Let a Thousand Flowers Bloom: Introducing Blooms $FLO Economy 

Millions of people are doing important climate, cultural, and economic work in grassroots communities. Yet they are invisible and extremely underfunded.

• This work happens in collaborative, networked ways that are difficult for mainstream institutions to fund.
• While there are often local businesses involved, the returns are more in the range of cooperatives, i.e. 2-3x returns, which is lower than most investment teams have tolerance for.
• The projects doing this work are typically too small to unlock the benefits of eco credit markets, and too IRL to unlock much funding through Ethereum's quadratic funding programs.

From their 16 years of global R&D at Bloom Network, Bloom knows that these community-led solutions are the most highly scalable, replicable, low-cost ways to solve the root causes of climate change. So, Bloom invented a way to fund them.

About Bloom Network

Bloom Network is a global community of local chapters and 30,000 members who help individuals discover and lead grassroots climate actions in their local areas. Through its network of Local Hubs, local media feeds, and a peer-to-peer incubator, Bloom empowers people to initiate and develop projects from start to finish with the backing of a passionate global community.

Introducing $FLO for Bloom’s Regenerative Economy

Bloom is introducing a new token-based economy on blockchain that aims to recognize, reward, and amplify grassroots climate action across its network of local hubs. This initiative will start with a Local Action Rewards system to record and reward Bloom community's talent investment in local and bioregional regeneration activities with the $FLO (Flower) token and stablecoin-based funding. Later, the $FLO token will evolve into a fully-fledged complementary currency, where it will become a medium of exchange across Bloom communities.

How

Here's how the Local Action Rewards works:

1. Local Bloom hubs document their projects' outcomes on Bloom Network, using a familiar Web2 social network interface and a Web3 backend powered by Inverter. They include photographic proof of the action, and how many people contributed how much time.
2. A verifier reviews their claim for truthfulness, then all participants are issued 30 FLO per hour (FLO stands for Flowers, our cooperative patronage token). Further, 1.2x the total amount of FLO is also sent to their Local Bloom collective treasury. 
3. The impact report is then automatically pushed into web3 impact reporting tools such as Karma GAP, so the communities can access rewards issued by other web3 initiatives.
4. Finally, the total stablecoin grants pool is distributed proportionally to the amount of FLO all members earned during this period. Local Bloom nodes can use their collective treasury to pay stipends to local community organizers, invest in a local business, or purchase equipment for local farms, for example.

On the blockchain, Bloom operates its $FLO token economy via Inverter protocol as follows:

Each component in Bloom’s token economy configuration serves a particular goal: 

Role Based Authorizer: Defines which addresses can create bounties, which addresses can verify which claims, and which addresses are eligible to receive token rewards.

Deposit Vault: Handles token deposits that will be distributed based on the conditions set by the Logic Module.

Open Bounty: Manages bounty claim submissions and verification, and submits payout upon verification.

Simple Payment Processor: Processes the payout of funds once verification is complete.

Moreover, Inverter’s protocol architecture ensures customizability and adaptability for Bloom’s $FLO economy. Bloom Network can easily integrate new technologies and modify token mechanisms to program $FLO’s issuance and distribution as it evolves toward a complementary currency.

Benefits of $FLO Token Economy Design

Bloom’s purpose with this economy design is to route as much capital as possible into the hands of the people and communities doing the most highly scalable, cost-effective work to stabilize our climate and remedy common social problems. Tackling this mission with a token economy on blockchain unlocks several key benefits: 

• Bloom's Local Action Rewards kickstart flywheels for bioregional regenerative economies, by issuing capital to communities that have limited access to any other means of obtaining it.
• It de-risks philanthropic contributions, by transparently documenting the impact before payment is issued.
• Doing the payouts in cryptocurrency means that the cross-border fees across Bloom’s global hubs are fractions of a cent. This enables micropayments at scale on a global level.
• It makes the labor being done by communities all over the world visible, and fundable.
• Local Action Rewards do not rely on popularity contest dynamics, or who has the largest marketing and outreach budget. Instead of one-time sale eco-credits, Bloomers' impact reports can be used to receive rewards from multiple ecosystems that are offering payment for real-world impact
• Other funders and organizations can easily pool into Bloom’s Local Action Rewards pool, or offer new capital flows and utilities for the $FLO token for the common outcomes they want to achieve. 
  

What's Next?

For Round 1, Bloom Network has $16,000 to distribute to Local Bloom hubs and their members. They are hoping to raise matching funds to increase the pool, for this round and subsequent rounds. You can contribute directly via the addresses at this link, or get in touch at [email protected] to discuss partnerships.

For the next round, Thanks to the leadership of Datu Lanelio Sangcoan, tribal chief of the Higanoan people in Mindanao, Philippines, Bloom is additionally opening a rewards pool for Indigenous communities. They are beginning to accept funds into this pool now, and they will distribute them directly to tribal leadership in the second funding round, toward the end of 2024. Less than 1% of climate-related aid goes directly to Indigenous and community organizations, despite Indigenous communities stewarding 80% of the biodiversity on planet Earth, and having millennia of governance, social, and Native science knowledge for how to maintain it. Details for contributing to this round can be found at this link.

Ultimately, Bloom plans to issue a v.2 of $FLO token within the next year via Inverter’s PIM Stack that allows members to utilize FLO as a complementary currency for exchanging local goods and services. For example, I have 300 FLO from doing beach cleanups. I enter my city, the number of FLO I want to spend, and the interface shows me who is offering what within that amount near me! Here's a visualization:

In all likelihood, some Local Bloom hubs will develop their own local currencies and also work with other ecosystems such as Operation Web Tree who incentivize tree planting and impact monitoring. So other tokens will likely be included in the service matching over time.

The point is that using FLO as a community currency allows people to discover local businesses in their region and form relationships. In Bloom’s own words, “We literally drew a giant matrix of all the gifts and needs we know Bloomers tend to have. While we're all cash-poor at this stage, we all have what each other needs. So, similar to Grassroots Economics' approach, we are making a way to circulate our surplus in order to meet each others' needs.”

Bloom Network's full-featured social networking platforms allow people to meet each other and deepen their local relationships, through economic and gift exchanges, sharing skills and knowledge peer-to-peer locally and globally, and much more. In tandem with this financial infrastructure running in the background, we believe we've created a social network that solves "The Social Dilemma" of today's extractive media companies.

Be in the Loop

As we embark on this journey together with Bloom, here are some great ways to stay connected and informed: 

Learn More about Bloom Network

Join Bloom Network | Whitepaper 

Follow Bloom Network

LinkedIn | Twitter | Instagram

Learn More about Inverter Network

Vision Paper | Protocol Architecture

Follow Inverter Network

LinkedIn | Twitter | Github

If you have a token economy in mind that you would like to build using Inverter, you can reach out to us by filling out this 1-minute typeform!