Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2018/02/28/glitch-citizenship.html
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Who is Jared Kushner?
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Gibson’s maxim applies here. While resurgent ultra-nationalism is currently being sold to the poor, the uneducated and the powerless in a variety of packages (e.g jingoism, separatism, ethnic and religious superiority), the wealthy and technically adept who want to have been living various forms of post-nationalist life for a few decades now.
The Estonian digital republic model has some interesting aspects, and not just because they use blockchain tech. One of the most appealing parts of their approach is their rule that a citizen’s various records (medical, banking, credit rating, etc.) are owned first and foremost by the individual (who controls access and sharing as well) – a big improvement over the current model of a corporation or government owning critical records.
Virtual state concepts like Bitnation are interesting, but Neal Stephenson probably has it right in how they’ll play out within the context of existing nation-states (First Distributed Republic FTW, although as @yri points out nothing beats Mr Lee’s Greater Hong Kong when you’re on a fun-loving hijink).
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How much land does it take to become a virtual nation? I’m thinking of starting one in a PO box.
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I hadn’t thought about how blockchain (or for that matter, tangle/DAG) could be leveraged in a citizenship-as-smart-contract kinda way. Interesting. Also, I hadn’t read (or even heard of) Stephenson’s earlier Simoleon Caper story, so I’m glad you linked to that!
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No mention of hedge cities?
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