Blockchain mania is officially upon us. You can use it to trade digital cats, collect your favorite celebrities, and now…create your own government. That’s the premise, at least, behind a new Blockchain application known as BitNation, that aims to give people freedom of choice when it comes to selecting which government services they prefer.
On the surface, BitNation, is more about providing legal services than creating entirely new forms of government. What they are offering are essentially the same services that nations already provide such as dispute resolution, insurance, creating marriage certificates, issuing land deeds, etc. Any time of government or legal service that you can think of, using any type of legal code already in existence. Citizens maintain their sovereignty at all times and are free to join or leave a micro-nation as they wish.
The hope is that BitNation can help us resolve our conflicts in a more humane manner without having to resort to violence or back-handed politics, like we do when we’re back into corners by the archaic systems we currently have in place.
As The Next Web puts it, “In the real world individuals are forced to compete with each other in order to achieve their desired governance outcomes. However, this can often lead to violence, coercion, and conflict. With Bitnation’s Pangea software, a Decentralized Opt-In Jurisdiction, citizens can create nations, join voluntary nations on the Ethereum blockchain, and conduct peer-to-peer negotiations. It is aiming to reduce competition between citizens and increase competition among nations for citizens to improve the quality of governance.”
I’ve always wondered what the world would look like if we weren’t forced to adhere to strict boundaries. If we were all basically citizens of one nation of Earth. And while BitNation doesn’t share in that vision of unity it’s still a fresh start on the idea of governance. An idea that we’ve already seen play out with Asgardia, the world’s first space-nation, and with Estonia’s push to allow anyone in the world to become a digital citizen.
The trend shows no signs of slowing down either. According to The Next Web, “Bitnation’s technology already has over 200 new nations registered, more than 100 embassies and consulates, as many as 150,000 citizens on all five continents, and a positive open source community of over 2,000 contributors.”
Is BitNation the Greatest Idea Ever?
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