Commencing with primer on blockchain: Bitcoin, Etherium, and emerging protocols; Josh Davila’s exploration departs from a place familiar to everyone in the regenerative field: how do we take today’s reality and see it differently. 

How can we harness alternate and emerging technologies to deliver values that are important to the movement: autonomy, equity, creativity, among others. The real service this books provides is helping readers jump the socially dominant story lines to see these emerging technologies for the potential in service of liberal ideals, many of which will resonate with those in the regenerative development space. 

Davila’s book is not written in a “neutral” vacuum about the generic virtues of blockchain. It is delivered in a context in which the majority view is strongly capitalist and libertarian, trends that he identifies as actively antithetical and intentionally organized against communitarian ideals and systems. 

The book provides cases and illustrates the importance of thinking differently in this space that has been owned by capitalists and demonized by liberals. It provides counter-balancing narratives about how blockchain technologies can be used, especially at the level of commercial and social economies to deliver fairer, beneficial communities of mutual support.

It is a virtue and a shortcoming that that Davila sticks to the arguments and space of play, mostly within existing markets and social relations and systems that set the directions and trends of society. He correctly identifies that the immediate trends that are largely dominated by libertarian / capitalist principles. He does not venture further into the space of how these technologies might ultimately combine to tackle global international coordination challenges. As such, the book is not a theory of everything, but a robust riposte to lazy thinking around blockchain and it’s great potential for advancing communitarian values. 

By Joshua Davila
HT: Jeremy @GospelOfChange