After 6 successful years, the DECaDE Centre for the Decentralised Digital Economy has finally reached the conclusion of its funded period. Through a collaboration between researchers in the Institute for Design Informatics, and the University of Surrey, DECaDE brought together expertise from design, computer science, business, law and cybersecurity to explore how blockchain technologies could reshape our economies, societies and digital lives.

In March, project team hosted an Impact Showcase event at the Royal Society in London. Here, the IDI team showcased multiple design research projects that were undertaken through DECaDE, including the Decentralised Service Design Playbook, and three major projects exploring ownership, rights and attribution of creative media.

Token Gesture enabled people to experience and interact with NFTs; ORAgen; and ORAgen Fables explored new forms of digital ownership, creativity and storytelling. To celebrate and document these projects, we’ve made a short film!

In the film we discuss each of these projects, how and why they were made, and why we need a publicly engaging design research approach to understand the implications of complex emerging technologies like blockchain and AI systems. Sit back and enjoy!