Is the time ripe for cryptogovernance?
A Portrait of Luca Pacioli (c. 1447–1517) Excerpts from "Chapron Guillaume. The environment needs cryptogovernance . Nature . 2017 May 22;545(7655):403-405. doi: 10.1038/545403a." The arrival of the blockchain has been compared to the invention of double-entry book-keeping (first described in print in the fifteenth century by Italian mathematician Luca Pacioli), which enabled the modern economy. I think that its implications reach far beyond finance, to governance and sustainability. Unique record The blockchain proves with certainty that a recorded piece of information — a piece of data, document, transaction, certificate, event or identity — existed at a particular time. If an asset can be assigned a unique digital identifier , such as a barcode, then it can be included. At least four areas related to governance and sustainability could benefit from using the blockchain. Ownership From a birth certificate to a fish or a forest, the blockcha...