Oikanomics 101

Oikonomic regeneration is an art-science-cultural approach to restoring ecological health and economic prosperity at local to regional levels. The basic structure is to re-link local ecological health metrics to economic value through art objects assigned to smart-contracts and administered by blockchain. 

Each instance of the model begins within an ongoing ecological restoration project. Oika initiates an art-residency and commissions a local artist to create an Oika art object (Oika Art carries the ecological intelligence of place). The artwork is then tokenized to simultaneously track both ecological and economic value. 

Ecological metrics are fetched from multiple sources (remote sensing, ground-truthing by stewards, telemetry, etc.) and used to publicly update the price of the artwork in an online portfolio (test gallery here). As the ecological health of the site on the ground improves, the economic value of the art asset increases thereby restoring a positive-sum relationship between ecology and economy. 

The blockchain is more than a store of value, or a history of transactions, it is the foundation for a beautiful future. The ledger not only records what we own, but also who we are and what we care about.

Problem: Errant human thinking and action leading to climate change, planetary-scale ecological collapse and catastrophic deterioration of quality of life on Earth.

Current economic thinking not only presupposes a detachment between personal self-interest and planetary health, it falsely positions them in a diametrically opposed, zero-sum, rivalrous end-game. This fatal flaw of modern economic theory now threatens to collapse the quality of all life on Earth. We seem to love our money more than life itself (but this is love nonetheless so we can work with it).

Solution: This Oika project solves the detachment problem using the principles of decentralized, crypto-tech to recouple personal wealth to planetary health. This conceptual jujutsu maneuver is the core value proposition of Oika in the Blockchain. It's really a hack to convert money maximalism into a force for healing. In meme-speak, it would be #TapTheMax.

Enter Crypto

The blockchain has emerged as humanity’s attempt to carve out a new economic universe. While the mechanics of the blockchain provide a decentralized, transparent and resilient record of transactions, its philosophy also suggests a new path for human and planetary prosperity. 

Reuniting Economy and Ecology

The prefix “eco” comes from the Ancient Greek word oikos, meaning “home”. But somehow the “eco” of economy and the same “eco” of ecology have become separated. I think this is why we feel so alienated from our home, the Earth, and then hyper-consume it to fill the void. The blockchain is an opportunity to reunite economy and ecology and come home.

I intend to use art as a trojan horse (unicorn?) to embed Ecological Intelligence into the Ethereum blockchain. 

I will do this by implementing a smart contract system that certifies artworks according to their inherent Ecological Intelligence (as defined by Oika and verified via the global, long term ecological monitoring system). High scoring art will be assigned higher value and rewarded in the form of Oikoin (the currency of the Oika marketplace).

Ecological Intelligence as VALUE

The key to this mission is to confer Ecological Intelligence (as value) into culture via art. Oika value is carried into the economy and thus culture, through NFT art (see the Trojan Horse below).

Any completed artwork may be critiqued for its ecological intelligence. An Oika Critique considers subjective, conceptual and ecological measures of value. See samples here: https://oika.com/oika-media-projects 

• Subjective Value is concerned with issues such as techne, aesthetic and the artist's narrative. These are judged by the community (art market).
• Conceptual Value concerns how well the work manifests the concepts of Ecological Intelligence and are determined by expert critique. This analysis is communicated to the market through a short film (an Oika critique) which is also offered as a standalone NFT.
• Ecological Value is determined algorithmically based on the values above plus optimized phenological metrics from local, ecological restoration projects and real-world ecological monitoring data (supplied by a Chain-linked, 3rd-party, scientific Oracle). 

The sum of these values determined by an OikaDAO algorithm as an impact score and expressed through an Oikoin currency value. Original artworks and any ERC-721 assets are listed in an Oika portfolio. Transactions are managed by a DAO running on both L2 smart-contracts and on the Ethereum 2.0 Blockchain.

Cultural-Value Creation:

There is real value in the convergence of the three values defined above. This value is embedded in original artworks plus the ecological impact. However, the primary source of value is being created through Oika's ongoing cultural communication efforts. Only by communicating the relevance of Ecological Intelligence will a market for Oika art become viable.

New Art Collaborative Model:

In addition to completed artworks, Oika will also initiate more formal collaborative agreements with artists to create new art. In this case, Oika works closely with the artist to integrate and communicate the principles and practices of Ecological Intelligence through their work (see collaborative workflow below)