Blockchain: “A gift to humanity”
The benefits of leveraging blockchain technology
Many times we get carried away with the euphoria of the vast amounts of money we can make from cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, forgetting about the powerful technology that holds it together.
Let’s take a moment to think about what Blockchain technology can do for us and the power it holds to disrupt the current traditional inefficient systems that we are used to.
What is blockchain? You may ask.
Well, I would simply define blockchain as a decentralized and distributed Ledger enabling digital transactions representing value. The ledger is accessed by different parties across the network in a secure and synchronized manner and once information has been recorded it cannot be altered.
Blockchain eliminates the need for third parties and offers data security without compromising integrity.
Why is this so important and what does this have to do with us? A lot of you might say;
Oh! It has a lot to do with each and everyone one of us by promoting transparency, combating fraud and putting a stop to irregularities and inefficiencies in our current system, I’m referring to our African governments.
Let’s look at land registration as an example, if you buy a piece of land in Africa, you are given an ownership document typed or hand-written on a piece of paper. The municipality keeps a record of the document this is then stashed away, locating the document once misplaced can be a lengthy process. My family had this experience firsthand.
My grandfather owned a very beautiful piece of land along Kabwe road in Zambia. One day he came across a man that needed accommodation so bad and was willing to do anything for shelter. Being the good man that he was, he offered this man a job to look after the farm and gave him the farmhouse to live in.
A few years later grandpa passed away leaving the man and his family on the farm, it then came to a point that my family was in urgent need of money and they decided to sell the farm. Once the farm was sold the man refused to vacate the farm thus the new owners couldn’t move in, it became a game of knives until the court got involved. My granny eventually won the case after months of court appearances and gathering sufficient evidence to back up the claim.
This got me thinking if we had a land registry system underpinned by blockchain technology layered with lots of encryption back then all the back and forth would have been avoided and less costly for the claimants and the matter would have been solved by the usage of the issued public or private keys.
Disclaimer: The views expressed by the author above do not necessarily represent the views of the Ethereum Foundation.
