Commons Engine offers lessons learned from the commons-based, crypo-launch of Holo, to others working on commoning. We rely on a small core team, a group of co-creators specifically suited to the projects we nurture, and strong, inspiring partners.
Beyond our internal capacity, we connect a broad network of leaders in regenerative agriculture, energy, transportation, open source technology, and more, to weave the structures for a commons economy into the web of institutions we have today. We believe this requires technical, social, and financial re-design, and that none of these aspects is sufficient on its own!
Arthur Brock builds targeted currencies which shape the social dynamics of our emerging post-industrial economy. He has created more than a hundred designs for multi-currency systems, and his software company has built and deployed dozens of those systems. His designs include currencies for: collaborative scientific research, sustainable fishery management, corporate compensation plans, employee stock options, community-based economic development, business barter and exchange, triple-bottom-line trade credits, open source software development, customer loyalty programs, water rights, recirculating gift certificates, community service, employee performance management, arts & culture development, efficient resource sharing & management, and community & environmental impact assessment. He is currently launching Holochain, an alternative to blockchain for running fully P2P distributed applications.
Ferananda Ibarra, Director of the Commons Engine, is a visionary social innovator and regenerative entrepreneur, bringing over fifteen years of experience with community building and currency design. Her background in collective intelligence, integral theories, and deep wealth design inform her creativity and facilitation of systems and organizations that can address our global challenges.
She is specifically interested in ‘building the commons’ as a way of incentivizing new patterns of collaboration, coordination, value generation and the embodiment of the principles of nature. Ferananda believes that nature shows us the most powerful keys to wholeness.
She works with Holo and Holochain in the space of distributed applications, decentralization, distributed ledger systems, and crypto-economies. Holo finished a successful Initial Community Offering (ethical ICO) and is creating a Distributed App and hosting Ecosystem.
Emaline Friedman, PhD, is a research analyst, network activist, and teacher. She recently completed her graduate studies in Research Psychology at the University of West Georgia. Her work uses Lacanian psychoanalytic theory and critical psychology to understand the nature of the constitutive power of digital technology and its inseparability from the evolution of social forms. She is currently turning her dissertation on network production and social discourse into a book called “Internet Addiction”. Emaline uses her skills in effective communication and critical analysis to coach, tutor, and help organizations and individuals develop their voices. She enjoys writing and speaking about the dynamics of distributed organizations, emerging forms of cryptocurrency, and the realities of digital labor.
