Microsoft New York in addition to MIT Media Lab presented a 70-minute study called #Blockchain4good this week.
Speakers included Brian Forde, MIT Media Lab managing director of digital currency in addition to quondam senior applied scientific discipline adviser at the White House, in addition to John Paul Farmer, managing director of applied scientific discipline in addition to civic conception at Microsoft. They led discussions on using the blockchain for fraud-free voting, storage of identities, reply to natural disasters in addition to a world ledger of properties such equally land.
Other speakers, including Chelsea Barabas, Ann Sim, Ryan Shea in addition to Peter Kirby, focused on introducing the blockchain’s capability to decrease the amount of money spent annually on identity theft in addition to records.
Civic Infrastructure
Sim, from international blueprint in addition to consulting theatre IDEO, introduced the regard of frictionless transfer, wherein people some the basis could donate pocket-size amounts of bitcoin for day-to-day tasks or to fund public/nonprofit organizations.
This summer, IDEO hosted a thematic incubator called Bits + Blocks Lab focusing on trust, transactions in addition to participation. Six teams in addition to 25 blueprint entrepreneurs worked together to exercise diverse prototypes targeting dissimilar applications of the blockchain. Some of the prototypes on frictionless transactions included donation tug of state of war in addition to picture unlocking app through donation.
The primary application that these teams in addition to IDEO convey looked into is creating a transparent voting/complaint scheme to educate to a greater extent than efficient civic infrastructure. Sim proposed that past times using the bitcoin blockchain, citizens volition last able to straightaway study on improvements needed for world infrastructure in addition to gibe regime funds to allocate budgets accordingly.
This digital interaction betwixt citizens in addition to the regime volition exercise a transparent in addition to unforgeable request-recovery scheme for world infrastructure. Furthermore, citizens would last able to rails world funds of cities in addition to fifty-fifty countries to cheque whether regime funds are beingness allocated properly, in addition to whether the budget is beingness distributed to diverse projects.
Sim introduced an regard called The Dandelion, which was proposed past times Princeton University students who identified a common that needed a playground structure.
“Students planted a Dandelion alongside petals that convey addresses on them. As people donate pocket-size amounts of money, the picture of the playground started filling in, in addition to the really block was beingness visualized,” explained Sim.
Blockchain for Identity Storage
Bitcoin blockchain-based passcard identity Startup Onename co-founder in addition to CEO Ryan Shea led the give-and-take on how blockchain could last used to shop identity in addition to solve identity problems.
“There are billions of people some the basis that exercise non convey access to government-issued I.D. documents. This includes 25 per centum of African-Americans inwards the U.S., hundreds of millions inwards Bharat in addition to refugees some the world,” Shea said. This is the trial of the inefficient manual functioning of governments in addition to includes a long listing of places where identification is needed, such equally banking concern accounts, housing, regime benefits in addition to voting, he said.
All regime identifications, such equally passports in addition to driver licenses, currently are delivered inwards a physical form. They are all printed, laminated, sealed in addition to covered manually, which requires a lot of human labor in addition to money to sustain.
“Approximately $25 billion (USD) are lost annually due to identity theft,” Shea said. “That’s because nosotros don’t convey a really expert mode of authenticating who you lot are, in addition to relying on these physical documents in addition to personal identifiable information.”
The blockchain, however, allows anyone to tape information on transactions, which is unforgeable in addition to transparent. Therefore, it is cost-efficient in addition to time-saving for both the producers in addition to the citizens.
For example, if a somebody were asked to present his personal identification documents inwards the middle of the street in addition to the information is stored on the blockchain, he/she tin only become onto a platform that decodes blockchain information in addition to present the identification quickly.
Photos courtesy of Digital Currency Group Inc.
