11.06.2020 

Dear Robins,

We hope all Robin Hood Coop members are coping with the difficult (yet also interesting) times we are living and face ahead. Here is some good news from us, especially regarding the technical development, and hopefully some inspiring thoughts too! 

The Covid-19 pandemics quickly unfolded following the successful closing of our crowdfunding campaign and General Meeting's development plan approval. Adaptation has been hard for many of us, but as experienced remote and distributed team members we've met our goals even better than expected!
 

1. Member accounts nearly ready, check out the videos! 
2. Volunteer team member Andreas Wagner's report 
3. Towards Phase 2: Cryptotoken public launch
4. Recent mentions in research and media 
5. Post Corona Worldviews from members
6. How to become a member & purchase shares
7. Volunteer & Join the team!
 

1. Member accounts nearly ready, check out the videos!

After serious negotiation talks next to the teams previously announced we signed a contract with Curve Labs for the execution of Phase 1 of our development plan, as approved by the General Members Meeting.

Olivier Sarrouy, the main developer working on our project (also co-funder at The Distributed Gallery) has been working on the software requirements with great excitement and reliability, surprising us in speed and effectiveness continuously. Thanks Olivier! 

We are very happy to announce that the new blockchain shares management system is already being tested!! Testing is taking place at Kovan Testnet (learn more).

Click the videos below from both user and admin accounts to check out what it is all about.

There are aspects still to be fine-tuned (for example changing the share price from USD to EUR, member shares account to be enforced by filling a form instead of sending an email to the coop, etc). It looks simple, but has all the required functionalities in the backend and is the broad result that we have been wishing for with great effort! 

We are now really hoping to hear what you think. And how do you like the new visual identity? Vibrant, no?  

If you wish to take part in the pre-launch pilot group just let us know.

And please bear in mind that the onboarding process into the new accounts will be done in phases, not all will be onboarded at the same time. We have planned this well and will take the needed steps firmly.

We've faced challenges concerning data-protection regulation GDPR (see also here). Following discussions and consulting with legal advisors, we've designed a fully GDPR compliant model where no individual information is committed to the blockchain. This is because even if members would give informed consent for us to commit their data to the blockchain, the data can not be removed later on, as it is right now the nature of public Blockchains - which in general do not comply with GDPR. It also means that some of the initial software requirements will not just yet be implemented, as we look for safe solutions. 

Once more we would like to thank all campaign contributors and especially the new technical development volunteers. Rauno Ots and Andreas Wagner allowed the preparatory work to be ready much faster and continue to bring great new energy to the crew (read Andrea's report bellow).

2. Volunteer team member Andreas Wagner's report 

As an old member, it took me long to get actively involved. Now that I did, I wouldn't want to miss it!
Eventually, it merely took one video call with the active team and in I was. Having a background as system administrator, I figured it would make sense to contribute to the communication with CurveLabs, and see if I can help translate between our team and theirs. When I joined the conversation, the development had already started, but the others easily brought me up to speed.

Olivier is an approachable person, and besides him helping us understand some of the underlying technical concepts, we had a very good conversation on what should be done now, and what can be deferred to later.

The application we will be able to present to you members at this phase is on one hand rather simple: as a member you will see your shares amount value. However, there has been considerable technical groundwork put down for that, and also in order for future functionalities to be built upon. More is planned, and we obviously depend on your input for functionality.

One big hope of mine is in the mid term future to establish a good working group for technical contributions from RHcoop members - programmers, designers, system admins, etc, to flesh out the technical infrastructure for our organisation. The ideas we have need your experience and hands to contribute, so do step forward if you have your skills and time to share.

3. Towards Phase 2: Cryptotoken public launch

As Andreas mentioned, many features are still to come in Phase 2 of the development plan. What you saw on the videos is the software product in which coop’s existing minimal functionalities get operational on the blockchain. This is something we have been looking for for a long time. It is not as complete as automated as we want it, and it is only the first step. Our next main goal is the creation of Robin Hood Coop DAO (Distributed Autonomous Organisation), and its public launch with further features: we will be the world's first coop-DAO on the blockchain! 

The Robin Hood Coop cryptotoken (a new digital version of the cooperative shares) will offer the possibility to design new portfolios, governance functions and include new tokenized asset classes in a legally compliant way. It will be peer-to-peer exchanged and therefore have “moneyness” also outside the coop (tradable out in the cryptomarkets, just as other cryptocurrencies you might have heard of).

From the cooperative's perspective the innovation in the cryptotoken is in the flexibility, decentralization and distribution it affords; from the crypto perspective the innovation is in the legal and governance model that a cooperative’s form gives to a crypto-organisation, meaning a legally compliant service to have exposure to the crypto market.

4. Recent mentions in research and media 

Take a look at two recent references to our coop:

Member Tuomo Alhojärvi has contributed to the The Handbook of Diverse Economies  and you can read the chapter concerning us here for free.

Also George Samman and David Freuden’s paper on the state of the arts of Decentralized Autonomous Organizations DAO – A Decentralized Governance Layer for the Internet of Value mentions Robin Hood Coop, and is a really useful text to understand what our current initiatives are all about. 
 

5. Post Corona Worldviews from members

More than ever our mission seems important, so we continue working for alternative present and future finance worlds. Underlying our work there are economic, social, mental and environmental concerns. Topics such as regenerative cultures, solidarity and the importance of the commons are watchwords now. 

Amidst the Corona Pandemics crisis, what is the meaning of distributed care, health and knowledge? What does regeneration mean and how can distributed finance help? A question to all of us: what would regenerative finance be?

We are glad that many in our community are taking the opportunity to personally and professionally develop and share their ideas and worldviews. 

Our Italian friend Franco Berardi (aka BIFO) is alive and kicking. Take a look at this article or his journalling (#1, #2, #3 ) during the lockdown.

Stacco Troncoso from the Commons Transition and Guerilla Translation (yes he is all over) and Disco.coop - the latest cooperative to join as a member of Robin Hood - has published No New Normal, an in depth text on Corona times that links yet to many other interesting resources. 
 

Still in the context of Corona, our board member Tere Vadén (no need for presentations!) and his colleagues at the BIOS research unit have produced perhaps the most comprehensive and impressive study we've seen on contemporary societies, economy and ecological reconstruction. Not to be missed! 

6. How to become a member and purchase shares

In order to become a member, you have to get your first mandatory 30EUR share in the coop (giving you your seat in the general meeting and other membership rights and obligations). So send us 30EUR or corresponding amount in BTC (Bitcoin). 

Send funds to: 

a) If you want to join with Euros:
(or corresponding amount in another national currency)
 

Account holder: Robin Hood Asset Management Cooperative
Bank: Osuuspankki 
Bank Address: TSOP, Hämeenkatu 12, 33100 Tampere, Finland
BIC: OKOYFIHH
IBAN: FI13 5730 0820 7695 90
 

Instructions: send an email to contact@robinhoodcoop.org from the email address you want to associate with your RH member account  informing about your shares purchase with transaction details.

b) If you want to join with BTC (Bitcoin):
 

Robin Hood BTC wallet address:
38PHuuNaBKbbh6mPcRSKq6oKMMA4agpJhp

Instructions: send an email to contact@robinhoodcoop.org from the email address you want to associate with your RH member account, informing about your shares purchase with transaction details (date, amount and the transaction hash or at least the wallet address from where you are sending).

Attention: do not send any other currency than BTC to our BTC wallet. Other currencies sent to a Bitcoin wallet will be permanently lost, so make sure you are sending BTC.

Either way, if you have questions or technical issues we are happy to support you. 
When the funds reach our side we will send you an email with the payment receipt.

7. Volunteer & Join the team

We are planning for an integrated volunteer bounty and contribution tracking program, but before it is ready: if you would like to start contributing to the coop please let us know by email (contact@robinhoodcoop.org)
 

The areas needing more support are communications, in terms of public channels but above all in regards to membership management and direct communications with members. This will become even more pressing when we start onboarding members on the new system, as it is likely that many will need some help to get in. We are rallying together a voluntary team as soon as possible, please let us know if you are interested in helping! 
 

Also, if you would like to be on the blockchain system pilot group before we launch to all members, please let us know, we really want your feedback. 

Robin Hood Coop