From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond

What can we learn from Bitcoin and Burning Man about re-inventing money and designing better forms of self-governance?

Why are “decentralized autonomous organizations” the next great Internet disruption?

From Bitcoin to Burning Man and Beyond: The Quest for Identity and Autonomy in a Digital Society explores a new generation of digital technologies and currencies, strategies and projects that are re-imagining the very foundations of identity, governance, trust and social organization. The fifteen essays of this book stake out the foundations of a new future—a future of open Web standards and data commons, a society of decentralized autonomous organizations, a world of trustworthy digital currencies and self-organized and expressive communities like Burning Man. Among the contributors are Alex “Sandy” Pentland of the M.I.T. Human Dynamics Laboratory, former FCC Chairman Reed E. Hundt, long-time IBM strategist Irving Wladawsky-Berger, monetary system expert Bernard Lietaer, journalist Jonathan Ledgard and H-Farm cofounder Maurizio Rossi.

The essays of From Bitcoin to Burning Man reflect the vision of the Institute for Institutional Innovation by Data-Driven Design—ID3—a Boston-based nonprofit working in cooperation with the M.I.T. Media Lab. Cofounded by Dr. John H. Clippinger and M.I.T. Professor Alex “Sandy” Pentland, ID3 is the developer of Open Mustard Seed (OMS), a new open source platform that gives users genuine control over their identities and personal data and the means to design their own currencies and institutions. People can collect and share personal information in secure, and transparent and accountable ways, enabling authentic, trusted social and economic relationships to flourish.