Can our world be decentralized?
Decentralization is a much-touted thing these days, not least because it was Bitcoin and blockchain that popularized the concept in the public mind.
But it’s one thing to claim decentralization simply because a product or service uses distributed ledger technology or is built on blockchain. It’s quite another to achieve true decentralization.
That’s what our partner — Bitnation — found out, when they first came up with the concept of a Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nation (DBVN) back in 2014.
The first confusion, among many to emerge, was on the term ‘governance’. We typically see governance as related to tools which help us make decisions, but it was governance services that Bitnation really wanted to decentralize: who and how jurisdictions are determined, security is provided, health, education, social security.
We already know how our world provides all these services… through our own national governments, or in some cases, regional and international co-governments. These services aim to secure our lives and ensure stability for our economic and social well-beings.
Why decentralize governance?
While most of us probably feel safest to trust our governments to provide all these services, it is becoming clearer that the nation state construct is losing much of its relevance to global citizens.
As people become increasingly mobile and remote workers are a growing minority of the workforce, geographical borders become almost arbitrary to their lives. Intensifying, cross-border modern conflict is also proving that nation states are infringing more and more on personal liberties.
For many, it can be an inconvenience to decide who we pay taxes to or who do we look to for healthcare. But for others, it can be much more complex questions of “who protects me from danger?”, “who can recognize my rights to marry the person I want to?” or even “who takes care of me when I grow old”?
Bitnation believes that more so than governments or international jurisdictions, it is the wisdom of crowds that can better answer those questions and provide these governance services, via a process of decentralized decision making — in its current case, a free and voluntary exchange in which all participants act with their true beliefs.
In this system, they profit from justified beliefs and their power to act in the market increases. Conversely, unjustified beliefs result in losses and diminished influence.
How it works
Putting it in actual terms, Bitnation is a marketplace for governance. ‘Citizens’ can choose ‘Nations’ to access services or do business with, based on AI-generated performance criteria over the Pangea incentive network.
Every time Citizens and Nations fulfil agreements, resolve disputes or provide services, they are rewarded with Pangea Arbitration Tokens (PAT). All this is determined via smart contracts that can be written to any integrated blockchain.
PAT further governs three non-tradeable tokens which serve to denote reputation levels for Citizens and Nations.
Bitnation’s reputation and arbitration systems will be both human and automated, with arbitrator and code of law registries providing incentives for contract compliance.
Bitnation’s core: Decentralized Borderless Voluntary Nation
Anyone can establish a nation on Bitnation. Base it on your own principles, your own culture, your own practices. As Nations, compete with one another for Citizens, offering the best price and quality for your services.
Tarkowski Tempelhof, Bitnation founder
Today, it already hosts over 15,000 Citizens and 500 registered Nations. It has already hosted the world’s first blockchain marriage, birth certificate and even refugee emergency IDs.
We at AmaZix count ourselves fortunate to work with some of the most diverse projects you’ll find in the blockchain sphere and Bitnation certainly ranks up there among the most unique.
To learn more about this virtual world or to sign up as a Citizen or build your own Nation, head on over to Bitnation. Or, keep up with the latest from them on Steemit, Twitter, Facebook and Telegram.
Curious about what AmaZix can do for you?
We’re always on the lookout for another exciting project to work on. If you’re working in the crypto space and planning an ICO, or just want help managing your communities, we’d love to hear from you.
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By AmaZix Editorial on April 12, 2018.
Exported from Medium on January 30, 2020.