Did this

A transparency practice where community members self-attest their contributions on a shared board, creating visibility of collective effort and enabling peer validation in a trust-based system.

Overview

"Did this" is a contribution tracking pattern that moves away from command-and-control task management toward a peer-to-peer attestation network. Anyone writes what they did for the community on a board, self-attesting what they contributed. The board can be reviewed at regular intervals (typically weekly), where attestations can be discussed, validated, or questioned by the group.

This pattern supports regenerative resource flows by making contributions visible, creating social accountability, and establishing the foundation for equitable distribution of collective resources, tokens, or recognition.

Why Use This Pattern

Transparency Over Surveillance: Rather than requiring permission or reporting to authority figures, contributors autonomously share their work, fostering intrinsic motivation and trust.

Peer Validation: The community collectively witnesses and validates contributions, building mutual recognition and preventing both under-reporting (invisible labor) and over-claiming.

Resource Distribution: When communities distribute flow tokens, time credits, or other rewards, visible contributions provide the basis for equitable allocation without complex tracking systems.

Cultural Shift: This pattern embodies the transition from extractive transactions (work for pay) to regenerative exchanges (contribution toward collective needs with shared abundance).

Implementation

Setting Up the Board

Physical Board: Use a whiteboard, corkboard, or wall space in a common area where people naturally gather. Divide it into sections by week, category (e.g., kitchen, garden, admin, creative), or contributor.

Digital Board: Use tools like:

• Shared documents (Google Docs, Notion, HackMD)

• Project boards (Trello, GitHub Projects)

• Community forums with a dedicated "Contributions" category

• Blockchain-based attestation systems for permanent, verifiable records

Hybrid Approach: Maintain both physical presence (for visibility and culture-building) and digital backup (for remote members and permanent record).

What to Include

Each attestation should capture:

• What was done - Brief description of the contribution

• When - Date or time period

• Who - Name or identifier of contributor

• Impact (optional) - Who benefited, what need was met, or what outcome was achieved

• Resources used (optional) - Materials, time, or support from others

Example attestations:

• "Harvested apples from the orchard, sorted and stored in root cellar - 3 hours - Alex - 2025-11-15"

• "Facilitated conflict resolution session for kitchen crew - 2 hours - Jordan"

• "Repaired solar panel connection, restored power to workshop - 1 hour - Casey - Enabled 3 other projects to continue"

Review Rhythm

Weekly Check-ins: Gather the community (or those interested) to review the board together. This can be part of a regular meeting, sharing circle, or meal time.

What to Look For:

• Celebrate visible contributions and express gratitude

• Notice patterns in where energy is flowing

• Discuss any attestations that seem unclear or questionable

• Identify invisible labor that might not be appearing on the board

• Recognize those who consistently contribute in ways that support others

Addressing Concerns: If an attestation seems inaccurate or inflated, approach with curiosity rather than accusation. Often misunderstandings arise from different perceptions of effort or value. Use the discussion to align on what the community values and how to represent it.

Connection to Regenerative Systems

This pattern directly supports REGENERATIVA's vision of multi-resource accounting:

Contribution Visibility: Makes labor, expertise, and care work visible alongside financial contributions, creating a more complete picture of how value flows through the community.

Flow Token Distribution: Provides the data needed to distribute monthly flow tokens to those contributing toward collective needs, creating universal optionality across the network.

Negative Externalities as Inputs: When someone attests to solving a problem (fixing broken infrastructure, healing conflict, cleaning up waste), it reveals what challenges exist and how Holons are transforming externalities into addressed needs.

Trust Building: Self-attestation with peer review builds the trust infrastructure needed for decentralized coordination at scale.

Tips for Success

Start Simple: Don't over-engineer the system. A simple shared document or physical board is enough to begin. Add complexity only as needed.

Celebrate Small Contributions: Washing dishes, sweeping floors, and holding space in conversations are as worthy of attestation as larger visible projects.

Track Non-Labor Contributions: Someone who offers their land, tools, or materials is contributing resources even if they're not doing physical work.

Include Care Work: Emotional labor, facilitation, conflict resolution, and nurturing activities are often invisible but essential. Make them visible.

Avoid Gamification: The goal is transparency and peer recognition, not competition for who contributed most. If the pattern starts creating unhealthy comparison, revisit the intention together.

Connect to Distribution: If the community distributes resources, tokens, or rewards, clearly connect attestations to allocation criteria. Transparency in both contribution and distribution builds trust.

Variations

Buddy Validation: Pair with the Task Buddy pattern - buddies attest to each other's contributions, adding a layer of peer validation.

Category-Based: Organize attestations by type of contribution (food production, infrastructure, education, healing, governance) to see where community energy is focused.

Impact Scoring: Add community-driven metrics for how much a contribution met collective needs (used in some gift economy systems, but be cautious of over-quantification).

Blockchain Integration: For networks coordinating across multiple Holons, immutable contribution records enable trustless resource distribution and reputation building.

Related Patterns

• Task Buddy: Mutual attestation between pairs working together

• Appreciative Scoring: Peer feedback and recognition system

• Offers and Requests: Complements attestation by making needs and capacities visible before action

• Flow Token Distribution: Uses contribution data to allocate collective resources

By making contributions visible through self-attestation and peer review, communities build the transparency and trust needed for regenerative resource flows, where every member's contributions create ownership, optionality, and collective abundance.