Tell Your Friends: How Blockchain Can Change the World for the Better
“…for the first time in human history, we have the technological tools that will enable us to connect the bottom billion unbanked to the global economy, to provide digital identity to stateless people, to make micro grid solar power ubiquitous and through smart contracts, to direct benefits to women and girls”
— Dr. Jane Thomason (Decade of Women)
Ask your friends from the non-crypto world (although your crypto friends might be just as confused, albeit less willing to admit it) about blockchain and you’ll get a range of answers, with a lot of them expressing reservations about the technology and its links to the dark web. No doubt they will have some bits of misinformation about how it’s possibly connected to illegal activities, and how it’s impossible to understand. Fine. Not everyone is up to speed, not everyone needs to get the intricacies of algorithms, and people tend to focus on the negative even if there is no basis for it.
How do we alter these perceptions? We can offer real, tangible examples showing how blockchain technology can make the world a better place. For example, by granting people access to identity tools that they might not have access to because of unstable political situations in their region (such as war), you can connect them to the wider economy and services. Blockchain has the potential to have a transformative impact on the lives of the poor, especially in emerging economies and humanitarian settings.
At the recent Blockchain Economic Forum in San Francisco, Bruce Silcoff, the CEO of Shyft Network, said it was precisely the social impact that blockchain could have on the world that was especially exciting. “There are 1.1 billion people in this world that do not have a legal ID. That means they do not have access to essential services like schooling, like healthcare, like the right to vote, own a birth certificate or own property. There are 3.5 billion people in this world that are either under banked or unbanked. That is a huge problem. How do you provide essential services? How do you create a social impact?
Shyft is a blockchain-based network that enables secure exchange of attested data, including KYC/AML compliant data in particular. Shyft’s technology is enabling countries like Bermuda to leapfrog into the future, and lower those barriers to access to the global economy. ” He added that blockchain could help people all over the world might be able to transform their situations and improve their lives.
In an unstable political climate, centralized organizations and governments are grappling with protecting their populations from exploitation. Blockchain can act as the ultimate equalizer, and holds the potential to balance privacy and security in new ways.
Silcoff says, “We’ve started seeing government intervention, and we will see more of that. Some people will always want a global economy that’s free running, but realistically, jurisdictions aren’t going anywhere overnight. And, certain government regulation makes sense, it is there for good reasons. “
This is why Shyft is set to go above and beyond Know Your Customer (KYC) applications of its blockchain, and into creating a reputation layer where good-behaviour metrics will contribute to users’ credibility, building identification and access infrastructure that might not be possible in the real world, where many people simply don’t exist — think refugees — because they don’t have a proper ID. This is what you could be telling your friends about whenever you talk to them.
What’s easier to understand than the fact that Shyft’s take on Blockchain technology is simply here to create a better world?
With special thanks to Shyft Advisor Jane Thomason, CEO of Blockchain Quantum Impact for contributing to this article.
***
Shyft is building the world’s first modern, secure, multi-stakeholder Blockchain-based digital identity solution that enables KYC/AML attested data transfers. Join our Telegram (https://t.me/joinchat/HhrB_hKGQDQKU7mhpzor_g), follow us on Twitter (https://twitter.com/shyftnetwork), GitHub (https://github.com/ShyftNetwork) and other channels found on https://www.shyft.network/
