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Can we get a succinct thesis statement of this article? Was put off by the writing style of the portion I read.

by prvc 7y ago

Igelau 7y ago
Some people are lucky enough to get jobs that give them connections and resources to try out crazy ideas in far off lands with wild sciency stuff that they barely understand. Calling up EPFL right now with my pitch for why they should let me hang out with top research scientists to flesh out a vague idea that blockchain can fix the refugee crisis.
- Animats 7y ago
  A blockchain system for land ownership records. Now that might actually work. The problem needs an immutable shared ledger that cannot be easily destroyed or tampered with. Transaction volume is low enough for a blockchain system. There are many countries that lack documented land ownership. One of the World Bank's blogs suggests this, but not much seems to have been done.[1] [1] https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/keeping-it-clean-can-blockchain-change-nature-land-registry-developing-countries https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/keeping-it-clean...
  - paganel 7y ago
    > A blockchain system for land ownership records. How would that handle shared ownership of some of those lands? Will that entail their owners now paying tax on these lands whose ownership is now “recognized”? (a negative for some of the people involved, because at this moment they pay no tax on it). Will this registering of lands “help” them be put on the market? If yes, how can we prohibit the sale of those lands to people outside of the village/county? I.e. how do we stop alienating lands that have been owned by the community for possibly centuries? And these are just a couple of hard to answer questions, because land “ownership” (for lack of a better word) is really complex and ancient and not easy to put into “organizational boxes” dreamed up by our technocratic society.
    - sbierwagen 7y ago
      >If yes, how can we prohibit the sale of those lands to people outside of the village/county? This is only a feature in a couple jurisdictions. Not all countries ban the sale of land. You might guess those jurisdictions won't be interested in recording land sales, since land can't be sold.
  - Frqy3 7y ago
    I'll stick with a Torrens Title system over a digitised version of the old chain of title approach.
- shardinator 7y ago
  Would love to connect. I've been thinking about how we can use blockchain for reporting crime/corruption etc. Feel free to email me, or connect on twitter - same handle.
hellofunk 7y ago
Me too, I really dislike the style of journalism. So frustrating, unless you want to sit down and read a short story or something really long form.

Can we get a succinct thesis statement of this article? Was put off by the writing style of the portion I read.

by prvc 7y ago

Can we get a succinct thesis statement of this article? Was put off by the writing style of the portion I read.

Some people are lucky enough to get jobs that give them connections and resources to try out crazy ideas in far off lands with wild sciency stuff that they barely understand. Calling up EPFL right now with my pitch for why they should let me hang out with top research scientists to flesh out a vague idea that blockchain can fix the refugee crisis.

Animats 7y ago
A blockchain system for land ownership records. Now that might actually work. The problem needs an immutable shared ledger that cannot be easily destroyed or tampered with. Transaction volume is low enough for a blockchain system. There are many countries that lack documented land ownership. One of the World Bank's blogs suggests this, but not much seems to have been done.[1] [1] https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/keeping-it-clean-can-blockchain-change-nature-land-registry-developing-countries https://blogs.worldbank.org/developmenttalk/keeping-it-clean...
- paganel 7y ago
  > A blockchain system for land ownership records. How would that handle shared ownership of some of those lands? Will that entail their owners now paying tax on these lands whose ownership is now “recognized”? (a negative for some of the people involved, because at this moment they pay no tax on it). Will this registering of lands “help” them be put on the market? If yes, how can we prohibit the sale of those lands to people outside of the village/county? I.e. how do we stop alienating lands that have been owned by the community for possibly centuries? And these are just a couple of hard to answer questions, because land “ownership” (for lack of a better word) is really complex and ancient and not easy to put into “organizational boxes” dreamed up by our technocratic society.
  - sbierwagen 7y ago
    >If yes, how can we prohibit the sale of those lands to people outside of the village/county? This is only a feature in a couple jurisdictions. Not all countries ban the sale of land. You might guess those jurisdictions won't be interested in recording land sales, since land can't be sold.
- Frqy3 7y ago
  I'll stick with a Torrens Title system over a digitised version of the old chain of title approach.
shardinator 7y ago
Would love to connect. I've been thinking about how we can use blockchain for reporting crime/corruption etc. Feel free to email me, or connect on twitter - same handle.

hellofunk 7y ago

Me too, I really dislike the style of journalism. So frustrating, unless you want to sit down and read a short story or something really long form.