Blockchain and Civil Rights

One of the problems inherent in modern-day social and financial system is the degree of their transparency. The very wording seems inappropriate, as you would hardly ever see something this opaque unless you look under someone’s eyelids on the morning of January 1st.

Even if you’re a freelancer, you still pay more taxes than you think. Each time you go to a store, you pay value added tax. But still, I can’t guarantee the VAT I have paid when I bought a bottle of water, wasn’t eventually spent on waging an unfair war, or was never involved in corruptive practices. I have no opportunity of finding out what happened to my taxes, nor I have any option of influencing their application. Taxes are important, but they are a trouble if you don’t trust your government. They make water run in your taps, and public schools remain operational; but similarly, they may become what some dirty officials spend on a luxury car or a night in Monte Carlo. If the money goes to Monte Carlo anyway, I’d like to bring it there myself, after all.

Another example here is corruption. Complex and exquisite schemes may become the subject of heavy-weight research papers or epic operas. Financial and legal non-transparency is the most nutritious thing for corruption. Shadow schemes run such crazy sums of money they would normally end up in a nuthouse, where they could buy the entire staff and a thousand of generations of their descendants. Removing corruption altogether is hardly possible, but decreasing it to low degrees would free enough money captivated by criminal delirium for making lives of millions way more pleasant.

Another example here is supply chains. You hardly think about where the products included in your pizza actually came from, and who supplied them. What if they may harm you? Or the sub-supplier was your personal nemesis’s daughter-in-law? Maybe they are counterfeited, after all. Where could a dress which looks like it’s worth $3,000, but actually costs $30 come from? It’s too much even for AliExpress, isn’t it? Those on one side of the supply chain, have no idea of what’s going on at the other side, and how many big grey wolves the product had met along the way.

All those problems may be successfully solved with blockchain technology. It renders money and object tracking simple and easy. Distributed ledger isn’t about only money transactions after all. Creating and adjusting such system for taxes and supply chains would have been way more inexpensive than undertaking loud yet inefficient corruption-tackling measures, not to mention the actual shadow turnover. Supply chains may be monitored by private startups. It would result in creation of new jobs and eventual prosperity of economy.

Then it’ll be heaven on earth when everyone is capable of checking whether their taxes been spent on boozing in Monte Carlo.

Jenny Aysgarth

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Related posts

• NEAR Co-Founder: Bitcoin’s Level of Security Isn’t Necessary for Most Blockchain Use Cases
• Blockstack’s Muneeb Ali: Bitcoin as the Most Secure Blockchain Will Be the Best Foundational Layer for Web 3.0
• Voice Launch Rushed in the Face of Legacy Social Media Crisis
• Ethan Buchman: I Might Be a Covet Bitcoin Maximalist, but Future Is About Proof-Of-Stake
• Are Censorship Free Platforms Doomed to Become Den of Trolls? Gab’s Case
• Is First Decentralized Social Network Still Relevant: Steemit Retrospective Review 
• How Crypto Grant Foundations Work: Expert Insights
• The Watchful Eye of Chainalysis: How Bitcoins Get Dirty and How It May Affect You