Introducing the GoBrik App for Ecobrickers

The GoBrik platform and its development are managed by the Global Ecobrick Alliance (GEA). The GEA is a not-for-profit ‘Earth Enterprise’(EE) guided by our publicly accessible GEA EE Intention Map, core team and circulars.  As an EE the GEA is structured to have no profit motive and a mission and vision focused on serving the Earth. As per our principles we have no corporate or business sponsors or donors. In this way, we move forward as an impartial third party catalyzing individual, community, company and national plastic transition.

Earth Enterprise

As an Earth Enterprise (EE) the GEA operates under strict principles.¹ An Earth Enterprise is built on the concept of a ‘social enterprise’, of an Earth Corporation² and the ‘not for profit’ (as opposed to a non-profit) concept by of the Post Growth Institute³.

We envision that the GoBrik and Brikcoin platform will remove millions of tons of plastic from the biosphere. We see this as an inevitable consequence of incentivizing the valuing of plastic that will ignite a collective mobilization to sequester both freshly consumed plastic and plastics already in the biosphere. In so doing, we believe removing this potentially poisonous plastic from the biosphere will prevent untold harm to and suffering of, humans and our fellow species for the next thousand years.

Ensuring High Quality Ecobricks

One of the current bottle-necks to building with ecobricks, is sourcing them and ensuring their quality. The labor and time involved in ecobricking makes it challenging for individuals to make the requisite number of ecobricks for large constructions. The dispersal of ecobricks in a region results in logistical difficulties for one party trying to source large quantities of ecobricks from many ecobrickers. It is also challenging to know the quality of other people’s ecobricks makes it difficult to confidently exchange ecobricks publicly. We envision that the Brikcoin system will solve these problems and further ignite the spread of ecobricks and ecological consciousness. We envision that the GoBrik platform will inspire high quality ecobricks, peer-to-peer exchanges and large scale constructions.

GoBrik’s authentication system is designed to provide personal and direct feedback to ecobrick makers from our community of experienced ecobrickers. The systemic rejection of poorly made ecobricks, hand-in-hand with peer-review, is encouraging ever better ecobricking.

Furthermore, GoBrik’s third party, independent authentication creates the atmosphere of trust required for public and stranger-to-stranger exchanges. Only through such a system of exchange is it possible to mobilize the requisite number of ecobricks for large scale constructions.

With the official roll out of the GEA’s Earth and Ecobrick Building Trainer of Trainer course in April 2019¹, we envision the GoBrik platform and Brikcoin system enabling and facilitating the work of community leaders in manifest ecobrick earth constructions.

We envision Brikcoin as a fully decentralized, ERC-20, Ethereum based token, that integrates with the GoBrik platform run by the GEA Earth Enterprise. This decentralized app (‘Dapp”) would leverage the best aspects of decentralized ledger blockchain and of a centralized not-for-profit Earth Enterprise to hold the space. Currently, version 1.0 of the GoBrik platform and Brikcoins are based on our database-driven app developed on a proprietary third party platform. Our road map involves migrating to a launch of Ethereum tokens that would correspond to our first phase of database development. Our road map also involves mirroring the development of Gobrik v1.0 with our own fully coded native application (v2.0). The GoBrik app will then be a portal to the ERC-20 token and accessible through native iOS and Android versions.

In line with our vision of ‘manual’ crypto currency, we envision a distribution of copies of the Ecobrick database, done manually by ecobrickers around the world, to create a decentralized backup of ecobrick authentications and Brikcoin transactions.

Russell Maier – Lead developer, GEA Co-Founder

Russell Maier is one of the co-founders of the Global Ecobrick Alliance and has spearheaded the the spread of ecobricks in South East Asia and the UK. Russell’s regenerative inventions, ideas and projects have been covered by the BBC, the Guardian, the Jarkata post, hundreds of local media outlets and recently an hour long special on CNN Indonesia. With almost two decades of web development experience, an academic background in philosophy and a decade of leading large collaborative projects, Russell is the catalyst behind the Brikcoin project. With a perspective gleaned from integrating in some of the most politically and economically challenged cultures on the planet — from refugee camps in Gaza, rainforests in Costa Rica, to four years living with the Igorots in the mountains of the Northern Philippines, Russell brings to the Brikcoin team, his passion for solving ecological and social challenges with a low tech, regenerative approach.

Ani Himawati – GEA Principal, CDD Advisor

Ani Himawati is an Indonesian anthropologist who has worked to empower communities around the country in cities, towns and remote villages. For the last fifteen years she has worked simultaneously at the grass roots and executive level in the Community Driven Development (CDD) programs with NGOs, Government and Development Aid Agencies, such as the UN and the World Bank. Ani is one of the principals of the Global Ecobrick Alliance and has assisted in GEA Training of Trainers workshops all around South East Asia. She brings her first hand experience of CDD programs to the GEA team, as well as her development work experience designing nation wide implementation programs.

Stephen DeMeulenaere – Token Model Advisor

Stephen has over 25 years experience with digital currencies and 8 years experience with cryptographically secured digital currencies. Before the word ‘Bitcoin’ was coined, his contributions in the field of monetary design have been noted in dozens of books and magazines from “The Future of Money”​ by Bernard Lietaer to “The End of Money and the Future of Civilization”​ by Thomas Greco. Focused on the potential of how restructuring capital can solve environmental and social problems, Stephen has been a natural fit to the Brikcoin project, advising over the last two years. Previous positions include the organizer of the Blockchains for Sustainable Development for the UNCTAD World Investment Forum in Geneva, brand ambassador for the Malta AI and Blockchain summit and Asia Region Leader at Qoin – Smart City Currencies. Stephen brings his field and theoretical experience in complimentary currency design and implementation as a senior advisor to the Brikcoin team.

Leon Stafford – Server Configuration Designer & Manager

Leon is a veteran WordPress developer with extensive experience optimizing servers, sites and databases for clients around the world. Leon is the lead developer of the WP2Static plugin for optimizing site performance and security. Leon couples his IT ingenuity with his passion for solving plastic. In 2017 he joined the GEA Trainer team and has since been advising on the GEA server infrastructure. With the global awakening to the perils of plastic pollution, Leon has been instrumental in configuring a short and long term solution to seamlessly serving the exponential rise in traffic to Ecobricks.org and GoBrik.com.

Shiloh Vermaak – Senior User Experience Manager

A senior GEA Trainer based in Durban, South Africa, Shiloh brings her passion for solving plastic and her extensive experience with customer account management to the team. Shiloh’s role is on the front lines of user interaction, managing the GEA social media accounts and interfacing with the various ecobricker movements and communities around the world. Shiloh manages the interaction between our users, new team members and our technical team, ensuring we are constantly staying human friendly, relevant and engaging to the ecobrick movement.

Richard Goldsmith – Development & Deployment

With a combined total of over four decades of experience as a relational database designer, SQL developer, data centre manager and computer engineer, Richard brings to the GoBrik team his extensive background in financial and treasury systems development.  After leading Sybase database and software development teams for Morgan Stanley, Fidelity Investments,  Prudential Banking and other multinational BlueChip enterprises, Richard retired from the financial industry keen to re-invest his energies and skills in endeavours that fully resonated with his values.   With a deep passion for the earth as a long-time green party member and climate advocate, Richard was one of the early adopters of ecobricking in the UK as a means to supplement his already 100% renewable energy home in Surrey.  Richard’s passion, background and skills now merge as he assists the team establish development protocols for GoBrik and Brikcoin platforms.

Over 2388 Ecobricks were logged in our first three month run of the first Ecobrick App in Jogja.

From the very beginning, we observed that schools that kept track of their ecobricking were most likely to have the highest quality ecobricks, to build the coolest stuff, and to see the deepest plastic transition.  These schools were then able to speak of their success with solid numbers.  Inspired, we’re working to build the GoBrik app to help ecobrickers everywhere track and connect their ecobricking and we’re developing Brikcoins as a means to value the hard and valuable work of ecobrickers securing plastic from contaminating the biosphere.

In March 2016, we launched the first version of our app to a team of twenty trainers in the city of Jogjakarta, Indonesia.  Basically an upgraded google form embedded in a WordPress site, they were able to log the Ecobricking of hundreds of Jogjans over the course of three months.  In June 2016, we were able to host a ecobrick media event to unveil the Ecobricks that had been made in three months, as well as detailed statistics of the amount of plastic packed, participation and C02 sequestered.  This was followed by the launch of an improved app for NU, a large muslim organization in Jakarta.  Empowered with their own NU App, they began logging and tracking their ecobricks.

Despite the success of our first Jogja and NU apps, the logging functionality was significantly limited.  One could not see or track one’s personal ecobricking.  The logging thus became the responsibility of one or two trainers– the rest recording on paper for these people to process.

With the insights that we have gleaned from our sociological observations of the spread of Ecobricks in Indonesia and the Philippines, coupled with our prototype app field testing, we went back to the drawing board.

In early 2017, with the guidance of veteran programmers, crypto-currency experts, and data base designer, we had a massive breakthrough in our app development.  Having designed a relational database, we found the Knack.com platform to create it. Within two months the pieces were in place.

We are thus tremendously excited to launch the second version of our Ecobricks app in the second half of 2017.  Learning from our on-the-ground experience over two years, our new app will take Ecobricking to a whole new level.

The gender distribution of ecobricking in Jogja in 2016. A lot more women than men!

 

The core of the new Ecobrick App (code named GoBrik) will be to let us log each Ecobrick made– track it’s weight and add up totals on a personal, community, organizational and planet level.

We’re using the awesome translation serve Localize to serve our app in English, Indonesian, and soon other languages.

We’re using the amazing database design and management service of Knack.com to create the Ecobrick App.

None!  The GoBrik and Brikcoin platforms have no sponsors, investors, nor hidden capitalization agendas big or small.  What we do have is 30,000 users and 300 trainers who contribute regularly to help us meet our costs.  Unlike conventional app and software development, we’re proud to build our platform in a whole new way.  Al our finances are 100% transparent and open.  You can review our transaction on our Open Books system.