

If you have ever been persecuted in an oppressive state, or know someone who has this experience, you know finding hope for better times can be hard. Bitnation, with their Pangea software that allows creation of decentralized borderless voluntary nations (DBVNs) shows that hope is there even for people living under oppressive conditions.

Modern nation-states are modelled on the treaty of Westphalia (1648), and are territorial nation-states. Other identities such as religious, cultural, linguistic and regional are secondary, the state is supposed to treat all citizens within its territorial boundary as equal. The citizens are required to follow the law of the land, and the state is required to provide a certain set of services to the citizens, with security and justice being of foremost importance. The reality is often different, especially in oppressive states, where citizens are forced to complete with each other to receive services from the nation-state, leading to conflicts. Also, people with identities different from the dominant identity of the state can be persecuted, and treated as inferior citizens. A citizen can’t easily renounce citizenship of such as oppressive state and take up citizenship elsewhere, only the very rich can afford to do so. Technological innovations have brought free market economy at the fingertips of the common people, and now cryptocurrencies are even allowing them to invest in currencies other than state-backed fiat currencies. However, nation-state hasn’t seen such innovation, and doesn’t need to compete in a free market to gain trust of citizens by delivering superior services. With conflicts raging all over the world, and legitimacy of modern nation-state in serious doubt at least in the oppressive states, the time is ripe for change.

Bitnation is enabling creation of decentralized voluntary nation-states using blockchain

Bitnation is disrupting the nation-state as we know today with blockchain. This is a technology that ensures decentralization by design. It’s a distributed database, where computers on the network, also called ‘nodes’, maintain a shared version of immutable and permanent truth. Every node has the complete and latest information on the blockchain, and the system can’t be destroyed by taking out any central server. Block records, also called ‘blocks’, are linked in a predetermined protocol, and no existing block can be deleted or modified. Anyone can join a permissionless blockchain, whereas only users explicitly trusted by an organization can join a permissioned blockchain. Only way to update a blockchain is to add a new block, and in a permissionless blockchain any node can do so. Only the nodes with the required access can add a new block in a permissioned blockchain, however, even in this case there are multiple nodes that can add new block. It’s imperative to maintain the order of transactions, without which the data integrity will suffer, and blockchain achieves this with the consensus mechanism. There can be different ways to achieve consensus, for e.g. the proof of work (POW) algorithm requires majority of participating nodes to validate a transaction, whereas in case of the proof of stake (PoS) algorithm majority of nodes that stake their crypto tokens for transaction validation needs to approve a transaction. In any case, transaction validation can happen only after very significant number-crunching is done at high-speed, to solve a complex cryptographic puzzle. Such rigor makes hacking blockchain economically non-viable, and ensures immutability of records. Relationship between nodes in blockchain is governed by smart contracts, i.e. pieces of code enabling execution of legally enforceable actions such as taking control of an entity. This eliminates the need to explicitly trust anyone, since all transactions are mathematically proven.

Incorporated in Switzerland, Bitnation is a blockchain development organization that’s creating the first DBVN, but also the Pangea jurisdiction which provides the infrastructure and communication backbone for creation of more DBVNs. Users can conduct peer-to-peer transactions and arbitrations over Pangea, and create DBVNs. It uses Panthalassa mesh, which is Bitnation’s own mesh network built using concepts from Secure Scuttlebutt (SSB) protocol. It also uses Interplanetary File System (IPFS) protocol. Pangea currently uses Ethereum blockchain, but can use other blockchains. These features enable high resilience in Pangea, and provides in-built resistance to quantum cryptography which might appear in the future.

Frontend for Pangea is an encrypted intuitive mobile chat application. Users, i.e. citizens of any DBVN can use the chat function to look for services,for e.g. land registration, marriage registration, arbitration etc. The service providers use the same frontend to communicate with the concerned citizen, and smart contracts can be written using this. The backend mesh network then communicates with blockchain, to record and execute the smart contract. Successful creation and execution of smart contracts build reputation for service providers, while proper adherence to the contract builds reputation for the citizen. Applicable legal codes, for e.g. common law, can be selected for writing smart contracts, and reputation of these will also build up based on successful use.

The Pangea Arbitration Token (PAT), which is compatible with ERC20 standards, is used on the Pangea network, to reward citizens for good reputation. This is a tradable token. However, citizens don’t earn them directly. Citizens first accumulate three non-tradable crypto tokens, as following:

Proof of agreement (POA) is a reputation token for users and arbitrators depending on predetermined performance criteria for smart contract creation and execution.

Proof of collective (POC) is for DBVNs, user groups and governance services created on Pangea, governed by user satisfaction.

Proof of nomic (PON) is a reputation token for contracts, laws, and legal codes, and user satisfaction about these determines awarding this token.

PAT is issued as reward for accumulation of the non-tradable reputation tokens.

Each individual citizen of any DBVN on Pangea has a unique public-private key combination for encryption purpose. Every service provided in a DBVN has the necessary smart contract, with its unique ID and associated public key. The delivery of the service will possibly require some more unique IDs and addresses, based on the relationship in question for that service. These IDs and keys are stored in the Bitnation contract registry on IPFS, and a bot, named ‘Lucy’, will distribute the reputation tokens by utilizing this information, based on the applicable metrics.

Bitnation was founded by Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof in July 2014. At the time of publishing their whitepaper, over 10,000 people have registered as citizens, and over 200 nations have been registered. Pangea’s revenue will come from small transactions fees on the amounts judges, juries and arbitrators charge for their services on the platform, and a small transaction fees on top of the amount the miners will charge to execute smart contracts.

Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of the PAT token will start on March 25th, with a hard cap of US $ 30 million.

Website

Whitepaper

Ann Thread

Telegram