The prototype emerged through a futures process that worked with urban heat signals, unpacked their direct and indirect consequences, and used world-building to explore how these shifts could reorganise everyday life, access, and survival in the city. 

This is a ground up currency, created by communities to value care and interdependence, recognizing and prioritizing relational care in an age of rising global heat over other measures of worth. It enables citizens to think about plural forms of wealth in urban heat contexts. Ideally, this prototype responds by offering incentives that encourage people to carry out daily tasks amidst heat stress, dispersing the responsibility among the community. In addition, as a care-wealth based adaptive identity, a flag will represent the level of care within the community.

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Kai operates as a proportion of wealth, representing the value of an individual’s contribution to completing a task. 

Step 1: Participatory currency - Citizens work as a community and select different tasks categorized as care-tasks, like taking care of kids and/or going shopping. The selected care-tasks will be assigned a value, decided by the community in a ground up manner. 

Step 2: The impact of heat differences is determined by the likelihood of caring for children under normal temperatures, above-average heat, and extreme heat conditions.

Step 3: By accumulating and sharing Kai within the community members, citizens who recognize and value the care work, will be based on the following formula.

Participatory Formula: Kai value of a task =
[Time Score + Energy Score + Heat Impact] of task + Heat Adjustment] 

From the Creators 

Converting unquantifiable relational care into a number has its limits. Kai is a currency that encourages communities to recognise and appreciate care work. Unlike conventional money issued by a government that has a standard value, Kai is consensus based and subjective to each community. It can be traded flexibly allowing for differences in capacities to contribute.

To strengthen Kai and expand its potential, it can be understood as a proportional currency. The highest score a community can reach is 1/1, where everyone cares for everyone. This introduces no competition. It becomes a shared goal the community works toward together.