The Protocol Beneath the Tools

When and where tech fails

First, thank you for this reflection John Fullerton - Founder, Capital. Your team at nRhythm is living this work. You’re designing organizations with living-systems patterns (regenerative, equitable, resilient). It’s exactly the kind of practice that rebuilds right relationship before we ever touch code. Here is part of John’s reflection:

This express beautifully why I’m suspicious that we can solve the lost trust in institutions predicament with the “no need for trust algorithms” on the block chain. Maybe we can. We need to experiment. But maybe it’s just a layer not THE foundation we must “knit back together” in genuine “right relationship.”

I share the suspicion that we won’t code (techno solve) our way out of a crisis of trust. All the tech and algorithms can help, but they’re a layer, not the foundation. Relationships are the foundation.

The protocol I’m pointing to lives there … under, before, and beyond any technology.

In my language: Commitment Pooling is a base protocol, expressed in many mediums - from a village ROLA to a credit union to a blockchain. Software code is just one dialect of it - an expression of the gene. The goal is not “tech adoption.” The goal is right relationship, Ubuntu - becoming people together.

When trust in institutions frays, we don’t abandon trust—we relocalize it. We practice it. We make it visible and verifiable in human-scale ways. Commitment Pooling is simply a grammar for doing that.

What is the base protocol for resource coordination?

It’s four living functions that any community, cooperative, or DAO can enact:

• Curation – Name what matters and belongs in the shared pool (labor days, food, care, tools, training, even stable-money vouchers).

• Valuation – Agree on relative values and prioritize so reciprocity stays legible (not to financialize, but to keep exchanges fair over time).

• Limitation – Set bounds so the commons doesn’t get flooded or captured (limits protect the pool’s health).

• Exchange – Enable non-extractive flows—seed into the pool or swap commitments out of it as needs arise.

That’s it. Four verbs as a foundation. This exact quartet is our canonical substrate whether you’re using a notebook, elders’ memory, a VSLA cash box, or a smart contract.

It’s a metabolic system of promises - tracked, remembered, and fulfilled over time.

This protocol has many expressions

• Villages / ROLAs (Rotating Labor Associations) – Neighbors seed commitments (time, tools, food), then rotate work so each household gets a turn when needed. It’s ancient, widespread, and still the beating heart in many places.

• Community savings/insurance – The same pooling grammar shows up as VSLAs/ROSCA cousins; our lexicon even maps the terms so groups can translate across traditions.

• Digital pools / blockchains – Code can render the same four functions across distance and time, with auditable memory and permissioning. Helpful? Absolutely. Foundational? No - the foundation is still people keeping promises and building trust.

In practice, pools overlap (family, faith group, farm crew, learning circle) creating a mycelial network of reciprocity rather than a single enclosure. That overlap and forkability builds resilience and avoids centralization traps.

“Trustless tech” isn’t trustless life

Technologists sometimes say “no need for trust.” But communities don’t function that way. We rely on relational memory (witnessed commitments; stories of who showed up), authentication (who can promise what), and stewardship (how the pool is tended). These are the social “organs” that let the four protocol functions breathe.

Blockchains and databases (even AI) can help see and route trust, but they are not the trust. They’re a mirror, not the face.

Aim and ethos

My aim is peace and harmony: Ubuntu: “I am because we are.” Pools connect through trust in shared values, fulfilled commitments, and the integrity of neighbors. When one pool faces crisis, others respond. That’s the world I’m working toward.

And yes: it’s hard work. It’s art.

Building relational trust networks might be the most beautiful art form we have.

“How do I start?”

You lead a horse to water when it’s thirsty. Start where the thirst already is:

1. Look around. Map the commitments already offered in your circle—care hours, rides, tools, seeds, tutoring, repairs, hosting, small cash floats. Make it visible.

2. Name them. Curate what belongs in the first pool. Keep it human-scale.

3. Value them—lightly and often. Agree on relative values so people know how to reciprocate without shame or guesswork. Adjust as seasons change.

4. Set limits. Protect the pool with ceilings and simple eligibility rules.

5. Exchange and celebrate. Seed, swap, rotate. Use meetups/ROLAs and community markets to exercise the muscle. Cheer redemptions when promises are fulfilled.

6. Start an emergency lane. Reserve part of the pool (social fund) for crisis draws. It’s ancient commons wisdom, not an afterthought.

If you want a simple on-ramp: host a potluck with vouchers as thank-you notes that can be swapped later. You’ll feel the protocol “click” the first time the circle redeems those notes into real help.

When tech breaks (it will … over and over)

What if the app goes down? The cell tower dies? The law shifts? The protocol should fallback gracefully:

• Offline-first - design first for notebooks, witnesses, and local networks. Add digital rails second. Ensure you can print to CSV anything essential. What you are really building is the relationships are between living beings.

• Keep the social organs healthy - memory, authentication, stewardship - so your pool can run on voice, paper, and presence for as long as needed.

Communities practiced this long before databases. We can do it with brains, breath, and oaths. The “warehouse” is not shelves; it’s a ledger of trusted promises distributed across homes and hearts.

To the builders and the skeptics

To the skeptics: I’m with you. If you’ve been practicing principle-based partnership without contracts and it’s “different and promising,” yes - that’s the protocol at work.

To the technologists: please hear me - you are implementing a protocol, not inventing trust. Write code that serves curation, valuation, limitation, exchange; routes promises without extraction; and keeps the commons safe. That’s it.

In the end - ask yourself - “do I have a relationship wit the people in my life around me that is healthy and caring?” - otherwise all your tech and plans to save the world will be worthless.

Of course technologies can help and accelerate things - like training wheels - by the time they fall off or fall apart or are taken off - we can learn how to ride the bike.

I am utterly amazed at what we can do with blockchain right now.

It is NOT about crypto currencies - but about a space we can make simple agreements visible, interoperable and auditable. This is exactly what we have done on Sarafu.Network.

(Just the beginning …. but wow …. no comparison to the systems we had before in our ability to do commitment pooling in a way that provides, authentication, memory and interoperability….)

Technologies can help us accelerate the healing process in a way that is not dependent on those same technologies continuing. I see it working every day. I see trust and bonds forming across families, villages, bio-regions - that no technology failure can stop. This is anti-fragile.

I see the ecology of the heart growing.

I’m also cheering on nRhythm’s example: principle-based partnership that actually changes how we organize - less command-and-control, more stewardship and reciprocity. Looking forward to learning more!

Call to practice

Lets keep weaving pools that ordinary people can use to tap shared resources when needed, especially in emergencies, and repay through service and care. That’s how we knit back right relationship - village to blockchain, story to ledger, hand to hand.

Ubuntu. Let’s build together what none of us can build alone.

/// For a deeper dive on Commitment Pooling - here is a free pdf and audio book.

/// If you think cooperation’s base protocol isn’t commitment pooling, name your cousin or alien concept - I want to see it tested it in the field where people live.