The Songkeeper’s Ledger: A Blockchain for Cultural Consent

Joshua Kroon explores how blockchain can support cultural heritage and ethical collaboration. By creating a transparent, permanent record of Baka polyphonic music contributions, »The Songkeeper’s Ledger: A Blockchain for Cultural Consent«redefines authorship, recognition, and partnership between technology and Indigenous knowledge. The project envisions a generative model where Indigenous voices are honored, protected, and fairly acknowledged in the digital realm.

Joshua Kroon, Buea, Cameroon — Jan. 28, 2026

The Cultural Consent Ledger © Joshua Kroon / FRED Movement, 2025.

The Songkeeper’s Ledger reimagines blockchain as a tool for cultural equity, not cryptocurrency. It prototypes an ethical framework for the project, The Bëbìi Engine, which creates an AI in dialogue with Baka polyphonic music.

This web-based project will create a transparent, unchangeable record on a blockchain that functions as a »Cultural Consent Ledger.« Each Baka elder who contributes their voice becomes an acknowledged co-creator. Their contribution is timestamped and recorded, creating a permanent, public certificate of their cultural IP. This ledger ensures their authorship is indelible and could be designed to automatically share any future recognition or revenue generated by the AI derived from their work.

The goal is to move beyond extraction toward a generative partnership, using technology to build trust and a new standard for ethical collaboration with Indigenous knowledge. It explores how decentralized technology can serve cultural preservation and fair exchange.

The project will be published as an interactive, educational website. It will feature a visual simulation of the blockchain ledger, displaying the recorded cultural contributions. The site will include explanatory text, audio samples from the Baka community, and a clear presentation of the ethical framework for visitors to explore.