Invisible Economy

The Invisible Economy is the radical separation of art and the market. Blockchain technology allows the economy to be both invisible and transparent. It is invisible because it separates artmaking, code writing, art collecting, and general contributions from market transactions through different mechanisms. And it is transparent because all the transactions take place on the Ethereum blockchain where everyone can track them. Blockchain allows peer-to-peer networks to launch their own currency, and to control and self-manage the value they create collectively without a central authority. The Invisible Economy organizes economic activity based on interdependence, creativity, and altruism. It leverages the wisdom of the crowd without the pernicious effects of the market. Ultimately, people are rewarded for their contributions with a basic income. Beatriz Helena Ramos will present the paper “The Invisible Economy” for 20 min and will be followed by a roundtable discussion.

SPEAKERS Michael Albert is a founder and current member of the staff of Z Magazine as well as staff of Z Magazines web system: ZCommunications, including ZNet. Alberts radicalization occurred during the 1960s. His political involvements, starting then and continuing to the present, have ranged from local, regional, and national organizing projects and campaigns to co-founding South End Press, Z Magazine, the Z Media Institute, and ZNet, and to working on all these and other projects, writing for various publications and publishers, giving public talks, etc. Albert is the author of over twenty books Including: Fanfare for the Future (ZBooks), Remembering Tomorrow (Seven Stories Press), Realizing Hope (Zed Press), Parecon: Life After Capitalism (Verso), and Practical Utopia (PM Press). Many of Albert`s articles are stored in ZCom and can be accessed there along with thousands of other Z Magazine and ZNet articles essays, interviews, etc.

Primavera De Filippi is a permanent researcher at the National Center of Scientific Research (CNRS) in Paris, a faculty associate at the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University, and a Visiting Fellow at the Robert Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies at the European University Institute. She is a member of the Global Future Council on Blockchain Technologies at the World Economic Forum, and co-founder of the Internet Governance Forum’s dynamic coalitions on Blockchain Technology (COALA). Her fields of interest focus on legal challenges raised by decentralized technologies, with a particular focus on blockchain technologies. She is investigating the new opportunities for these technologies to enable new governance models and participatory decision-making through the concept of governance-by-design. Her book, “Blockchain and the Law,” was published in 2018 by Harvard University Press (co-authored with Aaron Wright).

Beatriz Helena Ramos is an artist, a social anarchist, tech entrepreneur, and the founder of dada.nyc the only visual conversation platform where people from all over the world speak to each other through drawings, creating collaborative art. DADA is using blockchain technology to create a new economic paradigm for artists in which art making is decoupled from art sale transactions, allowing artists to create and experiment freely while they receive a passive income for their contribution to the community.

Judy Mam is the cofounder and CMO of dada.nyc, the only visual conversation platform where people from all over the world speak to each other through drawings, creating collaborative art. Judy writes about film and other topics. Before devoting herself to DADA, she was a creative director in advertising.

Lenara Verle is an artist and researcher. Her current research focuses on conceptual art in connection with alternative economies and currency design. Has taught several graduate and undergraduate classes, as well as independent workshops, on the topic of art, technology and collaboration. She consults for blockchain art platforms and is a founder of Coinspiration.org. http://www.lenara.com/