How to harness Blockchain technology for marine conservation
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Coupled Natural and Human Systems, Natural Resource Management, Environmental Impacts
- Keywords
- Blockchain, Conservation, Transparency, Incentives, Anti-Corruption, Peer-to-peer, Stakeholder Involvement
- Copyright
- © 2018 Pfreundt
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 2018. How to harness Blockchain technology for marine conservation. PeerJ Preprints 6:e26496v2 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.26496v2
Abstract
In this Perspective talk, I will explore how distributed ledger technology (DLT), often referred to as the Blockchain, can revolutionize the way we interact with data, can establish a network of trust amongst untrusting parties, and align incentives with sustainable practices. Recently, the UNFCCC has officially recognized the potential of DLT in fighting climate change. At the core of this technology is a distributed database that is continuously updated and verified by pre-defined algorithms run by the users. All data entering the distributed ledger (DL) is tamper-proof, chronological and distributed, and thus inherently durable, reliable, and secure. Additionally, the DL enables programmable (smart) contracts that self-execute and self-enforce based on captured data, preventing corruption and data manipulation. All machine-readable data can be stored and archived on a DL and used to validate claims. In a few years’ time, apps will make DLT feasible to use in most communities. Interesting use cases for the conservation of marine biodiversity include the transparent tracking of supply chains for fisheries, crowd-sourced reputation rankings for companies, automatic monetary incentives for measurable conservation actions in coastal communities, or secure and trustable peer-to-peer financing in underinvested areas, for example to develop resilient coastal social-ecological systems.
Author Comment
This is an abstract which has been accepted for the WCMB.
The only edit in v2 is the addition of a funding source.