Satoshi Nakamoto´s Bitcoin Whitepaper marks the begining of what became known as the Web 3.0, the internet of value.

Barely did he know that he was giving humanity not only a way of transacting with each other without relying on intermediaries, but a tool to solve some of humanity´s biggest problems which gave rise to an explosion of innovation in different sectors.

In essence, blockchains are good for three things: Store of Value, Transfer of Value and Transparent record of transactions. Here are 5 teams working to solve 5 of humanity´s biggest problems using the Blockchain:

1. Solving Universal Basic Income: Universal Basic Income (UBI) is the idea that every individual in the world, rich or poor, should be given a stipend that covers his/her basic needs. With the increasing income disparity and the upcoming wave of unemployment caused by AI and Automation, this will become one of the biggest problems of our generation. Strangely enough, I did not find any team using the blockchain to work with the idea of UBI. But a person which is a reference in the subject is Facebook´s co-founder Chris Hughes, who recently launched a book called “Fair shot”: http://www.fairshotbook.com/

2. Democracy Earth solves voting and democracy: I am big fan of what the guys at Democracy Earth are doing. Just look at the state of Western Democracy in the last 10 years and you will see that there is a crisis of confidence. On the other hand, Democracy Earth´s technology enables “Liquid democracy”, which means that a person can vote and delegate the power for an individual or group to represent the voter in the specific issue at hand. Also, Democracy Earth works on the angle of budgeting and funds management using smartcontracts in the bitcoin network.

3. Aragon solves Corruption: Aragon Network´s motto is to create “unstopable organizations”, which means that the individuals can collaborate without borders, intermediaries and without burocracy. But the feature that makes me the more excited about this project is that there is no space for corruption in an organization that is totally run on a blockchain. Imagine if all the governments budgets in the world were managed and auditable through a blockchain? Take a look at this transparency page from the Aragon team and you can see how it can be like: https://transparency.aragon.one/#/.

4. Power Ledger solves Energy: One of the most pressing issues of the 21st century will be the energy crises and its impact on the environment. I think Power Ledger´s approach is brilliant because it allows every individual to be a producer and benefit economically by providing energy to the grid. In addition, it creates a market of energy and also for carbon credits, reducing the total amount of emissions in the system.

5. Swapy Network solves credit: Just read Muhammad Yunus´ story with the Grameen bank and you can see how credit can be a transformative tool to change a person´s life. We, the Swapy Network team, are using the blockchain to solve three of the credit industry´s biggest problems: the cost of funding, information on the clients and the power concentration on a few players, so we can allow credit to be cheaper and universally accessible. Check out what our advisor, @don tapscott said about us:

To learn more about our work with Swapy Network, please visit www.swapy.network

Now that we have this amazing new tool that is the blockchain that allows us to transact without intermediaries, modern thinkers like Don Tapscott are inviting us to think if it is not time for “a new social contract”. That would be a new way of governing, interacting and transacting among ourselves that would aknowledge our interdependence, and would give every individual in the world the opportunity to work for the betterment of themselves and the betterment of humanity.

Learn more about Swapy Network: