Concept proposal — seeking a pilot partner

Community action,
rewarded.

Civic Karma is a proposal for a platform that turns the small things citizens already do — picking up litter, reporting a full bin, clearing snow, checking on a neighbour — into a verified, redeemable community currency. Designed with councils in mind, for the public realm.

Read the proposal See how it would work
1Pilot proposed
4Asset classes covered
2Control models
UKPhase 2 ambition
Civic Karma branded artwork showing citizens earning karma coins
Designed for UK Local Authorities Borough Councils Charities & Foundations UK Government Community Volunteers
Concept proposal

This site is illustrative literature for a proposed platform. Names, partnerships, rates and figures shown throughout are indicative examples for discussion with councils, partners and supporters — nothing here is yet operational.

The opportunity

Public realm budgets are shrinking.
Civic energy is everywhere — just unrewarded.

Bins overflow, potholes go unreported, and willing residents have no easy on-ramp to help. Civic Karma is the missing layer between councils, citizens, workers and assets — a single app that turns participation into measurable, spendable value.

Cheaper to run

Crowd-sourced reporting + in-field worker app cut operating cost per asset and shorten time-to-fix.

Higher engagement

Karma rewards drive repeat behaviour. Local leaderboards turn civic pride into a habit.

Verifiable Proof of Work

Every deed is timestamped, geo-tagged and signed off — auditable for grants, court orders and CVs.

Inclusive by design

Welfare top-up, offender rehabilitation, youth work-experience and good-neighbour use cases — one platform.

The Civic Karma bigger picture diagram showing community, council and asset coordination
The bigger picture — citizens, council workers and shared assets, coordinated in one app.
How it works

Spot it. Scan it. Sort it.

A 3-step loop anyone can complete in under 30 seconds — and the engine that powers everything else.

  1. 01

    Scan

    Citizen scans the QR code on any public asset — a bin, defibrillator, grit box, bench or planter.

  2. 02

    Report or log

    They report a problem (full bin, vandalism, fault) or log a good deed (litter pick, snow clearance, welfare check).

  3. 03

    Earn Karma

    Verified action mints CivicKarma — spendable on parking, leisure, market vouchers or a tree planted in their name.

3-step how it works strip: Scan, Report or log, Earn karma
Earn & spend

One currency. Every civic action. Real-world rewards.

The prices below are illustrative examples — final earn/spend rates would be set with the council during the pilot design phase.

Earn karma for

  • Reporting a full or damaged bin
  • Litter-pick bags tagged in the app
  • Adopting a street tree, planter or grit bin
  • Snow clearance and storm-damage scouts
  • Blood donation, defib checks, befriending visits
  • Reporting potholes, fly-tipping & speeding

Spend it on

  • 1-hour council parking60 karma
  • Stafford Leisure swim140 karma
  • £2 market voucher120 karma
  • A tree planted in your name250 karma
  • Community group fund top-up500 karma
A4 leaflet — Spot it, Scan it, Sort it, And earn CivicKarma while you're at it
Concept leaflet — designed to drop into council mailers, libraries and bin-lorry rounds.
The proposed platform

One app. Three sides of the same loop.

Designed so citizens, council workers and community groups all act on the same shared map of public assets.

Citizen app

  • Tasks Near Me — geo-sorted
  • Scan-to-report & scan-to-log
  • My Karma wallet & redemptions
  • Local leaderboard & group projects

Worker app (BinTrack)

  • Live job queue, sorted by priority
  • One-tap Start & Complete with photo proof
  • Auto-confirms karma to verified reporters
  • Replaces paper rounds & spreadsheets

Council dashboard

  • Asset register with live status
  • Performance & SLA reporting
  • Reward redemption ledger
  • Restorative-justice case workflow
App features overview — leaderboard, tasks near me, my karma points
Worker view — your queue on your phone
Action library

Every kind of civic action — in one ledger.

From street-level chores to safeguarding visits. Each action has a defined value, a verification path and a reward.

🧹

Litter-picking

Bag, tag and report — sustained street cleaning, recognised properly.

🌳

Tree maintenance

Adopt-a-tree watering, pruning & reporting.

🕳️

Pothole reports

Geo-tagged photo evidence routed to highways.

🚗

Speeding scouts

Trained volunteers with verified equipment.

❤️

Welfare checks

Befriending visits and elderly check-ins.

🗑️

Bin collections

Crowd-sourced status + worker confirmation.

🚷

Fly-tipping reports

Geo-tagged evidence routed straight to enforcement.

🌱

Community gardening

Adopt-a-planter, allotment helpers, urban greening.

🤝

Volunteering & aid

Foodbank, mutual-aid & emergency response.

❄️

Snow & storm

Grit box scouts and storm-damage reporting.

🛣️

Footpath surveys

Right-of-way condition checks for highways teams.

🩸

Health acts

Blood donation, defib checks, first-aid drills.

Demonstrating community actions across many domains
Use cases

Built for the people councils struggle hardest to reach.

Welfare

Citizen on welfare

Earn karma to supplement basic needs. Verifiable maintenance tasks unlock free parking, swimming, market vouchers — reducing cost-of-living pressure with dignity.

Rehabilitation

Community offender

Fulfil court-mandated service hours with verifiable Proof of Work. Digital sign-off, photographic evidence and tamper-evident logs — driving rehabilitation through productive action.

Youth

Young volunteer

Build a digital CV with validated achievements. Logged work experience, references from council teams, and skills tagged to real tasks — an on-ramp to employment.

General help

Good neighbour

Connect & help on your own values. Litter-picking, tree maintenance, befriending the elderly, scouts for hazards — small acts, recognised properly.

Civic Karma use cases overview — welfare, rehabilitation, youth and general help
Restorative justice

A built-in path back to the community.

When things go wrong — vandalism, harassment, anti-social behaviour — Civic Karma turns penalty into reparation, with a defined redemption pathway and audit trail.

1. Issue reported
→
2. Penalty & case opened
→
3. Reparation tasks assigned
→
4. Verified completion
→
5. Rejoin community
Penalty and redemption flow — reparation tasks tracked in app
Funding & control

Two parallel control models.
Same software. Different governance.

Whether sponsored by government or stewarded by a charity, the rails are identical — partners and supporters can pick the path, or back both.

Case 1

Government-controlled

  • UK Government holds the central key
  • Funded by grants & council allocations
  • Auditable Proof of Work for public spending
  • National roll-out via DLUHC partnerships
Case 2

Charity / Foundation-led

  • Independent foundation as key-holder
  • Funded by donations & philanthropy
  • Politically neutral, faster to scale
  • Independent UK-wide expansion
API tokenized version of the system
API-tokenised model
Crypto-currency version of the Community Coin system
Cryptocurrency model (Phase 2)
Roadmap

From a Stafford pilot to UK-wide infrastructure.

Today

Concept & council outreach

Brand, asset-register methodology, worker-app concept and pitch literature complete. Engaging Stafford Borough Council and prospective supporters.

Phase 1

Stafford Borough pilot (proposed)

Subject to council approval and funding: pilot deployment across rubbish bins, defibs, grit bins and benches, with citizen onboarding, worker rollout and proposed redemption partners (e.g. council parking, leisure centres, local market vouchers).

Phase 2

Regional expansion

Neighbouring authorities, Mayor-of-region partnerships and proposed restorative-justice trials with the Probation Service.

Phase 3

UK-wide & government adoption

Optional move to a tokenised / cryptocurrency settlement layer. Government adoption coin, national leaderboards, exportable model for Commonwealth markets.

Civic Karma adoption method roadmap diagram
The full picture

The complete system, on a page.

A board-ready overview of the Civic Karma platform — actors, flows, funding and impact.

Civic Karma complete system diagram — actors, flows, funding and impact
Civic Karma solutions overview
Brand & collateral

Council-ready, community-ready.

A consistent identity across noticeboard posters, leaflets, social tiles and worker comms — concept artwork prepared for the Stafford pitch and ready to adapt to any council brand.

A3 noticeboard poster — Your town. Your bin. Your reward.
Square social media tile — Stafford's new way to say thank you.
A4 portrait leaflet for citizen onboarding
Worker / staff onboarding poster
Common questions

What we get asked first.

The five objections councils, supporters and investors raise the moment they see Civic Karma — answered up front.

What does this cost the council during the pilot?

The proposed Stafford pilot is delivered at no upfront cost to the council — funded via grant co-funding or a modest evaluation budget agreed in advance. Production licensing only kicks in after the pilot is reviewed and renewed.

How is GDPR / data protection handled?

Karma actions are stored against pseudonymous IDs — names and addresses are never required to participate. Personal data is minimised, encrypted at rest, and never sold or shared with third parties. A full DPIA will be made available to council DPOs ahead of any pilot, with named data-controller responsibilities and clear retention schedules.

What stops people gaming the system?

Every karma-earning action is verified before it pays out. A council worker confirms a job ticket; a photograph and geo-tag prove a litter bag was filled; a redemption partner confirms a voucher was used. Rate-limits and human review handle the edge cases. Anti-gaming is treated as a first-class concern, not an afterthought.

Why a cryptocurrency in Phase 2?

Phase 2 is optional and only triggered if there's appetite for a national settlement layer (e.g. UK Government recognition for blood donors, foster carers, registered volunteers). The platform works perfectly well without it — Phase 1 is pure fiat-backed rewards. Crypto is offered as an upgrade path, not a precondition.

How is this different from existing reporting apps like FixMyStreet?

Reporting apps stop at "we've logged the issue". Civic Karma closes the loop: citizens can both report problems and opt in to help fix them, with a verified currency rewarding sustained civic action. It also covers a much wider remit than highways — welfare checks, restorative justice, youth work-experience and good-neighbour acts all live on the same rails.

Who's signed on so far?

Civic Karma is at concept stage. First conversations are underway with Stafford Borough Council and prospective grant funders. We're being deliberately careful — pilot before scale. If you'd like to be among the first supporters or pilot partners, get in touch below.

The proposal

Help us build the rails for civic participation.

Civic Karma is at concept stage. We are seeking a council partner for a first pilot, and the early supporters — councils, foundations or impact investors — willing to back the build. Everything you have seen on this page is ready to adapt to your brand, policies and community priorities.

  • Council-ready brand, literature and worker-app concept
  • Three revenue lines: SaaS to councils, commissions from redemption partners, optional grants
  • Defensible asset-register methodology and verifiable Proof of Work
  • Optional tokenised / crypto-settlement layer for Phase 2
…or email hello@civickarma.uk directly