It is a digital platform that explores transparent and decentralized forms of government.

It started as a web platform and is now a mobile application. But beyond the aspects of form, Bitnation is a space that brings together more than 10,000 "global citizens" who perform procedures or even exchanges of value based on 'blockchain'. 

What interactions do we talk about? Imagine marrying an 'app' (Smart Love) or registering your children in an 'e-notary'. In 2015, they offered official identities to refugees arriving in Europe. The beneficiaries could generate an identification through a QR code that was validated with other members of the network. Thanks to the use of bitcoins, refugees also obtained a payment card without the need to have a bank account.

This model of government 'peer-to-peer' has ended up creating a new type of nations, decentralized and without borders, such as Pride Nation, e-Venezuela and a Catalan Republic. 

For Martín Restrepo, BitNation's ambassador for Latin America, what is gained with this innovation is more autonomy and efficiency. "We can end up with both intermediary and self-provide solutions," he says. It clarifies, yes, that they do not intend to replace the government but to learn. 

"In this exercise we are going to make mistakes, we do not intend to restart the system but to install a new operating system. They are tools to experiment and find a 2.0 Governance ".

Traditionally, services such as water, housing or health are offered by entities under the orders of a central government. "Basic services end up being offered vertically and centrally," Restrepo questions. For example, to cover a hole in a street, how much money does the Government spend? Where are those resources going? Could my neighborhood repair it better and with fewer resources? " 

Bitnation says that some needs could be solved by organized people, especially in areas where there is still no coverage.An example of this is the creation of community wireless networks that train populations that today do not have access to the network to install free 'hadware', access signal and manage their own connectivity in that territory. "Nobody understands better than oneself their needs and realities. A government has a very short-sighted view of our reality, very generalist because it looks from top to bottom. In this way, there is no resolution or focus and little can be known about what happens in the bases, "Restrepo says.

The exchanges between users are made through a token derived from the cryptocurrency ethereum, called Xpat. This year, Bitnation made a public offer of its Xpat and with the money raised it will seek to finance autonomous applications development and support the emergence of some 50 digital nations in the entire world. Bitnation, in addition to having its platform of intelligent contracts -also based on ethereum-, had the collaboration of Vitalik Buterin, the creator of that cryptocurrency, to develop them. 

Pangea, as the 'app' is called, is similar to a social network in which users register and create their digital profiles. But it also looks like a construction with lego blocks, because it is possible to modify some specifications of that digital environment.

In exchange for Xpat, which started selling for 10 cents, a user can create virtual nations and communities. Thanks to a recent update, a chat with smart contracts and a public API was integrated last weekend. With this, users can make formal agreements with others, and, in addition, interested developers can create their own decentralized applications, ranging from services and custom contracts to coins or tokens of their own. A 'global citizen' may, in the near future, rent a property or offer professional services. The application will boost a reputation token that is earned every time that the acquired commitments are fulfilled and validated in the system.

The 'citizens' of Pangea have a chat assistant called Lucy, who generates formats according to the type of contract that is being sought on the platform. It is planned to provide it with artificial intelligence resources that help lawyers, journalists, farmers or anyone without technical knowledge in code to make agreements based on 'blockchain'.

According to Restrepo, there are 300 citizens registered in Colombia. To those who see in his model a form of anarchism, he responds smiling: "This project was born with an anarchist background. To believe that we can build platforms with autonomy that render government models obsolete. But it is an active, proactive, pacifist anarchism. We are cryptoanarchists. We provide platforms that allow us to find a new sovereignty and independence from the States ... ".

• bitcoin
• cryptocurrency
• blockchain