in productive market without being activity Together, thesepractices can enable DisCOs toexpand transnationally by incorporating — — — — — — “constitutional” for action) parameters Permissionless forms of action (where design protocols reflect prior Horizontal federation through nodes relational dynamics. steward theresources ethically andsustainably for future generations communities gathered around theresources while theCommons entailsthespecific In brief, P2P expresses pattern of an observable relations between humans, Practice andcontinual iteration of the7DisCO principles . Meanwhile, a DisCO network ) and where relationships, established clearly what (composed of several (composed DisCOs) can networks how trust isplaced attrust thesmaller (as in (the protocols used to (the protocols used are characterized by: resources ), ) of these who ( the important structural part of theDisCO, part structural important andwe bow down toourfeline overlords. completely. We’ll hard here, too refrain from but theCAT trying themost mightbe honor of theonlynon-humancreature onthisplanetthat has “community (CAT) algorithmic trust” for thecooperative,that information actsasashared repository which we’ll call a What we for propose theinformation andvalue tracking inaDisCO is aplatform encode thisintotechnological toensure andlegal that structures theculture thrives? all commons. IfaDisCO’s care orientation isanexample of theformer, how can we betweenEarlier wethefluiddialectic that culture and mentioned defines structure outthehumanlevel agreementsin overseeing, andrules. andcarrying simplifying DisCO’s algorithms, thecollective onablockchain whetherencoded support ornot, the tofinessemachines andamplify areexisting used chess talents of humans),a heart of theDisCO is heart the collective as a “living entity,” but beyond a collectively thedigital ideal, imagined outitsself-organisedcollective rules. InDisCOs, carry care work includes caring for ownershipthrough shared structures, a DisCO’s help the design structures on-chain Similar tohow a Community Land Trust

that livingentity. Like gambit incentaur anopening chess (where . In fact, why. In fact, not just call it the DisCO CAT in (CLT) social values maintainspecific helps colonized theinternet

53 Turn the Beat Around: Community Algorithmic Trusts and Care Oriented Cooperativism 54 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto in away that isrecognized ascompliant, fiscally andlegally. also Thelegal structure iswhatthe legal structure ratifies theinteractionswithother, external legal entities mainly just that. Thegovernance iswhat model makes itallfunctioninternally, while andanofficial number it’sstamp thatpermits abusiness tofunction, — no,well, it’s andfromforming, which DisCO emerges. ismore Alegal thanaregistration structure any legal forms all-purpose that of cooperative for are ideal thetype that they were CollectiveThe GuerrillaMedia discovered team thehard way that there simplyaren’t member’s individualdashboard. the data for thesemetrics, which show of thehealth thecollective displayed oneach and tracking and payments; most importantly, at looking visualizations drawn from bono, andcare creating livelihood work client for invoices credits work performed; (e.g., done inthecooperative, including managing workflow; documentation updating team The CAT platform can is where input and review members information work about 43 42 replacing interactionsthat theface-to-face sustain any group. coordination,(cooperation, etc.) that are more difficult otherwise, whilenever could provide affordances social that can of facilitate group processes certain types valuescharacteristic are care-centered notlost. Inthisway, digitalstructures alwayson-chain, incollaboration withtheworker-owners asaway sure the tobe cooperativeis to prototype forms where the statutes and supported are encoded online reflection of agroup’s activitiesaccording toDisCO principles. Theobjective With CATs legal research, proper toexpandbeyond developed can theirrole asan be chain. of cooperative new types practices,to support including thosethat are recorded on- can interactandreconfigure. be adapted to Legal forms are,going toneed soon, very for collectives thefunctionof commons-oriented that areasclusters arranged that certainly donotprovide athorough framework that support what does isrequired: a cooperative. But at thoselegal forms themoment, onlycover somany variables, and details ownership accountability, which differs greatly between a companytypical and

follow asimilar pattern, thevarious of value modes tracking and other inputs reflect thecurrent health ofaDisCO actions could of of determinethehealthiness sickness theCAT of Thedashboard apatient. to planned hasbeen encoded reflection and articulation encoded of the DisCO governance model. encourage theCAT tothinkfor Infact, engaged. themselves people more socially andbe seenasan can be CAT isa humans affected by its actions. Incontrast tothefullyautonomous visionsof someDAO proponents, theDisCO and itsmembers. Are you familiarwiththegame As a program, it is important tostress that it isimportant As aprogram, Community Algorithmic Trusts are by regularly programmed the quarterly reviewquarterly convivial tool that allows multipleusesinactualcontexts. adaptation for open toserve Convivial tools timelines, Operation 42 ? Thiswas game from theeightiesinwhich anelectronic player’s board commitment statements

); accounting for theirpro- 43 heart. What follows that through pumps aDisCO’s istheblood human/machine interface seven principlesof DisCOs. space,politics evenbeyond definetheiridentitiesand toclearly DisCOs need the themselvesassert andfoster healthy, collaborations mutuallyrespectful intheDLT Collective isinitiating theGuerrilla collective of women, GuerrillaMedia andahighproportion withafeminist backbone the designandbuildof thetechnical andmore. infrastructure AsaCommons/P2P coders andcollectives withideologically aligned explore tohelpinform partnerships parties. For techno-solutionist alienated developers or otherwise to that, DisCOs need and principles, DisCOs would dowell nottooutsource theconstruction of theirCATs to 44 available to adopt algorithms before rushing toassessprojects what need specific values and affordances intothe are encoded with sawdust.a placebo madewith silkandfilled and Solidarity commons-based The TinManinthe Wizard of by Oz got the sweet-talking fooled wizard intoaccepting of Free/Libre software, onthelove. pass alternatives distributed resilient, led, for Open-Value in the Cooperativismspirit and, ofproponents the3.0decentralized internet. bricks (let’s soquick todefault notbe to butwe for thestructural thisconstruction, still prepped need all theculturalmortar for your CATs problems withoutyour active participation. We built. tobe need have African disability movement of the90s. Plainlyput:don’t letothersdesignsolutions “Nothing uswithoutus”isa about

For example, DAT , Scuttlebutt , IPFS andthemore radical fringes of theblockchain space. Coding Collective, slogan blocks that prominence regained intheSouth FOMO 44 ). Based ontheseideological premises ). Based GMC’s community- istoco-build goal a homefor feminist developers and -induced blockchain solutions. To 55 Turn the Beat Around: Community Algorithmic Trusts and Care Oriented Cooperativism Open-Value Co-ops for ChRadical Workplace 56 aptDemocracy er6 These core priorities are reflected in the model and encoded onchain. How onchain. These core much andencoded inthemodel prioritiesare reflected summarized as: be re-assessed and adapted andadapted re-assessed be That isfor DisCO todecide, each butaDisCO’s itsCAT, dimension, on-chain to needs inthemessy andhow enacted humanworld? muchresides isleftto be on-chain The DisCO issimilartoDAOs inproviding forinvoicing, easier tools payments, value governance/economic that model recognises the CollectiveMedia ontheexisting andtested based can be DisCO attempts to facilitate individual DisCO’s each governance This model model. dimension (e.g.,The encoded digital platform or Community Algorithmic Trust) of the lived experience of thecollective. evolving, that by plastic the prototype isconstantlyperpetually shaped being byas enabled anonlineplatform. Thusthe contrast, cooperativism andcare aDisCO stresses work humanmutualsupport, Most DAOs are also heavily bypopulated whitemenwithtechnical backgrounds andtechnocratic values. follow anindividualistic philosophy (intheworst cases, right-libertarian) inafield neutral? Thinkagain:Is technology Many decentralized autonomous organizations — — — — — — — — — — — — — — Federated Value reimagined Care work-based Transnational Commons-creating Multi-constituent oriented Socio-environmentally , butitneedn’t be. To self-identify asaDisCO acollective a needs

exclusively centered onquantifiable (“tokenized”) regularly toaccount real-life for experiences. members’ governance for developed Guerrilla model onchain seven DisCO principles dimension of commoning isa aspects , briefly offchain, offchain, . By 57 Open-Value Co-ops for Radical Workplace Democracy 58 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto from blockchain-landia, explanations you withourentry-level may frustrated of be earlier. described and otherbases Here’s anexample: ifyou’re visitingustoday its underlyingstructures, including Open-Value Ledgers Distributed Cooperativism, rebalance thisaccess by providing mentoring andresources tothoseinterested in knowledge asaresult (often of obtained oneprivilege oranother).DisCOs attempt to and less decentralized given thanthey claim, that access tothosewithspecial islimited 45 To fixthis, accessibility are pedagogy and key of theDisCO vision. components exclusive culture are frustrating enoughtoleave uninterested anduninformed. people blockchains and DLTs. Fine, for but, many, technical impenetrable language and an adaptations, change, andfederation. for all purposes, DisCOs distribute power among nodes, facilitating bottom-up easier resilience. andstructural tracking, But rather thancreating astandard, universal DAO Inclusive, relatableandeducational: Trust. accountableresilient, and interoperable agreements of the Community Algorithmic the tyranny of structurelessness, working thegood atmosphere isstrengthened by the won’t loops feedback induce runaway machine tyranny. Rather thanfallingsubjectto explicit knowledge… everyone’s outontheDisCO floor. Thealgorithm’spositive inculture andstructure: Balanced DisCO principles make and share their experiences a living, with others? Beyond the What would your like? DisCO be Who’s there? What dothey dotocare for oneanother, But thisdoesn’t tellthewholestory. Value Cooperativism inactionable, ways federated facilitated by digitaltechnology. In summary, we can say that DisCOs are aframework for exercising of theideals Open- Good Times: DisCOsinReal Life inspire, toothervariations. but we forward look That is, inourown DisCO experience Collective. withinGuerrillaMedia Thesefeatures to guide and are meant , andinourexperience, Onchain andoffchain dimensions, tacitand Many blockchain projects are more exclusive 45 DisCOs are: magnificent seven are not opposed to each other, toeach are notopposed withinanindividual Nodes butmutuallydependent. that to the reality self and collectiveis starkly is privy evident interests — everyone provide ahomefor thesetocreate value together. Interdependence withinaDisCO together.” withinacollective toprioritisethehumanbeings DisCOs are designed and Multilayered/holonic: economies.solidarity to thenexpandand federate through tocreate secure P2Pinfrastructures resilient step at atime, withtangiblecommunity wealth beginning andstable livelihoods, not algorithmic blueprints for humanstoconform to. Instead they take thingsone vehicles ondifficulttograsp, dependent volatile aspects. Large DisCOs are orsmall, lived experience of theirmembers. What they are in thework andmarketplace. Theirdevelopment isemergent onthe anddependent industries. They are aframework of that positive changes thepossibility increases Non speculative ordeterministic: 46 values and tamper-proof ways —we mainstream want notionsof value todisrupt beyond the DisCO’s Community Algorithmic Trust. Thisaccounting validated must be insecure DLT-enabled, butnotdependent: butifany we’dor not, ofstick, ourideas happy toknow be ourwork hashadaneffect. ourresilienceincrease by strengthening ourdiversity. You may touseDisCO choose willingtocollaborateand failures andbeing ways inculturalandstructural can only oftraction ontherough roads late-stage capitalism. are doing and don’t “our” seek to impose solutions. All these experiments are gaining of theblockchain space(more onthelatter below). We admire what andrespect they like Co-ops frameworks,complementary oldandnew. DisCOs support answer. But economy if the question is “what do we want?,” we to other can point —butnotprescriptive: Modular with themarket beyond. andtransactfunction at different levels spectrum, alongthetrustless-to-trustworthy Finally, beyond theirvalue-sovereign membrane, Community Algorithmic Trusts can towardare geared consensual solidarity, network resilience andmutual support. among network partners. In allcases, value andexchanges tracking is transparent value sovereignty andself-determination onthetermsandmeans revisableencoded, agreements toprocess value flows withotherDisCOs, prioritizing withinthecollectivedistinct nodes prioritisessolidarity. All DisCOs can develop muchdistribution, like an DisCO, Collective, such asGuerrillaMedia practice themost intimate form of value inescapable. capitalist economic diversity is vast, and but capitalism blindsustoitby all-encompassing pretending tobe innumerable In microsolidarity typically found typically intheblockchain space. But in whilewe potential seeincredible A Postcapitalist Politics , Open Co-ops Open

economic practisesexisting alongsideand within, , not-for profit/Post Growth Economics andthe

, feminist economic geographers Hebb’s rule income-sharing commune Social Solidarity Economy Solidarity Social DisCOs are one framework, and one possible DisCOs areandonepossible oneframework, Contributory accounting of Contributory isat each theheart states that “Neurons that fire together, wire DisCOs do not claim they will disrupt all DisCOs donotclaim they willdisrupt J.K. Gibson-Graham not 46 beyond Sharingourstories, successes . Value distribution between is speculative or investment , aswell asnewer proposals traditional co-ops capitalism. The panorama for non- The panorama capitalism. andthemore radical edge remind us that there are

of exchange , Platform 59 Open-Value Co-ops for Radical Workplace Democracy 60 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto Have viable, ethical business models: uswithoutus!). about withinthenetwork DisCOs andisamatter (nothing prototyped all participating tobe andinteroperable between chain modular dimension of theselicenses tobe needs capitalization of 47 that onmaterial alldepend resources andknowledge. Geographically distributed is thekey.” occurs everything isthat, beyond“My position thedifferentiation between onlineandoffline worlds, Rovira Online oroffline? Cooperative Organizations available, “meshable,” source. andopen they become ahindrance. We simplywant tomake thetechnologies of Distributed networks, butit’s that tothepoint andstructures tools nottoimpose alsoimportant any way itchooses. Ontheonehand, Secure Scuttlebutt between organizations and the latter more prone to experimentation. Whether it’s blockchain basket.DisCO are cultures emergent, andstructures theformer istheglue the future Technologies, of Ledger Distributed DisCOs cannot putalltheireggsinone 48 seductive promises of for big-picture capital gain. disruption of many blockchain projects, which are onspeculative usuallypredicated ICOs orthe guidelines of theirseven mainprinciples. Thiscontrasts withtheeconomic premises for sale,offering andservices tangiblegoods butwithstrict loyalty tothepro-social their own income. This viability lets DisCOs operate in the market economy, i.e., on economic exploitation, extraction orphilanthropy, DisCOs generate andreinvest capitalism inheterodox ways, andthiscalls for economic viability. Rather thanrelying by creating economic counterpower. Call usambitious, butwe want tooutperform mission. and itssocial inthe collectiveabsentee orshareholder participants profit, benefit but of for the on community control. If we define ourselves as “not-for profit,”mean not we for controlling theirown assets ina shared organizationsoriented tobecome more economically resilient by creating and monetize productive works. Similartohow the allows cooperatives collectives andsolidarity-based like todefineit, copy this remains there anincipientproject, isanexisting Copyfair (or, astheauthors DisCOs can use Copyfair-Licensed: other face-to-face. on-life, Local” thegovernance toease designed been andeconomics of always more difficultthanintangiblecreative theDisCO framework production, has etc.inputs andless development capital But needed, whilematerial is production implementations of DisCO because value tracking iseasier, there are fewer material DisCOs that produce digitalservices, like Collective, GuerrillaMedia are theeasier not for profit cooperative. Many explored of are inDonnie Maclurcan further theseideas andJennifer Hinton’s Collective GuerrillaMedia is, legally constituted infact, asa initiatives. Whetheron-oroff-line, we recognize ourrelations ashappening striving tomaximize through networks trust andregularly encountering each breaks down the dichotomy between our“on” linelives and“off” There are really no“material” and“immaterial” commons . assets withintheirnetworks commons-based reciprocity licensescommons-based reciprocity , abunch of ortallysticks, spreadsheets your DisCO can track value on-life To enable value sovereignty whilemaximizingmutualization, far 47 Onlife

DisCOs are aframework for economic resistance achieved . Seenthisway, thecorporeal experience of encountering left) license, the ! Mexican-Catalán Zapatista Guiomar cyberactivist being interoperable being DisCOs have anuancedvisionof profitbased permissionless Peer Production License , DisCOs can usePPLtoallow purpose- Fairshares Association non-profit, socially oriented Andalusian oriented workernon-profit, socially , or“Copyfair” licenses. While , butnotcorporations, to “Design Global-Manufacture “Design Global-Manufacture isessential tolarger DisCO manner. on- Thepossible 48 How on Earth. Ourfuture is How onEarth. (PPL).ThePPL facilitates the considering asfollows: projects (notable exceptions would be and changemaking projects. Fun absent from many isalsopainfully blockchain Fun orbust! thingisthat theirpracticesimportant political willreflect principles. these (like“fly political aspects theflag” ofthese hierarchical (the blockchain structures space). Whether afuture to DisCO chooses of left)orthedecentralization emancipation (theold-school of speak anddisruption of theDisCO visionrepresents achange that islongoverdue withinmovements that particular, theadditionof carework andfeminist economics asessential components cooperative exclusively towards oriented profit and exchange by istempered ownership of capitalism Political: 49 human beings, intheworkplace andbeyond. communication by isinformed othernotionsof value reflective of our experiences as for alongtime. What we inDisCOs is propose have The coop movement little meaning. addressing has been workplace democracy workplace is do notamounttomuch whendemocracy American economist workplace democracy Don’t stop ‘till you get enough —radical the DisCO CAT platform) have tofactorinfun! alternatives mission? which alsofulfillasocial Relationships withinaDisCO (including platforms toencourage designed addictive behaviours, why can’t we offer enjoyable and fulfillingprocess. Whenmuch been hijackedof ourleisure timehas by online of astheDisCO aesthetics. We anengaging tobe needs inclusivity thinkthat true — much meme, wow). very ThenameDisCO isnocoincidence, norare what we think framework can helpmake thecooperative principlesmore likely enacted. tobe simply market players for thecollective of theirmembers. benefits Inspite of this, believewe that theDisCO We must, however, outthat point theoriginalseven are cooperative Many principlesare often ignored. co-ops , wage becomes labour Of course, allcooperatives : once you walk of through thecompany, thedoor your democratic rights principles : Private ownership of becomes themeans production Humour, joyfulness andwellbeing are routinely disregarded inpolitics Richard Wolff . 49 DisCO’s additionalseven principlesturbocharge this. In worker-owners , argues that notionsof representative democracy are Cryptoraves political. They upend the They upend political. Guerrilla Media CollectiveGuerrilla Media and(absentee/hierarchical) production radical workplace democracy overwhelmingly absentoverwhelmingly from the , Facecoin , Plantoids three basic premises three basic the ) or not, themost) ornot, original seven and Dogecoin collective , where

61 Open-Value Co-ops for Radical Workplace Democracy 62 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto in social media, especially invideo(seebelow). especially However, media, in social it’s tokeep alsoimportant convergent andphilosophical movements, social political, is experiencing a heyday inclusivity. Humor, asaway especially more historically to helpunpack complex and tobuildbetter conditionsAesthetics astools for andsemanticsare important for change,tools involved of informed, thebase andbroadening stakeholders. it’s more taking active, about collective powerful for the use of responsibility very isn’t technology view disruptive of potentially necessarily anegative-Nancy stance, how are thoseprocesses? transparent All questions worth exploring. Taking acritical to suffer how for it?Whodecideswhatare thosedecisionstaken, isafair risk, and from andwhoorwhat the whobenefits result, could stand exactly disrupted, isbeing make the unconscious conscious, itwilldirect your life andyou willcall itfate.” What tododamage. even capacity hidden, ifunintentional, AsCarl G. you Jung “Until said, andthemore “disruptive”design, theaims, themore it’s touncover important any consider carefully. Unexamined values andbiasescertainly doinform technological noteveryone.perhaps To thoseoutliers, we present thisasanalternative to viewpoint ofPlenty and naive. transformationssociopolitical that P2P networks can pursue remain underdeveloped DLT despitea space but, The more technical understandings of P2Pcollaboration are well-known inthe We alsoarrived here through experience influenced by P2Pand commons theory. withourvalues. andaligned more grounded into normative design structures. We want DisCOs totellabetter story, onethat is explicitly before identifiestheimportance of culture it’s unconsciously programmed outcomes. That culture produces itsown corresponding structures. Our approach of DAOsThe story sensibilitiesresulting incertain istheresult of certain (libertarian) unique, andstories inform thedesign of ourtechnologies. togetherapproaches intoanew narrative. Together, theseare thestories andthecultures that make aDisCO. Itweaves previous In worthy andprojects people this video explains how cooperatives can bethecure for maladies of capitalism. produced by growing of exceptions rebellious number the Extraenviromentalist may content be withthesemanticsof theDAO, but Stories, notgenes , economics professor RickWolff , are what make humans ,theculturaland

new ways of relating to things that formerly may have unrelatable, seemed through Collective. in ouronlinepresence for GuerrillaTranslation GuerrillaMedia anditsextension, andrebellious.colourful Theseaesthetics are anextension of thestyle we’ve evolved As anexample, we’ve chosen visualaesthetics for thisDisCO manifesto tobe influence that image andbranding can inject. the subtle, byformerly to bankroll entities with occupied the means often unnoticed cohesion andidentification for collectives moving intonew spaces(e.g., blockchain) we stand for enabling access of to means expression that can form a source of social correct. We todictate. reminder nottoever appreciate try thiscautionary Instead thatwhich means asingleaesthetics can’t andenforced regimented aspolitically be it ultimatelyPolitics endsinfascism. of must plurality humans, honortheirreducible Human Condition a balanceandmake for of aesthetic room aplurality possible approaches. Inthe 50 to share withyou. lot of work todo, andwe have what about someideas that like, looks which we’d like to you, well, itsoundslikeappeals reconstruction toaestheticIf thisapproach andsemanticdemystification andhands-on the bridges of color andculturalreferences. in politics and tech (and, possibly, andtech (and, in politics alienate others: the DisCO optics to feminized and queered resonatedeliberately punkified, with sectors often underrepresented Our visualstyle stands incontrast totheaesthetics usuallychosen inblockchain we projects for areason, 50 The point for usisnottoforce Thepoint astyle buttoempower otherstorecognize , HannahArendt argues that whenaesthetics are linked topolitics, Contrapoints explains Left” “the that’s thebreaks from at least two angles. you’ve found theothers ). . There’s a The 63 Open-Value Co-ops for Radical Workplace Democracy The Last Dance: ChThe Future is Unwritten 64 apt er7 and “mindasymmetries” intheirsectionon ofsituated intheNorth France, offer athoughtfulexploration of inclusivity, awareness The practitionersandactivists at theself-managed livelihoods.dignified diverse experiences andexpressions boundaries, whilerespecting andcreating of inclusion inourfuture organizational forms andtechnologies, for makingroom distribution: power.most important DiSCOs can more aculture effectively embed systems are worthy, toachieve butradical workplace the isneeded democracy networked andradically democratic workplaces. decision-making Participatory from humaninvolvement.is notwork for apart technology Restoration by “automation”,implied andavoid blindfaithintheblockchain asapanacea. DisCO framework can offer avisionof empowerment tocounter thebleaker prospects We believe that greater publicawareness thepower about of the Commons plusthe cooperatives constitute large-scale framework. apotential GMC) are small-scale, solutions.trust-based Large DisCO federations of Open-value solutions withinalarge-scale framework.” Individualcommons (e.g., DisCOs such as “Large-scale problems large-scale donotrequire solutions; they small-scale require accessible frameworks Britishecologist that Asnoted David unitethem. Fleming mainstream economic but to address thought, causes we the root of need inequality the change-making movements we inoffer take alternatives part tothedeficiencies of intersectional feminism andfeminist economics, open-value accounting. Individually, source, the commons, permaculture, platform cooperatives, and open blockchain, Those of usworking onDisCO stand at thecrossroads of various movements: open What isthefuture of work? and encouraging toward openness changing our behavior. potentially This “Accountability isa way of addressing for otherasresponsible each ouracts

of ecosystems ourlivingplanet, andhumanrelationships This are vital. Restoration. practicing accountability Performing Forum Arts

It willtake transnationally : (PAF), said , 65 The Last Dance: The Future is Unwritten 66 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto communication anthropologist at theUniversity of Melbourne, Arab mobilizations Spring/15-M/Occupy at of thestart thedecade, John Postill, a new strategies through technology. ourimpact andamplify Talking themass about movementsthose of usinsocial have todevelop opportunities unprecedented While we remain skeptical of we technosolutionism, must alsoacknowledge that cooperative traditions. Solidarity andSocial from Thisgoes thelow-hanging fruit gainfor personal By nowthat clear itshouldbe we are notbuyingintothe andbiosphere destruction. inequality notjust archaic businessdisrupt models, mass butthetwinelephantsinroom: musttechnologies promising explicitly huge disruptions develop visiblepilotsthat callingcommons itthe“sharing andP2Pfor themicro-rental, economy the technologies of decentralization. Silicon Valley make (again) ourclaim inthisspacebefore theHSBCsandIBMsof theworld co-opt on decentralizationfocus presents a new window of opportunity, but we have to is evidencepresent landscape political of this shift. on engaging ourreptilian instincts, favouring discord, andalienation. The distrust Beholden toitsfor-profit orientation, Web 2.0’s data thrives farmingbusiness model takeoff movement of arevolutionary was still possible. That isnolonger thecase. Postill’s was media’s observation madein2011,whensocial role inenabling the instance, artists, citizens intellectuals, with scientists) andordinary social journalists, aswell geeky politicians) asnon-technological (for experts forces (such asdigitalrightslawyers, experts withothertechnology online “To succeed politically, like ITspecialists geeks andhackers have tojoin otherpeople’s whilerespecting challenged, andletitbe position boundaries.” and have different boundaries. Take thisintoaccount, challenge your own bodies, have different experiences, are situated differently in power structures takes timeandpatience...People come from different places, inhabit different settings such as streets andsquares that drives processes of change.” andinphysical mainstream media media, actorsviasocial and otherpolitical contribution. It is the coming together of everyday people, nerds technology knowledgeno specialist through inclusive initiatives where allcan make a . Instead, we. Instead, withinthe intendtopromote large-scale pooling appropriated the blockchain hype of speculation The rise of web 3.0 affirms that image .” Nascent : , with its ry of the ry to thenormsof that community. Thesustenance of anestimated the precariat”: or“the worker” from “the anew subjectapart political DisCOs spotlight and what movements from can andenrich benefit theDisCO framework? roles indevelopingsocial technologies. distributed But whoare thesebeneficiaries will emerge of theseven beneficiaries asthepossible DisCO principles step intonew Throughout thisserieswe of DisCOs. have impact thepotential Thisimpact proposed at thisDisCO? Don’t leave methis way: Who’s dancing principles intotheirown blockchain R&D. innovators, and othersare questioning theunderlyingassumptions of mainstream blockchain 51 yetsouth, many of and vulnerable theseremain unprotected toenclosure. Ithasbeen worldwide on someform of depend natural resource commons Space Agency cultural myopia of blockchain developers. Projects like We are happy toacknowledge and that we are notaloneincriticizingthesocio-political we intheDisCO governance propose model. tracking anddistributing value, including of thethree internalvalue modes allocation available conduits andprotocols of mainstream finance, butthrough other ways of solidarity. We other, each to transact with and support need not just through the amassing physical orproductive (capital) infrastructure andbuildingeconomic (knowledge, practices), best documentation, tothemore difficult challenges like

Foundation’s Michel Bauwens andAlex Collective by theGuerrillaMedia anddesigned Pazaitis team. andedited Some of these and more are highlighted in the report Someof inthereport theseandmore are highlighted commoner 51 by incorporating feminist, anticolonial, commons andcooperative , DECAL , a person whoco-manages theirresources, aperson incommunity according , The Commons Stack P2P Accounting Survival for Planetary , DGov , Giveth P2P Models , Trustlines , mainly in the global , mainlyintheglobal , OsCoin 2.5 billion people 2.5 billionpeople , Circles written by theP2P , Economic , Terra0

67 The Last Dance: The Future is Unwritten 68 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto 52 have arisenaround theworld have often favoured andthesocial feminism, co-ops, initiatives. political protest movements Decolonialism such as DisCOs are close inspirittoother endsthanbuilding IBM’ssocial next Watson. Software science, thearts, education, andmore. politics software. Beyond software development, the forms organize intoinnovative withcooperative organizationspartnerships unions remain at the while favouring fair-value remuneration for workers for tothespiritof co-ops Closely tied reimaginations of value creation anddistribution: transnationally andassertively. governance seeninP2P/Commons networks. we toadopt need into thisspace, leverage buttoreally andexpandcooperative culture tothenext level, demutualizing alltogether like corporations, totheseven noheed paying principlesor, intheworst of cases Much of thecoop movement withbigco-ops moribund, ispolitically than so by playingof the capitalist by the rules economy. have existed for Co-ops to radically economies reshape andoverturn inequality. But itwon’t able todo be 53 turnover of 3trillionUS$ With of see theideas commoning thread. asashared common visiontoarticulate adifferentpath identifierorunifying for change. But we digital platforms. massive These potentially networksaffinity presently lack a resources shared onlinethrough that postulated are co-creating asimilarnumber Google, Apple andFacebook the combined,

white/male majority, inoften invisibilized detrimenttoothers. commenters remind us, the themost engineof powerful outperhaps corporate everemploys surveillance invented.” Linuxtocarry of majorFLOSSsit ontheboards foundations. Theresultlike isproducts anoperating Android, system that endupwithshareholders benefit of big like andIBM.Thesealsohelpfinancecompanies Google companies and from this benefit stuff asusers people of Firefox, WordPress, of theeconomicLAMP servers,portions but huge and consciously arethosewhoenjoy overwhelmingly privileges like whiteness, maleness, andaffluence. Lotsmore than many Source Open projects. Regarding thelatter, Nathan Schneider — which we We agree with. Source useOpen initswidersense, are much althoughourpolitics more radical When talking about software, Whentalkingabout we aretoacknowledge obliged the Despitethose“staggering” economic figures, isthat, as the truth 175 years 2.6 millioncooperative societies, over andacombined 1billionmembers

the backbone of the internetand the backbone Buen Vivir are staggering , now Degrowth digitally networked strategies solidarity andthelarge scale . Together, enhancedby can theseefforts onlybe , but they haven’t economic brought the desired about revolution. , the Inthissense ; itistimetoturnthat economic power tomore worthwhile cultures forefront andenvironmental of social issues , similartothemarket capitalization of Microsoft, Amazon, , the Social Solidarity Economy Solidarity Social . Platform Cooperativism hasbrought abreath of fresh air union-cooperative structures union-cooperative of Open Sourceof Open hidemyriad economic biaseswhich consistently favour a Maker Movement , post-capitalist movements trade unions P2P politics most ITcompanies cooperative movementcooperative 53 andassist precarious workers toself- andthe Open SourceOpen way have soughttominimize exploitation Thisistheway radical tocrystallize 52 distinction between Free/Libre Source andOpen , Theeconomics source of open Permaculture , Mozilla’s EmmaIrwin municipalist movementsmunicipalist Municipalism . Meanwhile, writes almost 200years beyond thecommons, : “Those whouseFLOSS: “Those self- run on open source onopen run has branched into hasbranched and has the potential hasthepotential legislative and , Ecofeminism open sourceopen anti-austerity andmany other , encourage behaving . Today more that ,

without a clearer set of shared, without aclearer setof shared, on based level of our organizations. Many objections to feminism and anticolonialism could be andgeographicaddressing disadvantages gender andracialinequality at thedesign not onlythelargest profit-driven tech enterprises, willamountto nothing without Finally, of decentralised the movementspotential people, to also benefit working through commons-public plug andplay framework for alliestocreate employment thesepolitical meaningful economy.solidarity Itonlystands that toreason DisCOs can provide a apowerful same. it’s Ifnot, suitably tohelp thecollective adjusted and better meetitsgoals the values of it?Ifyes, thehumangroup that birthed thealgorithm remains the algorithmicfollowed are trust invited toreflect: Hasouron-chain when participants three months, every reprogrammed coinciding witha DisCO’s evaluations seasonal Collective the code forthe GuerrillaMedia managing tobe DisCOs model, ismeant Community Algorithmic Trusts for organizations, Ifwe butitisnot ironbound. follow governance gives model usasolidframework for experimenting andprototyping present inthe blockchaina sentence notvery space: What istheprecise technical framework tomake Here we thishappen? willutter above.mentioned economic counterpower by leveraging andfederating thepower of the movements of lived experiencethis body we ahypothesis: propose that DisCOs could become an inresearching andcommons andcataloguing topeer projects. peer observed From life onourreal predicated experiences Collective inGuerrillaMedia andwhat we have we’ve of DisCOs. explained theculturalaspects Theseare nottheoretical, they are How dowe tostimulate propose of shifts?Throughout thesesorts thismanifesto to create anew, diverse andresilient economic movement. network platforms, cross-sectoral introducing synergies opportunities andopening unconnected actorsworldwide can joinforces more easily by working on shared costsstartup and modular, source open nature, and philosophical affinities. Formerly of these movements can findahappy combination inDisCOs, thanks to theirlow Source, Open Cooperativism, P2P, Commons andFeminist Economics: thebest dancefloor Tecktonic: Nextsteps on the DisCO misunderstanding and misinformation partnerships tangible goals andvisibleoutcomestangible goals andbottom-up strategies , butattempts lost willbe at equality We don’t know for publicprovision . . TheDisCO . 69 The Last Dance: The Future is Unwritten 70 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto The DisCO FrameworkThe Stack. components totheproject: TheDisCO complementary This businessesculture/structure to adapt. distinction expressed will be through two legal/technical collectives practisingcontributive accounting. We amodular are alsoco-developing pilots, we intendtomature, source andopen codify our Collectivethe Guerrilla Media and CultureStake (a new DECAL project) asits first DisCOs, andprovide integrated resources for Open-Value With Cooperativism. The a livingone. tobe needs experimentation The DisCO story and continued interaction. forthcoming butwe documentation, know already that thisisanemergent process of expectations. inour All butnotpredetermined, explored, thesedetailswill be 55 54 Graphic Collective, toensure theCAT’s accessibility anduserfriendliness. inclusive educational materials will have state-of-the-art UXprovided by Guerrilla workflow andfacilitate of theDisCO allaspects governance Thesepilot-tested, model. develop collaborative onexisting FLOSS systems, based tools tooptimize DisCO Adding tothe value-tracking andeconomic components, theDisCO Stack willalso alternatives tosidechains orsharding. Asawhole,end. thisdesigncan offer lightweight, agile efficientDLT andenergy blockchain tech at cryptographic thetrustless the trustworthy endof thespectrum, interaction. secure trustless blockchain usage data, small-node and applying blockchains by crunching only to DisCOs andothercompatible entities. of here unnecessary istodispose Thepurpose live blockchain) onatrustless for ledgers interactions between and blockchain-based tracking andeconomic networking at theindividualDisCO level (not ActivityPub architecture isstudying lightweight Web 3.0solutions, such as (CAT) platform for DisCO value tracking andaccounting. TheCAT’s duallayer -get created (presently intouch!) being tobuildtheCommunity Algorithmic Trust DisCO Stack The relationships.social within DLT frameworks, andalsoshow how tokenization indifferent affects mediums application of userprivacy andfeminist data economicsgovernance tocontributory Action ResearchParticipatory withGMCandotherpilots. Theaimistohighlightthe economics andothercomponents accessible totheprecariat. Finally, we willconduct inpractice.the model istomake Thepurpose DLTs, accounting, feminist contributory andworkshops toengageDisCO-thons communities indeveloping andprototyping the world practices. Itincludes resources (complementing such asaneducational portal

blockchains. strategies to alleviate scalability are issuesdesigned and general the transactional load, sluggishness of large databases intosmaller, more manageable chunks which are amongseveral then distributed servers. Both we’ve Inthemeantime toprovide tried model. accessible links toexplain what of each thesecomponents do. process explaining article of how writingabasic theDisCO stack facilitates theprocesses of theDisCO governance We understand that someof tosome thesetermsmay baffling of our readers. be that, To remedy we are inthe Sidechains Platform Co-op DevelopmentPlatform Kit Co-op DisCO project

, are a sort ofare “branch asort blockchains” where certain processes can take place. ValueFlows

infrastructure infrastructure was tocooperatively created develop, andpopularize prototype (Structure) will be developed by developed theGuerrillaCoding Collective willbe (Structure) , (Culture) is predicated on care work, and prototypes real- (Culture) andprototypes oncare ispredicated work, IPFS 54 In summary: (non-blockchain) DLT Insummary: at tech isused and for other commons-oriented collectivesfor othercommons-oriented and ), handbooks, audiovisual materials, infographics, Radicle 55

for energy efficient, trustworthy for efficient, energy value cultural practices cultural practices Framework Secure Scuttlebutt Sharding everything everything andtheDisCO breaks down for other has to , 56 outcomes.viable Watch socio-economic thisspace. cooperative movements’ work of inharnessing thedigitaleconomy thepotentials for set of cooperativedocumented practices that and tools we could propose the ease non-hierarchical organising indigitalspaces. Thereal-world andthoroughly tested creative work andenvironmental open-value withasocial and benefit, cooperativism, In essence, DisCO offers areal-world innovation; andculture. blockchain andweb P2PandCommons 3.0;communication, designandstorytelling; Collectively, we bringexperience inentrepreneurship; research; programming; tobringsomethingradically newteam tothecooperative andDLT/blockchain world. vapourware. To we this end, with a multidisciplinary are working in partnership qualities are essential for any project serious distributed that wants to avoid being We believe that thiscombination of off-chain (structural) (cultural)andon-chain

The authorship sectionbelow 56 namechecks someof theseindividualsandtheir organizations.

educational opportunity for thoseinterested in educational opportunity 71 The Last Dance: The Future is Unwritten 72 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto from basic economicfrom basic resistance toaviable, networked economic counterpower. help create vehicles livelihood that produce commons, notabsentee profit, andgrow directly andeconomic affected by social inequalities, DisCOs can attract to people shifting alternatives. andempowering with, thosemost By partnering educating, of notfrom privilege, aposition challenged, butfrom thebottom upwithparadigm- The bigproblems of ourtimeincluding inequality, theclimate crisis, etc. tobe need — what itis, aslongyou’re doingsomething.” otherwise. Itcan becreative. Itcan beyour job. Itcan beinformal. Itdoesn’t matter workplace. It can be passing on knowledge and skills to those who wouldn’t access them name. Itcan beassmall scale aschippingaway at the warped power relations inyour then it’s You upto you. don’t have to betheleaderof aglobal movement or ahousehold “If you are disgusted by what you see, andifyou feel the fire coursing through your veins, Reni Eddo Lodge 73 The Last Dance: The Future is Unwritten 74 Credits Bounds Models Flows Foster ( Centre Economics Foundation Klara Brekke ( We are deeply grateful for thecountless suggestions editorial madeby Jaya BlueSpecs ( Besides Stacco Troncoso andAnnMarieUtratel, thecrew alsoincludes essential tomaturing themanifesto, infusingtheproject withlife anddirection. Similarly, theinputof theDisCO Crew working onproject development hasbeen on theManifesto, theGT initswriting. anactive alsotook part team Nati Lombardo Guerrilla Translation team The manifesto istheresult ofayear of nearly discussions amongtherest of the Bollier aditional proofreading by Oñate editor. andlead as co-author Reloaded WorkshopReloaded Finally, many of these conversations were by sparked the2018 inbringingthe DisCO frameworktechnical capacity andstack tolife. The lead writer forThe lead the Authorship Furtherfield ), Julio Linares ( took care of final editing and proofreading, editing and proofreading, with editing andproofreading, careediting andproofreading, took of final was indispensable. , ), Nathan Schneider ( Mikorizal ). Part of and/or thisgroup willcontinue working withusineitheranadvisory CNRS ) and , , Decal COALA , Durham University Phoebe TickellPhoebe Lara SanMamés , Value Flows ), which, apart from theGuerrillaTranslators, apart which, was alsoattended by E Circles UBI , la Kagel DaoStack DisCO Manifesto , Co-operatives UK Co-operatives including Elsie Bryant Internet of Ownership Timothy McKeon ), Sam Hart ( ), Sam Hart ( ( SUPERMARKT DGov Foundation ), and ), EleftheriosDiakomichalis ( Elena Martínez VicenteElena Martínez andSilviaMolinaDíaz , DECODE Sara Escribano Kevin John St. was . Significant editorial feedback from editorial . Significantfeedback Avant.org ), Primavera De Filippi ( Stacco Troncoso ), Pat Conaty ( ), provided additional editing and provided additionalediting I rene deVallejo López , ) andLishaSterling( Enspiral . Beyond theirindelibleinfluence , Bronagh Gallagher ), BobHaugen ( ). Synergia Institute with OsCoin Guerrilla Translation Ann Marie Utratel Mikorizal Berkman Klein , Geeks Without ( Radicle , AIOTI Silvia López Ruth Catlow , ), Lynn , BDVA , David Value ( Susa New New P2P , ,

75 Credits 76 If I Only Had A Heart: A DisCO Manifesto We are grateful for makingthispublication for thefundingsupport reader-ready listreading of someof theseinfluences —many of themare linked withinthisessay. of the DisCO manifesto, mainlyfrom ourprofessional of experiences thecore aspart team No manifesto There have isanisland. countless been influences inthewriting of the Acknowledgements All errors andomissions iswelcome. are theauthors’ own, andfeedback are thankfulfor theirpresence. Mercè Moreno Tarrés ( ( Richard D. Bartlett ( Img 6 You say Potato, I say Decentralized Chapter 2: You say Potato, Isay Decentralized: Semantics Matter Kasparov “Deep Blue” beats inonemove Blockchain group Friday, Saturday, Sunday sequenceby Kasparov Defeated Chapter 1:Rage Against theMachineand Science Friction Illustration strip by We forge thechains that bindinlife Introduction Graffiti Strip by Red LightsinLine Foreword Troncoso andAnnMarieUtratel andare below inorder listed of appearance. for themanifesto and Mireia Juan Cuc of theDisCO ManifestoThis edition was by GuerrillaGraphicCollective. designed Design andImages Humankind Guerrilla Foundation development of GuerrillaTranslation, Collective GuerrillaMedia andnow DisCO: We gratefully acknowledge theorganizations the whohave andsupported funded Fiona Dove,particular DanielChávez, DenisBurke, Wainwright. andHilary Institute from colleagues ouresteemed at the formatting,(design, web stuff) Wikimedia Spain ; P2P Foundation Img 7 (TNI). We’d (TNI). in also like for to thank the whole TNI team their support, (FPH)and ; Img 8 id-iom ó created the logo created and the branding design forprocess DisCO and led by by by by ), Emaline Friedman ( . Sourced from Loomio NVM ILLUSTRATION VIN JD , Pixabay and in the movements we’ve above. mentioned : The Charles Léopold MayerThe CharlesLéopold Foundation for theProgress of Guerrilla GraphicCollective its website FundAction Img 1 , Enspiral ; Img 2 collage by Mashable . Theimages for thetext were curatedby Stacco . by by , ; the Hum Img 3 id-iom id-iom Holo by by : Img 1 id-iom ; Jim Gardner Img 4 ), Carmen Lozano Bright ( : ), SarahDeHeusch (

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What’s a DisCO? It stands for “Distributed Cooperative Organizations” and it’s a set of organisational tools and practices for groups of people who want to work together in ways that prioritize mutual support, cooperativism and care work. DisCOs focus on social and environmental work, exploring convergences between the Commons and P2P movements along with the world of cooperatives, feminist economics and the Social and Solidarity Economy.