Cryptorave 2018–2019

The Rave Enabler

Experimenting with Monero, blockchain and DAO to connect and power the Cryptorave network

The Cryptorave is a utopian gesture to adopt and experiment with blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies and DAO to support and power a subculture. Cryptoraves open a thinking space in which subcultural networks can examine blockchain technology as a means to structure and put value into networks. This is achieved both through actual mining of cryptocurrency by participants and through a layer of Live Action Role Play (LARP)/ Real Game Play (RGP).

To attend a Cryptorave you need to mine the cryptocurrency Monero (XMR) to receive your entry pass. By joining their computing power together, the community collectively generates value to fund the Cryptorave machine and enable the autonomous dance party experience. The collectively generated value aims to ensure the basic existence of the network and to provide an amount of security and privacy.

At the core of this experiment is the RaveEnabler, a website with an embeded Monero (XMR) miner. Just like other miners, it uses the participants computing power to validate transactions within the Monero network. The RaveEnabler Website gives anyone easy access to crypto mining the Cryptorave mining pool, without prior knowledge. All proceeds are kept in a community Cryptowallet, while the miners are awarded entry tickets to the Cryptorave.

Through the RaveEnabler, the Cryptorave community not only experiments with the use of crypto mining as a sustainable method to fund Cryptorave events, but also uses a layer of Real Game Play (RGP) to provide unique roles to the participants. The roles allow the players to anonymise their identities by adopting a character from the crypto scenes. The adopted identities create a fiction within which participants can collectively reflect on alternative futures for decentralized networks, anonymous hidden networks and how we can build trust and resilience into these.