Every year, a “beautiful bill” passes through Congress.
A trillion dollars, wrapped in noble language and stuffed with quiet favors. Some parts sound good. while others sound like theft. You and I pay for it all.
We don’t get to pick the parts we believe in. We don’t get to withhold funding from what violates our values. Participation is automatic. Contribution is compulsory. The results are…. mixed.
I’m tired of that.
Tired of watching my tax dollars disappear into black boxes. Tired of potholes unfixed, schools underfunded, and local efforts smothered by red tape. Tired of pretending the system works when all it really does is obscure cause and effect. I want a way to give that feels clean. A way to participate in civic life that does not require me to vote for someone I don’t like or believe in or fund programs I don’t support. A way to act now, not later.
I talk about how we should think differently and work outside of the old system and the ways things work currently.
So, I wrote a blueprint. (link)
A protocol. A new civic layer.
It’s called Common Protocol and it’s built on three ideas:
-
Contribution should be voluntary.
-
Impact should be verifiable.
-
Recognition should be earned, not inherited.
It uses Bitcoin’s Lightning Network to create a fast, transparent, and open system for funding and fulfilling public goods. You see the problem and you fund it. You have a skill, and you offer it. You act and your contribution is recorded. Not for surveillance or punishment but for proof. This is reputation as participation.
Imagine this:
You open your phone and see a live project least near you:
-
Paint a bench.
-
Plant a garden.
-
Restore a food bridge.
Each project has a clear goal, a progress bar, a log of who’s contributed. You can fund it. You can complete it. When the task is verified, rewards are issued. Impact points are earned. A civic ledger grows.
This civic ledger would not be one built by bureaucrats or gamed by elites. It would be one built by you, your neighbors, the teenager who organized a cleanup in your community, or by the retired welder who fixes streetlights in his spare time. It would be visible enough to earn trust, flexible enough to fit your life, and light enough to grow across cities, regions, or even borders.
This is not another ideal utopia. It is a practical infrastructure that doesn’t have to hold anyone accountable because it is verifiable. It’s the idea we build when we stop waiting for our government to listen.
Common Protocol is:
-
Voluntary.
-
Open source.
-
Built on Bitcoin.
It rewards action, honors labor, and creates a cultural shift towards visible contribution. You don’t need a degree or a permit to matter. You don’t need permission to act.
I want it to include tax redirection (The idea does at the least). When you contribute through Common Protocol, your donation is tracked and receipted like any charitable gift. You can submit a report with your taxes and reduce your tax income. It’s a peaceful off-ramp from the current compulsory model. A way to say, “I want my money to go here. I want to build this. I want to watch my contribution directly change my society."
No one owns this. I’m not selling anything. I just want to share the idea that I want to exist.
Take it. Share it. Fork it. Adapt it. Translate it. It’s ours. It’s the worlds.
We do not fix the world by waiting for the old one to die. We fix it by showing people what’s possible. Then giving them the tools to start.
Common Protocol is just one small tool, but it is one step towards imagining a better world.
If this vision speaks to you, speak it louder.
Shape the future. One action at a time and do it again tomorrow.
