BitNation

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= tools for constructing a virtual nation via the Blockchain

URL = http://www.bitnation.world [1]


Description

1.

"organization that offers services typically provided by governments. The group has grand plans to create a geographically neutral alternative to every national institution — courts, a police force, even a space agency — and to organize it all with the bitcoin blockchain, a globally shared public database that was introduced as a mechanism for processing and recording bitcoin transactions, but which can also hold all sorts of records." (https://medium.com/backchannel/the-radical-politics-of-the-blockchain-b3e36b169e01#.qy01kovh1)


2.

"BITNATION is a decentralized, open-source movement, powered by the Bitcoin blockchain 2.0 technology, in an attempt to foster a peer-to-peer voluntary governance system, rather than the current ‘top-down’, ‘one-size-fits-all’ model, restrained by the current nation-state-engineered geographical apartheid, where your quality of life is defined by where you were arbitrarily born.

We’re a holacratic organization and we strive to become a fully functional Decentralized Autonomous Organization (DAO). In non-geek terms, this means that there are no formal management structures, there are no barriers to entry, and everyone can join and create their own operational centers (“holons”) whether for-profit or nonprofit, or join an existing one, all while benefiting from the greater support and technology from the BITNATION community." (https://bitnation.co/join-the-team/)

Discussion

1. Morgenpeck:

"BitNation is not the only organization applying blockchain technology to a state’s activities. The government of Honduras has reportedly partnered with a company called Factom to begin documenting land titles on the bitcoin blockchain.

Peter Kirby, CEO of Factom, says that the company will begin with a single city in Honduras, and that the blockchain will be used primarily as a backup. “The records will exist in the title system separately without the Blockchain components for the court to review,” Kirby wrote in an email interview. “The Blockchain verification simply allows us to know the records are time stamped and have not been tampered with. It’s like a notary stamp on each document with a signature from a trusted party.” Ultimately the courts will have to decide how important that stamp is, he adds.

A notary service is a far cry from the virtual utopia that Tempelhof champions, one in which refugee crises and xenophobia are erased. But advocates of digital nationhood have another strong ally in their camp: Estonia, a country so forward-thinking that anyone in the world can apply to become an e-resident of it. As an e-Estonian — such as Edurne and Mayel, of course — one can register a business, cryptographically sign digital documents, and open a bank account. As of this month Estonia now offers its e-residents blockchain-backed notarization through a partnership with BitNation. (The contract that the couple loaded onto the blockchain will also be tied to their Estonian e-identification.)

Byrne, the Eris Industries COO, sees the most potential in such collaborations. “The best way to figure out how to use blockchains in conjunction with government systems such as the Estonian e-ID is to actually build and prototype systems that bridge them,” he says. “This is a great first step in that direction.” (https://medium.com/backchannel/the-radical-politics-of-the-blockchain-b3e36b169e01#.qy01kovh1)


2. Brett Scott:

Bitnation is "a group offering one of the most radical articulations of the techno-libertarian message. Bitnation has presented a vision—at least in principle—of hosting completely alternative state institutions (such as security and legal institutions) on blockchain systems, describing states as governance service providers that might be outcompeted by technological platforms. In the words of founder Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, “Bitnation is a Governance 2.0 Operating System, designed to disrupt the nation-state oligopoly through offering more convenient, secure and cost-efficient governance services” (Prisco 2015a). Bitnation posits a world where one might theoretically be able to “opt out” of states and “buy into” new governance institutions in the same way one might select coffee from a supermarket. This vision of a “market in governance services” only holds together if it is assumed that markets can exist prior to political governance systems. This is in contrast to those who argue that markets themselves are underpinned by political governance systems that uphold the property rights that enable them to exist in the first place.

More recently, Bitnation started offering blockchain services to refugees, including a blockchain emergency ID, Bitcoin visa cards and Bitcoin refugee aid. It has also entered into a deal with the Estonian government to provide users of Estonia’s “E-residency” system with a blockchain notarization service (Prisco 2015b).

These visions of “coded governance” (Wood and Buchanan 2015), blockchain law and programmed smart contracts do not sit entirely comfortably alongside the traditional legal contract profession. Contracts are representations of frequently ambiguous, unpredictable and messy relationships between imperfect humans with imperfect knowledge. Such relationships cannot easily be pre-programmed, and much of the work of lawyers involves resolving and interpreting contracts in light of changing realities. Building systems that seek to move away from such politicized negotiation can sound utopian, but might equally lead to situations of inflexible technocracy." (http://www.unrisd.org/brett-scott)

More Information

http://cryptonewsday.com/bitnation-releases-proof-of-concept-for-decentralized-government-platform/