The challenge of transitioning from plastic connects us across cultures and continents. By valuing the securing of plastic by individuals and communities, the GoBrik platform enables currency and connection to empower projects and people.
GoBrik is a social action platform providing ecobrickers and their communities around the world with the tools to log, track, exchange and manage their ecobricking. GoBrik is a project of the Global Ecobrick Alliance (GEA) Earth Enterprise. Launched in 2017, GoBrik now connects 50,000 users and 5,000 communities from 120 countries through their ecobricking. The core of the platform is our community of planet passionate ecobrickers. Through their hard word, our ecobrick authentication system is generating our brikcoin manual blockchain.
Our Vision
We're firm believers that 'the problem is always the solution'. Including plastic.
And that includes plastic. Plastic is not just an ugly consequence of the petro-capital economy - it is our spring board to transcending it.
To solve plastic pollution and to transcend the petro-capital economy at the root of it, we must dive deep into... plastic. Rather than sending our personal plastic on polluting journeys, through ecobricking we can generate the building blocks and currency. By connecting ecobrickers- uniquely committed planet-passionate global citizens- GoBrik has a tremendously unique base of users who, like the GEA, are not motivated by capital or profit- but ecological and community concern.
United by this shared passion, ecobricking lays the foundation for much more than just ecobricking! With a shared currency, a shared metric and vision of plastic transition, our vision is of a decentralized app that can be deployted by regenerative communities around the world to coalesce their local efforts and unite them to the global movement.
In the recycling industry plastic is only valued as a raw material. GoBri enables us to value plastic for precisely the opposite: its removal from the global industrial system to be secured and put to good local use. Our vision os of the GoBrik platform doing just this- accelerating the sequestration of plastic and our transition from it. By generating ciurrency and connection on the valuation of their service, we envision not just making a dent in the millions of tons of plastic that will be produced in the next decade, but using that plastic as the building blocks for a whole new regenerative world.
Serving the People Serving the Planet
The GoBrik platform serves ecobrickers around the world, enabling them to manage their plastic transition.
GoBrik offers the tools to log, manage, validate, authenticate and exchange their ecobricks. Ecobricks that are logged on GoBrik are given a serial number and their unique data (weight, color, volume, density, maker etc.) is saved and managed in the database.
Once logged, ecobricks are automatically submitted to the validation queue where they are reviewed by the community of ecobrickers. Ecobricks that are successfully authenticated (the reviewers concur on the visible data) are then eligible to be exchanged and traded on the platform. Those who helped out with the validation, are rewarded with Brikcoins.
Ecobrick Authentications & Brikcoins
On GoBrik, the value of the ecological service of securing plastic from contaminating the biosphere is quantified.
The peer authentication of ecobricks generates what we call brikcoins which reward the validators and makers of the ecobrick. Brikcoins (BRK / ß) are a digital token based on real world plastic that has been sequestered and authenticated by ecobrickers around the world on a manual blockchain.
Download our Brikcoin White Paper for a full description of the Brikcoin Manual Blockchain.
Brikcoins are generated each time an ecobrick is authenticated by the ecobricker community on GoBrik. For each Kg of authenticated plastic, 10 ß are generated. These coins are distributed equally among the validators and the GoBrik system. Brikcoins can be used to exchange for ecobricks, to register for GEA courses, to purchase regenerative products on the Regen Shop, and to purchase plastic offset credits. Anyone with an GoBrik account can invest their time and effort to earn brikcoins by assisting the ecobrick authentication process.
History
From 2017 onwards, GoBrik has been steadily unfolding!
Over 2388 Ecobricks were logged in our first three month run of the first Ecobrick App in Jogja.
From the very beginning, we observed that schools that kept track of their ecobricking were most likely to have the highest quality ecobricks, to build the coolest stuff, and to see the deepest plastic transition. These schools were then able to speak of their success with solid numbers. Inspired, we’re working to build the GoBrik app to help ecobrickers everywhere track and connect their ecobricking and we’re developing Brikcoins as a means to value the hard and valuable work of ecobrickers securing plastic from contaminating the biosphere.
In March 2016, we launched the first version of our app to a team of twenty trainers in the city of Jogjakarta, Indonesia. Basically an upgraded google form embedded in a WordPress site, they were able to log the Ecobricking of hundreds of Jogjans over the course of three months. In June 2016, we were able to host a ecobrick media event to unveil the Ecobricks that had been made in three months, as well as detailed statistics of the amount of plastic packed, participation and C02 sequestered. This was followed by the launch of an improved app for NU, a large muslim organization in Jakarta. Empowered with their own NU App, they began logging and tracking their ecobricks.
Despite the success of our first Jogja and NU apps, the logging functionality was significantly limited. One could not see or track one’s personal ecobricking. The logging thus became the responsibility of one or two trainers– the rest recording on paper for these people to process.
With the insights that we have gleaned from our sociological observations of the spread of Ecobricks in Indonesia and the Philippines, coupled with our prototype app field testing, we went back to the drawing board.
In early 2017, with the guidance of veteran programmers, crypto-currency experts, and data base designer, we had a massive breakthrough in our app development. Having designed a relational database, we found the Knack.com platform to create it. Within two months the pieces were in place. The second version of our Ecobricks app was launched in the second half of 2017.
In mid 2018 our Ecobrick & Brikcoin White Paper was released and shortly thereafter our Brikcoin manual block chain.
Plastic Offset Credits
Purchase plastic and C02 credits from the GEA
Ecobricks are one of the few ways to ensure that plastic is indefinitely kept out of the waste industry and out of the biosphere.
On GoBrik, each gram of plastic has been reviewed by independent ecobrickers to make sure that has been packed to GEA standards. Each gram of plastic is accounted for in our manual block chain system. Every ecobrick authentication is stored on our human searchable brickchain and every cash transaction is stored in our open books accounting system.
Authenticated Ecobricked Plastic is…
- Plastic that can no longer be contaminated with the Covid-19 virus
- Plastic that won’t degrade into microplastics, CO2 or green house gases
- Plastic that can now be put to local use for shorterm household projects
- Plastic that can be put to use to build earth and ecobrick green spaces
- The result of a process that raises ecological awareness and lowers plastic consumption
The cost incurred in the ongoing sequestration of plastic through the maintenance and development of GoBrik are tracked in our Open Books. By comparing the past year’s net cost of running the platform vs. the amount amount of plastic authenticated in that year, enables us to determine the next year’s price per Kg. This value also corresponds to the total Brikcoins generated in the year. The purchase price of each Kg of plastic offset is thus at a set price and a set Brikcoin correlation– with the buyer’s personal or company account being credited with both plastic offsets and brikcoins. The transaction is recorded in both our and our open books.
Offset purchases enables the GEA to continue our work. Purchases also help float the fiat value of brikcoins– which distributes value and incentive for the entire ecobricker network.
A Global Ecobrick Alliance Project
The GoBrik platform and its development are managed by the Global Ecobrick Alliance.
The GEA is a not-for-profit Earth Enterprise, that operates under regenerative principles and a mission to support the global plastic transition movement.
The GoBrik platform is our way of supporting the technological and philosophical infrastructure of the plastic transition movement. GoBrik helps maintain the clarity of the mandalic core pattern and intention of the ecobrick movement. The platform promotes the terminologies, best practices and principles that continental ecobrick leaders have agreed upon and which are established in the wikipedia official ecobrick page.
As an independent Earth Enterprise that by principle does not accept government or corporation funding. We strive to make our work open source and strive to use only platforms and services that are likewise open source. GoBrik enables us to support and amplify the work and example of our 327 Trainers around the world, whose in-turn regular contributions helps us cover our maintenance and development costs. Teams of trainers work on the various aspects of development, translation, content and concept of the platform.
Development Team
Our fully volunteer team of developers
Alan Thompson - Senior Analyst/Programmer
Alan Thompson is a former member of the Royal Air Force, working as a Telecommunications Technician and a Computer Programmer. He has worked as a Certified Internet Webmaster with experience in MS VB.Net, MS SQL Apllication, PHP, Postgress, MOODLE Virtual Learning Enviroment, Joomla and as a DotnetNuke CMS Developer using Open Source applications. He is currently learning about Python Frameworks for Web Development and also working with the Open University.
Joseph O'Flanagan - Web Developer (PHP, Javascript, HTML, CSS)
Joseph O'Flanagan is a programmer with knowledge of multiple different languages who is working on this website. He has been working with the team to bring information about Global Ecobricks Alliance and Ecobriks up to date. Joe has previously been at Arval BNP Paribas and has been involved in charity organsations through working with Prospect Hospice. He joined the GEA team in 2023 and has worked with the team to help modernise the website.
Mike O'Flanagan - Senior Database Administrator
Mike O'Flanagan is a retired data analyst whose background with mainframe programming, mainframe, Windows & Linux database systems has enabled him to make a unique and potent contribution to the development of the ecobricks.org backend database and maintaining the GoBrik.com relational database.
Russell Maier - Lead developer - GEA Co-Founder
Russell Maier is one of the co-founders of the Global Ecobrick Alliance and has spearheaded the the spread of ecobricks in South East Asia and the UK. Russell’s regenerative inventions, ideas and projects have been covered by the BBC, the Guardian, the Jarkata post, hundreds of local media outlets and recently an hour long special on CNN Indonesia. With almost two decades of web development experience, an academic background in philosophy and a decade of leading large collaborative projects, Russell is the catalyst behind the Gobrik and Brikcoin projects. With a perspective gleaned from integrating in some of the most politically and economically challenged cultures on the planet — from refugee camps in Gaza, rainforests in Costa Rica, to four years living with the Igorots in the mountains of the Northern Philippines, Russell brings to the Brikcoin team, his passion for solving ecological and social challenges with a low tech, regenerative approach.
Corporate sponsors
None!! (｡✪ω✪｡)
On principle we do not accept financial contributions from for-profit corporations. See our regenerative principles for more.
Personal & Community Empowerment
Ecobricking is both an individual and collaborative endeavour. It unites across class, continents, and cultures around the shared intention of caring for the local and global biosphere. The personal ecobricking process raises awareness of the consequences of consumption and the dangers of plastic to accelerate plastic transition. The collaborative process gives individuals and communities hands-on experience of regenerative living and points in the direction of other regenerative technologies, such as earth building and permaculture.
Get started on GoBrik today with a free Buwana powered account.
Open GoBrik.com in a new window
Live Brikcoin value:
◉ 25,680.59 IDR per 1 Kg of AES Plastic
- Total ecobricks authenticated: 125,782
- Total Brikcoins Generated: 429,062 ß
- Total Authenticatd Sequestered Plastic: 40,625.10 kg
- Total System Expenses: 1,043,276,541.00 IDR
The price per kg of of AES plastic offsets is a function of system authenticataed plastic and GEA system expenses.
For-Earth Enterprise
The GEA commits to a not-for-profit business model that redistributes financial benefit towards ecological benefit. It does this by disclosing its carbon, plastic and biodiversity impacts and by ensuring that they are net-green.
AES Offsetting Presentation
Download our PDF slide deck that provides a comprehensive overview of offsetting plastic through the GEA.
📄 AES Presentation
3.8 MB PDF download
Ecobrick of the Month!
Ecobrick 81315 made the top tens this month with a validation score of 70.04
Top Ten Briks
