Sometimes a project comes along that demonstrates the power of the Holochain framework and is such a brilliantly good idea!! Sam Turner and I recently had the delight of interviewing Mary Camacho, who is the Cofounder and CEO of Cirdia. It wasn’t surprising to learn Mary has been working on other projects (besides Holo.host) as most folks in the Holochain ecosystem are wearing multiple hats in these early days.
You’ll want to read this article thoroughly. Grab a cup of Joe or tea and settle in. It’s groundbreaking!
Please share with the women in your life. You’ll thank me later!
Cirdia (named after our Circadian rhythm) focuses on biometric privacy by design. They are creating privacy-first wellness wearables that fit people's lifestyles which seamlessly transition between day and night sensing!
Cirdia's goal is to become the most trusted alternative to big tech in personal fitness and wellness!
Their purpose statement is:
Empowering wellness through privacy-first technology that builds inclusive community and advances human-centered design.
Why Wearables?
“Our personal health and our fitness data have just become a commodity. This is so obvious to everybody who hears it. When you say biometric data you currently think of Google, Huawei, Samsung, etc. Six companies in the world basically hold all of the biometric data that everybody's been collecting around their health and wellness. It's crazy.” -Mary
The devices we wear have gotten more powerful year after year. We're now becoming aware that our biometrics are not just being used for us by us and by our health providers. They're also being used by the government and corporations that use your fingerprint and eyeball data as your identity markers, and what about your heart and all of your other internal biometrics? So wait a minute, that's going to all end up in big business, big tech? To what end?? What are they going to use it for?
“What's sad about the whole thing is that there is so much great public research that can be done that isn't because data is locked into big tech databases. The businesses collaborate when it suits their needs and enables them to make more profits which is a selective bias that doesn't focus the research on our well-being and our health and it doesn't build a better society.
There's a much better way to do all this and we (Cirdia) can bring this to the world. So we're creating privacy-first wellness wearables that fit people's lifestyles because that's also really important. This isn't just like get it done and get it done clunky. It's getting it done in a way that fits the people who want to use this. It puts people in control, and whatever “sharing” we talk about is powered by Holochain.”- Mary
The Product
Cirda is initially developing two devices: the Contour and Noir for day and night, respectively. The Noir is a paired-down, lightweight wearable with no screen and a soft comfort strap. The two styles are designed to suit a variety of situations and needs, offering seamless sensing throughout a user's day, including social, business, and leisure events as well as sleep periods.
The two devices are designed to work in conjunction offering wrap-around monitoring based on the context the wearer needs. Cirdia solves a common challenge of wearables, how tracking can remain uninterrupted as users can charge one device while the other is worn.
The initial market will be primarily women who appreciate this first sleeker design. Why?
“In the U.S., a lot of women took their devices off when Roe v. Wade was torn down. That is because these wearables capture biometrics like temperature used to calculate ovulation cycles and people enter data even more specific - and courts can subpoena data from company databases. The Contour will also include this feature and you keep the data so there is no company database to be subpoenaed.
We've been doing a lot of homework on who's not well-served by today's wearables. Like, many heart rate sensors, especially in cheaper devices, just don't work properly for people of color, and they struggle with anybody who has a higher body mass because of the thicker skin profile.
At Cirdia, we're paying special attention to these issues, making sure our devices use components that actually work for diverse bodies from day one. This is going to be an ongoing part of our development and research. Look, we're not going to be perfect right away - we're starting with what we understand now and we'll keep improving. But this is a real commitment for us. We're in this for the long haul, making sure women, people of color, and people with different body types can use devices that actually fit their world and give them accurate data." - Mary
Applications on Cirdia
The Company is building a community-driven ecosystem of apps for data sharing and contextual use. Cirdiawill create some of the core operational user interfaces (UI) for users to manage and interact with the devices. Partners, developers, and entrepreneurs in the Holochain, and wider DWeb, ecosystems are enthusiastically encouraged to build apps and integrations that can use Cirdia's sensor suite (and more specifically, the data.)
“Obviously, the apps are where we deal with privacy and biometric data. This is about processing it locally (on your phone or laptop), ensuring that peer-to-peer sharing is used when you're sharing your data, and then that being optional and opt-in and having a lot of agency about it. And the thing that is going to be necessary and important is that it doesn't work to just have a long-term device and a mobile app. You need an ecosystem of apps that allow for the kinds of sharing and the kinds of contextual use that people really want and need with this data.” - Mary
Technical Aspects, Development and Hosting
We're building our mobile app using tauri-mobile - a framework that supports rust back-end code. We made this choice so that we could also use the P2P Shipyard library, built by Darksoil Studio, to enable Holochain within the mobile app context. We have teams supporting hardware and electronics engineering, mechanicals and app development. Part of the initial mobile work includes a proof of concept for Holochain in a sharing context.
“We think Holochain is ideal for contextual sharing. It will enable small group sharing like "fitness quests" or working with trainers or sharing data across other wellness providers to get a more holistic understanding and input. Peer-to-peer ensures secure private data sharing without central servers. That's great. We have lots of ways to collect it, to process it, and even to do backups that are private.” - Mary
The company plans to offer various backup and restore options. They are focused on making a great user experience for a wearable and an app that ensures your biometric data is not centrally processed or stored ... ever.
Business Model and Community Engagement
Cirdia is incorporated as a Public Benefit Corporation (PBC) in Colorado. It is also a woman-owned company with a foundational core of amazing humans!
The team includes Mary Camacho, Dana Jessup, Sage Gibbons, Nick Grafakos, and Abe Njama. They also have a variety of contractors supporting hardware, mechanical engineering, and software development. Pete Corke is an advisor who brings a depth of experience and wisdom in designing, developing, manufacturing and bringing hardware products to market. Mary relayed how they are “super excited” to officially have Madelynn Martinere on their board as well.
People who will be drawn to Cirdia:
Phases of Growth:
Next Steps…and how you can participate!
Are you like me, and want to get one of these devices as soon as humanly possible? If you feel pulled to explore and/or participate with Cirdia, here are some great ways to get involved. Enjoy!!!
Also, if you’ve you’d like to see a type of retrospective of Holochain projects, check out the back issues of this newsletter. It’s rather amazing! And we always appreciate new and paid subscribers (who help keep the lights on!) Thanks, Anita Halcyon & Sam Turner!
🌟 Latest Official News and Events from Holochain and Holo
See the latest on the roadmap, including progress towards the Holochain 0.5 release, expected in about 5 weeks. The team is working to make development progress transparent with new tooling and estimates.
Holo has launched a new blog post detailing the reasons behind building their new network. Check it out to understand the tech and vision! What do you think about this approach?
Introduced the new name for our Next-gen Holo network, ‘Allograph’. Allograph means a signature or something written on behalf of another— which we think is fitting for a network designed to host applications for others.
After months of working in stealth mode with my co-founder, Mary Camacho, and our incredible team, today I’m excited to fully step into my role as Co-Founder & CEO of Visvere! Powered by Holochain, Visvere instantly authenticates the digital documents driving your most critical decisions, so you don’t have to take them at face value. Scams and fraud aren’t just headlines—they’re billion-dollar problems that destroy businesses and ruin lives. Investors have been misled by fabricated bank statements. Enterprises have made costly decisions based on tampered datasets. Regulators have approved deals based on forged audit reports. Families have lost their homes because of fake contracts. That invoice that just showed up in your email. It looks legit, but is it? Every decision is only as strong as the evidence behind it. It’s time for proof, not promises.
If you pass by the Sensorica lab (in Montreal) you'll see in display an open source portable sauna. You can try it, build your own, help improve the model and even build a collaborative enterprise around it.
There are many other opportunities waiting for you within the Sensorica network, which you can understand as an ecosystem of open and collaborative ventures.
You want to know more about collaborative entrepreneurship? Join the Sensorica Discord and ask :)
The first Darksoil Holochain Developer Training is going well and it is satisfying to see all the learning happen. We are really excited for what our participants have already started building with Holochain.
We will open up another cohort as we get closer to May.
Check out the training and sign up for the waitlist now so you are first in line to receive an invitation to join:
