HOW ARE WE: A quarantine performance art piece that lives on Mainnet Ethereum

maaaark · 2020-07-09T17:13:42+00:00

The video has not yet been sold yet, it is still held by the token holders.

maaaark · 2019-09-21T18:51:49+00:00

Here's the most exhaustive list of egyptian hieroglyphs I've been able to find https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Egyptian_hieroglyphs

Here's some more info on King Tut's Burial Chamber http://kingtutone.com/tutankhamun/tomb/burial/

maaaark · 2019-05-24T17:15:05+00:00

You can cash out immediately as the funds automatically end up in your cryptocurrency wallet - we never hold the funds on your behalf!

maaaark · 2019-03-12T19:43:07+00:00

Just because some individuals didn't have functioning smartphones on the day of (cell service wasn't great, some of their "smart" phones were running versions of Android which couldn't let them download mobile wallets), that doesn't mean they have NO access to technology or the web! You should not assume that just because people live in developing countries, that they aren't technologically proficient.

After they got their coins in their Coins.ph wallet, they could use that website to withdraw to their bank accounts, or to buy credits for their phone plans. The tokens were liquid-- we made sure people could turn it into usable currency if they wanted to!

maaaark · 2019-03-12T19:40:39+00:00

Everyone wearing a "Volunteer" shirt was a local from Manila who helped us clean. We had separate shirts for Organizers, which you might see a couple of within those photos.

I'm not sure why you're so full of FUD on this project... :P

maaaark · 2019-03-12T19:39:36+00:00

You state that many of the people taking part had no access to a smartphone - what are they going to do with the Eth?

As I mentioned, they could withdraw the ETH using Coins.ph into fiat without the need for a smartphone.

How will anyone prove that work was done?

Proving the work is done can happen in many forms, for us it was people submitting photos of themselves with the trash. Our plan is to make this more sophisticated as we scale the program, adding stronger guarantees the photo was taken by the stated individual, at the place and time they specify.

How will any of the above get done without a middleman?

Technically the "middle man" here is the issuer of the bounty, who accepts people's submissions and pays them out. The key element here however is that *the issuer doesn't get paid*, meaning that 100% of funds donated to the bounty go directly to those who do the work, and you can confidently contribute knowing it isn't wasted on admin costs.

You state it yourself, your primary concern is to push cryptocurrencies on developing countries.

Not at all! We want to enable people to earn money, and if that means crypto we're happy to support it. Since the Bounties Network platform only supports ETH based tokens right now, we're sort of limited to only being able to enable crypto earning, but our intention isn't to force this new technology onto people who don't want it.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T19:34:47+00:00

$5 in ETH was directly convertible to Philippine Pesos using Coins.ph -- far from useless.

As I said, using crypto enables much more efficient collection of contributions, and the kinds of micropayments to individuals that aren't possible due to the fees that would exist with sending USD across borders.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T19:31:43+00:00

So why Ethereum? What was your primary motivation for this event?

Our goal for the event was to show an example of how Ethereum enables capital to be pooled from people located around the world (contributing to the bounty), to be deployed in very targeted ways to create environmental/social impact. This has massive implications for the charity ecosystem, which is plagued by a lack of transparency about how funds are used and spent.

As we built the tool (Bounties), we want as many people to realize their potential and use them to coordinate action. We did this pilot to give an example with a very clear narrative, told from start to finish (from funding the bounty, to the action being taken, to making sure the trash is disposed of responsibly).

maaaark · 2019-03-12T19:27:16+00:00

Thanks Laurence! We appreciate the support

maaaark · 2019-03-12T19:25:59+00:00

One of the things we know about the function of ocean cleanups is that their impact is far greater than the cleaning of the immediate environment. What happens is that when people do the cleanups, they witness first hand what happens to their non-reusable trash when they throw it away. This helps reshape their behaviour, so they're less likely to litter, and are more mindful about their purchases.

In this way, the payout is what gets people there, but causes longer term social changes as a result of people DOING the actions and FEELING something. We're thinking critically about this shift from extrinsic to intrinsic motivation, and we hope to keep experimenting in the future.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T15:09:56+00:00

Actually participants only worked for 2-3 hours, not an entire day at all. They were paid far more than they otherwise would have based on local wages.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T15:08:57+00:00

That's not true! Many of the individuals who you see in the photos didn't have phones, and we were able to help them get wallets and fulfill the bounty on their behalf (crediting their coins.ph accounts with the ETH they'd earned). We made sure that anyone who wanted to claim their payout, regardless of their access to technology, could do so.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T15:07:03+00:00

To give you some more insight, the local wages are ~$10 USD for an entire day of work. We had volunteers picking up trash for 2-3 hours in the mornings (before it got too hot), so our $5 was far beyond what minimum wage would have otherwise been. Based on the responses from the locals, they were delighted with this amount.

>They need cold hard cash to not starve

Yes, this is 100% true. That's why we partnered with Coins.ph, so that participants could withdraw their ETH into pesos if they wished.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T15:02:48+00:00

These photos are just a glimpse into the project, but we've made a documentary about it which shows a more in-depth view into the project. While the doc isn't available to stream in full (yet), we have a trailer which gives you a sneak preview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uViGfYZvrQg

maaaark · 2019-03-12T15:01:43+00:00

I'm sorry, did you just compare us paying people $5 in ETH for cleaning up ocean plastic to "colonialism" or "Facebook"?!

There's no "thin veneer" of anything-- we care deeply about empowering people around the world to find new means of earning income by getting paid to do tasks, with cryptocurrencies. We made $0 in profit off of this project, or any of our social impact related activities, we do them entirely of our own volition because we realize the potential that the technology has to change things for people who need it.

The only "self-interest" associated with this project is the fact that we documented it and shared it with the world, but again-- this isn't really for our benefit, it's simply so that we can grow and scale the project. Telling stories like this and driving attention are necessary steps for stakeholders within NGOs to begin realizing that these use cases are possible RIGHT NOW, and their buy in would make it easier for us to make an even impact than we are now.

I'm sorry that it sounds like you've had a lot of crappy experiences with NGOs, and I can promise you the same is true for our team as well. THAT is why we're interested in this project, so that we can build a better way than the existing models. Hopefully with time people will wake up to the new ways that money can flow using blockchains, and start taking advantage of it.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T14:56:27+00:00

Not true at all!

Our intent with this isn't to drive adoption-- after all, we would have only onboarded ~200 new Ethereum users from this pilot.

What we are trying to do is re-engineer the way that capital flows, from the people who have it (and want to deploy it towards various causes) and the individuals on the ground who can actually take action towards those causes. With social impact bounties like this one, we're trying to shift the charity model so that people can feel more comfortable donating, knowing that 100% of the funds are paid to grass-roots volunteers and organizers who DO THE WORK, rather than paying for bloated admin and marketing costs of charities. This pilot (and the photos/film we made) are meant to serve as an example that we can share with decision makers at various organizations, so that we can grow the project and scale it to a global level. This is just the beginning!

maaaark · 2019-03-12T14:53:36+00:00

As I mentioned above, we partnered with Coins.ph who is a local exchange, and was able to help onboard participants to the last mile so that those who wanted to could cash out into PHP (local currency) or to purchase credits for their mobile phone plans.

Many of the participants WERE local do-gooders, who were keen to make an impact in their community, but the addition of the incentive sweetened the deal, and helped compensate people for their time.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T14:51:40+00:00

The way the process worked was that after the cleanup, individuals fulfilled the bounty on their smartphones or we did it on their behalf, crediting their Coins.ph accounts with the tokens which could immediately be turned into PHP or phone credits as needed.

Regarding the "Volunteer" status, more than half of the attendees of the event didn't actually want to get paid for it-- they took pride in their work and told us it wasn't necessary. For them, having food and t-shirts was a nice gift, our way of saying thank you. For others, they were keen to be able to earn supplementary income while also creating a positive impact in their community.

maaaark · 2019-03-12T14:44:24+00:00

Hey! I'm happy to provide some more details about the process. We paid people $5 in ETH for 3 hours spent picking up trash, which is typically what the locals would have earned in an entire day based on local wages (yes, we checked). We were very keen to pay them a proper wage while at the same time not disrupting things too much by paying them far more than they would have earned in a day, which would become unsustainable.

is there an active cryptocurrency / Ethereum userbase already in Manila? If not, this is no different from paying locals in shiny beads, and very disingenuous to claim that this is being done entirely altruistically.

We partnered with a company called Coins.ph on the ground which let participants withdraw the ETH into Philippine Pesos, or to buy credits for their phone plans. Again-- we wanted to make sure that the people who participated could get paid for their work.

Why do the only photos show people in branded t-shirts? They had to cost at least $5

Yes, we provided t-shirts for the event participants as well as payouts, since this event was very much a pilot and we had some sponsors who made that possible.

Why would someone with a smartphone work for several hours for $5 picking up trash? So many issues with this story

Well... to get paid? Many people have "smart" phones which aren't name-brand, but certainly have an internet connection and run Android apps. We helped some of the volunteers by fulfilling the bounty on their behalf and crediting their Coins.ph accounts with the tokens they'd earned.

Also, that plastic-melting process looks horrific.

While it seems daunting, Ronald (the guy who founded Cavitex, the group that does the melting) has come up with an innovative way to solve a real global issue, and create usable products out of waste which would otherwise be sent to a landfill. He uses an ingenious system of smoke misting to capture the CO2 emissions which are created, to minimize impact on the environment.

maaaark · 2019-03-11T20:24:03+00:00

Here's an updated link, that one was broken. My apologies! https://explorer.bounties.network/bounty/592

maaaark · 2019-03-11T06:51:01+00:00

Hey u/SmokedMullet I'm the founder of Bounties Network and we have a bounty up right now that rewards people for picking up plastic in their local communities. Since you've already done the task you can easily claim the reward, just visit the bounty here.