When your city goes on the blockchain

[brooklynite]

Politico

SAN BARTOLOME PERULAPIA, EL SALVADOR—In September, when President Nayyib Bukele made Bitcoin legal tender in El Salvador, he instantly turned his country into the most-watched official experiment in the cryptocurrency world: How would a nation-state fare by embracing a system designed to work around nation-states?

We'll be looking more closely at that soon. But on a reporting trip through El Salvador this week, something else became clear to me: The country itself is taking this moment as an opportunity to experiment in ways that extend well beyond Bitcoin.

The back end of Bitcoin is blockchain technology — an idea with implications that extend far beyond digital currency. And on the outskirts of the capital, another blockchain experiment is quietly coming together in this town of roughly 10,000 inhabitants dotted with colorful murals.

Over the next year, San Bartolomé Perulapía's 44-year-old mayor, Ronal Ortiz, will oversee the transfer of his city’s land records to a blockchain-based system. The idea is to use NFTs — unique digital records kept on the blockchain — as digital verification stamps for official documents.

[bucolic_frolic]

1. That's scary

[keithbvadu2]

2. I don't understand this stuff at all.

Crypto currency has had notable thefts of million of dollars in value.

Super secure... ISN'T!

The 'bridge' between crypto currencies has been hacked for millions of dollars in value.

The way I see it is; here is an opportunity for land to be stolen with the right hacking.

[brooklynite]

3. Banks have been robbed as well.

[Lucid Dreamer]

4. I like ink on paper at a minimum. I like to touch things.

... I'm a really old guy. That's my excuse for being so stupid about this.

[brush]

5. You're not stupid. You're wise from life experience.

Crypto is a crap shoot. A virtual casino where one can make a big hit one day and lose your shirt the next.

[womanofthehills]

7. You can now buy Bitcoin with your PayPal account

Although I plan to get a crypto ETH wallet to try and sell NFT ‘s, PayPal will hold your Bitcoin and turn it into dollars if you want to purchase anything. I think I’ll put a small amt of bitcoin in my PayPal just to start getting familiar with digital money.

[TuskMoar]

6. Democrats Should Take Some Time to Learn About Crypto

Opinions about crypto (like everything else in the US nowadays) tend to divide across party lines. Moreover, when I read opinions about it, they are clearly uninformed. If we are the party that values science and progress, we should take some time to learn about it. Crypto is no more or less amenable to illegal activities than sovereign currency, it offers very real advantages over sovereign currency, as well as some disadvantages.

As for NFts, the current "crypto art world" is as weird as everyone thinks it is. However, those are test cases for legal documents that I believe will be converted to NFTs all around the world someday. As for the artists and collectors, there is value to knowing and being able to prove the provenance of any piece of art (or legal document).

Crypto is not hackable, but very scammable. Unfortunately, a lot of people in crypto are into "get rich quick" schemes and very amenable to being scammed out of their crypto. That is not the fault of the technology, but of the people who get scammed. Another disadvantage of crypto is there is not protection for those who are vulnerable to scammers. It needs some regulation to make it harder to scam people, but scams are not new and not limited to crypto.

El Salvador is a very interesting case. My concern is that people will evaluate the success or not of crypto in an authoritarian country. Crypto has great promise and I hope it is not judged by what happens in El Salvador.

[brooklynite]

8. Treasury is taking it seriously...

My wife has been briefing WH staff on it.

[TuskMoar]

9. Good to Hear!

Gary Gensler taught a class on crypto at MIT.

[Celerity]

10. this is NOT just about cryptocurrency, but I wager many won't get past the finger-wagging about BTC

In recent years, businesses and nonprofits have set up various projects in developing nations to put land ownership records on blockchain databases. Proponents say these systems offer transparency and clarity in parts of the world where land ownership has not been formally recorded or where records are vulnerable to manipulation by corrupt officials.