Meet the Man Who Wants to Fix Dating With the Blockchain
‘We want to take dating and bring it back to being consensual, respectful fun.’
It’s a general truth that if there’s a social problem in the news, someone will propose a technological solution to it. Enter the UK-based Consent Tracker, which is seeking beta testers now and promises a “safer dating experience” by enabling users to “[build] consent throughout your date.”
And yes, before you ask — it is built on the blockchain.
Consent Tracker isn’t the first app to promise a technological solution to the problem of sexual assault; it’s not even the first to use the blockchain to that end. But unlike some of its predecessors, Consent Tracker is not exclusively focused on sex. It encourages users to make use of the app long before they even meet each other. But it’s still shaped by the same assumptions that underlie every other consent app — namely, that digitally logging what we say or do can somehow create a safer, more consensual relationship.
I wanted to know what drives a person to make this sort of app, to ignore years of pushback and other failed attempts, and convince themselves that they’d truly tapped into something innovative. So I reached out to founder Jason Maskell, who was inspired to found Consent Tracker after a late night epiphany about the power blockchain might have to stop sexual assaults that result from online dating.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
How does Consent Tracker work?
The whole idea is, you’re on a dating app, or you meet someone in a bar or restaurant or whenever you’re out, and you go, yeah, contact me. That person has to fully verify their ID by uploading an ID that’s checked with a profile picture, so we know they are who they say they are. They can use whatever username they want, but their real name is safely secured in the blockchain for later.
You then say, “Alright, let’s arrange a date.” Both people agree. [The app] will then start creating a smart contract in the blockchain. You can then arrange to meet, have a drink, go out for coffee, whatever you want to do. And by interacting in the app, you start to build up this consent and respectful relationship, so that you actually know you’re both on the same wavelength.
A few weeks ago, I was with one of my friends. We were chatting away and suddenly heard the phone ping. It’s a message from one of the guys she’s met, and she’s like, “Oh, this guy won’t go away. I said to him that I’m not interested and don’t want to go any further. He just won’t take no for an answer, and keeps texting me.” If you’re in a secure app [like Consent Tracker] you can say, “Sorry, I don’t think we’re right for each other, I don’t want to take it any further.” Bang, it’s logged.
Then, if that other person doesn’t accept that, and carries on messaging and messaging and messaging — you can then build up this log where you said no. So if there ever is a problem, you can take this to the authorities, to the police, and show them this log and say, “I said ‘no’ there, and they carried on.” It’s really to make sure that both parties understand that respect is respect — it’s got to be done consensually.
If you are someone who wants to take advantage of someone else, you’re going to think twice about it, because you know that your real name, and all your details are logged securely within the app and can be used when required.
How is this different from me having a log of text messages with someone where I tell them to leave me alone?
Right, well the first thing is you had to give them your phone number. On this app, you’ve got the chat feature in the app — if you don’t feel you want to give your phone number out straight away, you don’t have to. If you said “no” in the app, and they keep pestering you, you can block them. They don’t have your phone number. You don’t have to worry every time your phone pings that someone’s got your real number.
“If you are someone who wants to take advantage of someone else, you’re going to think twice about it, because you know your real name, all your details, are logged securely within the app.”
How is it different from just chatting on an OkCupid message, or a Tinder message where you can also block someone and don’t have to give out your phone number? What is blockchain bringing to this that a standard messaging app through a dating site doesn’t?
There have been problems with sites being hacked and information taken out of them and changed before. By putting it into the blockchain, we know it’s secure.
All these other apps, they’re not fully verifying people’s IDs. With us, the idea is that you can be fully verified. It’s to weed out those people that just want to take advantage of someone. If you’ve handed over your ID, you’re going to be a little bit more respectful. You’re not going to be so much of a time waster.
You said you were surprised that people thought this was an app about sexual consent. You’re looking to do something different.
Totally different. If people want to go down that route — that’s fine. There will be [the ability to say], “You want to take it to an intimate level?” But we want to take dating and bring it back to being consensual, respectful fun.
The other thing in the app — we want to have it tracking where you’re going. We have looked at the worst case scenario on both sides, on the male and female side. Say you’re a woman, you’ve met someone for a couple of drinks, and the next thing you know, you wake up in another part of town, in another apartment. You go, “How did I get here?” In your app, you’ve agreed to two drinks, but suddenly, you’ve seen on your tracker that it’s two o’clock in the morning and you’ve been driven around, and you have no memory of it. That’s [information] we can log and give back.
On the male side, there’ve been reports of women accusing men of rape — if everything’s been logged, then they can actually come back and say, [there’s the log]. We’ve seen cases where it’s gone to court, and then the information’s come out when the police have gotten hold of all the phone records, all the text message records, and they found that it’s clearly not rape. There was consent there. We’re trying to bring that in, so both parties will have that level of protection.
So, it sounds like you can indicate in the app that you’ve consented to sex.
If you’re still using the app at that late stage in the date, then yes, there will be an option for that.
What if two people are using the app, and they initially say, “We consent to sex.” And they start having sex, and one of the people does something to the other person that was not consented to? If it becomes a nonconsensual experience? The person who was raped is now in a position where someone else says, “Well, you consented, you can’t do anything about it.”
I appreciate that. That would be a worry of anyone; it’s “he said/she said.” There will be statements [on the app] that say consent can be removed at any time, you agree to this, no means no. It’s not saying you agree to have sex and you can do whatever you want. You initially agree to it, but that can be removed at any time by either party.
And how would that be removed?
If people say they want to remove it in the app, they can go in and say, “I’ve now said no,” and it pings a message to that person. So, they can create that statement and log it within the app as well.
I guess I’m just curious, have you talked to anyone from the sexual assault prevention space when creating this app?
I’ve talked to people in online dating, I’ve talked with some relationship experts and put the idea over to them, and they deal with lots of people who are having sexual relationship problems… I have discussed this with people within those spaces. When they discussed with me… how we want to layer the procedure of the date, they agree that yes, [the app] can be used as a tool.
This is not an app to control your life and tell you what you do on a date and what you don’t do on a date. This is to be used as a tool to see if a person is the right person for you. It’s to stop the people who want to take advantage of others by making them think twice about loading up their ID.
Why do you think loading in your ID would be a deterrent? With online comments, there was the idea that if you use Facebook comments, people will have their real name and then they’ll be better behaved. And that wasn’t the case. There are plenty of people who get sexually assaulted by people they’re married to. I’m just not totally clear on why somebody who wants to commit sexual assault is going to be deterred by the fact that somebody knows who they are.
If they’re going out purely to pull someone in, they’re going to want as little information [out there] as possible. “My name’s John, I’m from Birmingham” — when they’re clearly not.
It’s to give that extra level of reassurance that we’re trying to do something that will benefit people in the long term, and make people think a little bit more.
The other thing in the app — we want to have it tracking where you’re going.
You started this by talking about how online dating is connected to sexual assault, but it doesn’t sound like you’ve actually talked to anybody in the sexual assault prevention space to see what they think would actually be useful in terms of reducing rates of sexual assault.
We’ve got people coming [in] as we’re starting to build the app out — before we go to full beta-testing mode, we have plans to run it through a selection of some of the people we’ve spoken to so far, and some people we haven’t spoken to so far to get their feedback. We really want a semi-working model to see where that goes.
There are a lot of misconceptions about what leads to sexual assault, who is most likely to commit sexual assault. There is this idea that it’s all about strangers. But when we look at the data, it’s much more likely that people are being assaulted by people they know, or when they are in a relationship. I’m just not clear on how this works to prevent that. I’m not clear on how this would help anyone.
Like I said before: This is a tool, and we want people to use it to build consent up and build a more respectful relationship. Hopefully by building something a bit more respectful — where it’s agreed, it’s discussed, it’s opened up a lot more — this will help people realize what is acceptable and what isn’t acceptable.
We can’t control everyone’s life. If you’re using the app, and it’s six months down the line, you’re maybe not using it anymore because you’re in a relationship. And then they assault you — can the app change that? I don’t know, you’re no longer using it. But it’s there to maybe refocus people initially, and hopefully if it’s been refocused on what is respectful, later down the line, those thoughts will still be there.
