Bitnation, Horizon and Blocknet make a revolution in the field of IT and public relations

Bitnation, Horizon and Blocknet join forces to deliver the world's first platform for do-it-yourself governance services to 2.5 billion people across developing markets, using Bitcoin 2.0 technology

Stockholm, Sweden, March 5 – “Governance 2.0:” borderless, decentralized, voluntary, and about to disrupt and replace the nation state system with a voluntary form of governance. As of today, this has become a practically feasible reality. Bitnation, after surveying many blockchain-based protocols, has teamed up with Horizon and the Blocknet, which will provide the groundbreaking technology necessary for Bitnation to thrive.

Imagine not being able to prove your identity, get married, legally own your house, incorporate a company, or get security or economic protection. For billions of people this is a reality. Much has been said about how Bitcoin 2.0 technology can be used for governance, including services like creating and storing records, dispute resolution, ID and reputation, and much more. While the technology does exist, a comprehensible platform to deliver it to those who need it the most – people in the developing world – does not exist. Bitnation, Horizon, and the Blocknet aim to change this.

Bitnation, as the world’s first Virtual Nation providing actual governance services, already has a worldwide network of passionate activists, who are debating societal challenges in their local communities and starting their own Bitnation projects. In March 2015 the Beta version of the Bitnation platform, BITNATION Pangea, will be released. However, the technological basis required for Bitnation’s ambitions is something unique: a decentralized, peer-to-peer system for bridging two great divides: that between a blockchain and the real world, and between one blockchain and another.

A bridge between blockchains and the real world

Horizon is the project to bridge the first of these divides, through a reputation system. It is no longer rare for blockchain-based projects to facilitate the secure exchange of all kinds of asset and services, so long as they are digital and thus trackable using a blockchain. But physical goods, and the conduct of human persons, do not occur on blockchains, and this results in a fundamental limitation of blockchain-based technology: on their own they cannot achieve practical applicability to the bulk of human interaction and exchange. Horizon’s solution is to weave blockchains into the non-digital world through algorithmic reputation-scoring that sufficiently incentivises people to honour blockchain-based agreements.

Nick Cote, the CEO of Horizon, said: “The entire Horizon team has looked forward to working alongside the Bitnation team because they embody the spirit of the decentralization movement. The focus of both Horizon and Bitnation has been to develop decentralized and innovative technology that allows people to break away from conventional services, and cut the middleman out of the picture. While working together to accomplish these goals with some of the most committed and talented  developers, and communities behind them, we look forward to strengthening our partnership and delivering the most disruptive, user friendly and decentralized products and services possible.”

A bridge from one blockchain to any other

The second great divide – between one blockchain and another – is equally if not more important for the feasibility of “governance 2.0.” This is because no single blockchain could carry the load of storing and serving humanity’s data - especially when blockchains never decrease in size. Bitcoin’s blockchain is already too large for almost all mobile phones, and it only processes payments. Imagine its size if it accommodated governance services too. Here, the Blocknet has a truly disruptive solution: the ability to network blockchains together, enabling the technology upon any one chain to be delivered as a service to nodes on any other chain. The result is an “internet of blockchains” – something fundamentally necessary for blockchains to realise their disruptive potential.

Arlyn Culwick, on the core team of the Blocknet, expressed his excitement about the partnership: “Bitnation is a groundbreaking concept, and we're very excited to provide a platform for it to be developed upon. Horizon too is a powerful Blocknet-enabled project with the highest node count of all cryptocurrencies, except Bitcoin. We believe that the Blocknet, by enabling open ended inter-chain services, unlocks the full potential of blockchain-based technology. With Bitnation, Horizon, and the Blocknet working together, the potential is truly vast. The sky's the limit.”

Governance 2.0

Bitnation, which is known mostly for its groundbreaking pilots including organizing the world’s first Blockchain Marriage and the world’s first World Citizenship ID on the blockchain, which has drawn attention from, amongst others, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, TechCrunch, Wired, and The New York Times. Bitnation aims to provide governance services in frontier and emerging markets, where it is needed the most. There are 2.5 billion unbanked in the world, the “System D” economy – the grey, unregulated markets – is a 10 trillion dollar economy, and 80% of the world’s population currently live in developing markets. Bitnation’s Founder and CEO, Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, worked for 7 years in challenging frontier environments, like Afghanistan, Egypt, Libya and other countries, primarily with assessing people’s perception and experience of governance.

The Bitnation CEO, Tarkowski Tempelhof, says: “Bitnation is a revolutionary idea, an idea which we believe will radically change the world for the better. However, being the first in the world to challenge the nation state construct head-on through providing better services using blockchain technology, it is not always easy to implement. It’s a broad and bold vision. Hence, partnering with Horizon and the Blocknet provides a very solid foundation -- they’re organizations we believe in and have the deepest respect for. They give us amazing technology and a group of wonderful individuals to work with. We have been working together for some time now, and I’ve always been struck by the professionalism of Horizon and the Blocknet – they’re very solid people, with clear and consistent values, and a high level of integrity.”

Things are moving fast in the world of Bitnation, Horizon and the Blocknet. This announcement comes shortly after Horizon’s acquisition of NFD, another fork of NXT, and released their development roadmap for 2015. As for the Blocknet, it has recently announced a breakthrough in the form of the first ever inter-blockchain communication. Bitnation, with its network of Ambassadors worldwide, substantial understanding of governance need and perception in the target markets, and a revolutionary approach to DIY governance, is positioned to disrupt the entire nation state construct. Radical change is imminent – a rewiring that is both political and economic.

As Buckminster Fuller once said: “In order to change an existing paradigm you do not struggle to try and change the problematic model. You create a new model and make the old one obsolete.”

Additional Links:
Bitnation: bitnation.co
Horizon: horizonplatform.io
Blocknet: blocknet.co

For all media enquiries:
info@bitnation.co
nick.cote@horizonplatform.io
arlynculwick@blocknet.co

Original: docs.google.com/document/d/1GNgCDy5e9LOiHVNL9B_jDXtOJOPWt3AHu_g8hQ5cXhE/edit

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