2023-ongoing
A [phylum] project
Currently in development.
Brownfield Tokenization Prototype is an experimental project exploring tokenization and verification of environmental remediation processes and ecosystem services as art. Contaminated soil taken from a brownfield site in the Plymouth/Exchange (PLEX) neighborhood of Rochester, NY is used as a medium for generating cryptocurrency and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) via bioremediation (the removal environmental pollutants using biological systems such as bacteria, fungi, or plants). Fresh compost is mixed into the brownfield soil to aid in removal of pollutants over the course of the exhibition. In a manner similar to the mining of gold for use as a medium of exchange, Brownfield Tokenization Prototype utilizes the remediating capabilities of bacteria and other microorganisms present in the soil as the marker of value. Using an algorithm that converts the amount of remediated soil into blockchain tokens, we store and verify the value of this process on the Ethereum blockchain via what is known as a “hybrid smart contract”. This system is part of a larger vision wherein bioremediation and its contribution to environmental health, sustainability and urban renewal is rewarded via “tokenized brownfield offsets”, traceable, transparent, and automated systems that empower communities to take part in their own rejuvenation. Furthermore, the analogy to mining — often used to describe the energy intensive process of creating certain cryptocurrencies — is inverted. Here, “mining” is not extractive but restorative. Money, value, and capital can now be created by ecological restoration, rather than degradation.
Brownfield Tokenization Prototype imagines a new system wherein toxic landscapes become sources of economic and social activity. A new set of rules and social relations can be imagined from this interaction between networks of intelligent machines and ecologies of non-human organisms. It is part of the TerraRete platform, an art-science initiative which seeks to reimagine relationships between economies and ecologies via speculative hybrid ecosystems and by incorporating artistic practices and perspectives as part of broader efforts at restoration of cultural, economic and environmental vitality in communities of need.
Initiated by [phylum], an experimental research collective specializing in cultural production informed by the intersections of science, technology and the arts.
The artwork exists as a technologically-augmented organic system capable of engaging in financial and social transactions with its environment. A 4x3x2ft container houses the brownfield and remediating compost soils. At one corner of the container, just above the soil, sits a small computer display connected to a microcontroller running a visualization application. A larger display is mounted on a wall behind the container. This display is connected to a desktop computer running numerous smart contracts on a blockchain (the current version runs on a testnet) as well as a visualization application. Both visualization applications show changing graphics and numerical values on their respective displays. During the course of an exhibition, the system will be connected to the blockchain, its pH and pollution levels will be monitored and the resultant values will be stored in a cryptographically signed data packet, stored in the appropriate smart contract and visualized on the displays. At predetermined intervals, and as long as the soil health continues to improve, the data packet will be used to mint a TerraRete credit (cryptocurrency token, officially known as an ERC-20) and an NFT (officially known as ERC-721). The NFTs will be a limited series of unique collectibles of the bioremediation process, known as Brownfield Certificates (BCs). The visualizations map the stored values of every token (taken from the smart contract) to the shape and color of a 3D mesh, rendering a unique image which acts a unique visual timestamp. The TerraRete tokens are minted at regular intervals during the exhibition.
Source code:
https://github.com/phylumcollective/TokenizedBrownfield
Supported by:
