Room 214, Electric House, London South Bank University, 3 Wellesley Rd, Croydon CR0 2AG
Hack the System is a planned 3-day event (19-21 September, 2025) that aims to create a Web3-powered marketplace for community wealth building in South London.
History
HackTheSystem was conceived in 2022 by a coalition of organizations including Crystalisr, Regens Unite, and Blockchain Radicals, alongside academic partners like London South Bank University. The initiative emerged from converging interests in regenerative economics, smart-city development, decentralized arts, and participatory democracy movements.
Initially conceptualized as a single event, the first HackTheSystem gathering was postponed as organizers refined their approach and built stronger community relationships. After a three-year development period, HackTheSystem was relaunched in 2025 with a more focused methodology and clearer objectives. The initiative's evolution reflected growing interest in using blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, particularly the Radix ledger, to create community-owned cooperative structures modeled after established mutual organizations.
Purpose & Vision
To develop a platform that connects local artists, creatives, and service providers with buyers in the South London Partnership area (1.2 million people), using Web3 technology to facilitate transactions and build community wealth.
Create local supply chains where artists and service providers can trade using community tokens, potentially expanding beyond art to include services like childcare, with the goal of keeping wealth circulating within the South London community.
Streams
- Developer Hackathon - Technical developers building solutions.
- Technology Expo - Demonstrations of existing platforms like Caper (a DAO platform) and ArtSect's property DAO.
- Participatory Governance - Community input sessions using design thinking to gather requirements from local residents.
Itinerary
Friday 19th (16:00 - 20:00)
- Welcome & Introductions - Get to know participants, team introductions.
- Community Wealth Building Overview - Introduction to core concepts and goals.
- Design Thinking Workshop - Visual supply chain plus community input session gathering requirements from local residents, artists, and potential users.
- Vision Setting - Collaborative brainstorming on what the marketplace should look like.
- Food & Networking - Informal discussions continue over refreshments.
Saturday 20th (09:00 - 16:00)
- Morning Briefing - Quick recap for those who missed Friday.
- Three Streams Launch:
- Stream 1: Developer setup and dependency installation.
- Stream 2: Technology demonstrations (Caper, ArtSect, XRDegen, etc).
- Stream 3: Participatory governance discussions and use case development.
- Cross-Stream Collaboration - Identifying how the streams intersect.
- Afternoon Development - Building solutions based on Friday's community input.
- Progress Check-ins - Regular updates between streams.
Sunday 21st (10:00 - 15:00)
- Final Development Push - Completing prototypes and solutions.
- Integration Work - Connecting different platform elements.
- Presentation Prep - Teams prepare to showcase their work.
- Demo Presentations - Each stream presents outcomes.
- Next Steps Planning - Concrete action items and follow-up commitments.
- Closing & Commitment - Ensuring participants leave energized with clear next steps.