Financial services Quote by Yudhanjaya Wijeratne
““Back in 2015, a volunteer group called Bitnation set up something called the Blockchain Emergency ID. There’s not a lot of data on the project now, BE-ID - used public-key cryptography to generate unique IDs for people without their documents. People could verify their relations, that these people belonged to their family, and so on. It was a very modern way of maintaining an ID; secure, fast, and easy to use. Using the Bitcoin blockchain, the group published all these IDs on to a globally distributed public ledger, spread across the computers of every single Bitcoin user online - hundreds of thousands of users, in those times. Once published, no government could undo it; the identities would float around in the recesses of the Internet. As long as the network remained alive, every person's identity would remain intact, forever floating as bits and bytes between the nations: no single country, government or company could ever deny them this. “That was, and I don't say this often, the fucking bomb,” said Common, In one fell swoop, identities were taken outside government control. BE-ID, progressing in stages, became the refugees' gateway to social assistance and financial services. First it became compliant with UN guidelines. Then it was linked to a VISA card. And thus out of the Syrian war was something that looked like it could solve global identification forever. Experts wrote on its potential. No more passports. No more national IDs. Sounds familiar? Yes, that’s the United Nations Identity in a nutshell. Julius Common’s first hit - the global identity revolution that he sold first to the UN, and then to almost every government in the world - was conceived of when he was a teenager.””
About This Quote
Source Project: Blockchain Emergency ID by Bitnation, 2015 (online platform)
A decentralized ID system uses blockchain to create immutable, verifiable identities independent of governments, aiming to empower refugees and stateless people.
In simple terms: Blockchain IDs give people control over their identity without governments.
Leverage decentralized tech for identity autonomy.
Themes
Mood
Type
When to use this quote
- refugee assistance
- financial inclusion
- digital identity verification
Key Concepts
Questions to Reflect On
- How can decentralized IDs be integrated with existing legal frameworks?
- What safeguards prevent misuse of immutable identities?
Governments may resist adoption, limiting impact.