Our friends on the main Balbirnie House
twitter feed are already well aware that I have a totally unique avocation
which began 4 years ago, during one's leisure time for pleasure. That, in any
event, was how it all began.
In January of 2016, a Scot living in
California then suggested using #Blockchain #DLT distributed ledger technology,
to underpin the thought. Twitter then agreed! The feed accelerated to 1,000,000
monthly impressions, and kept going.
We tweet, we summarise onto wordpress, we
publish. Here we are today - 60,000 tweets and 60 wordpress articles later. All
via extensive online community.
When off duty from my day job at
Balbirnie, I don’t watch TV. I allocate time whenever time exists, to the
progressive #BlockchainDemocracy investigative reporting.
In a much wider context, the accumulated
work has in turn delivered many absolutely groundbreaking mainstream published
articles. The first article published for Business for Scotland, was the first
to go #BlockchainDemocracy global viral, a process which was quite something to see. Thanks
again to CEO Gordon MacIntyre-Kemp and co-writer Tonie McKay.
And of course, flowers for my co-writer. To define that single article took us 5 weeks of progressive work.
The entire ongoing phased journalistic development
has centred on investigative reporting, especially contemplating Scotland's
truly phenomenal capabilities, to be able to increase democratic participation,
and accelerate digital inclusion for all Scots.
In March of 2018 Balbirnie House was host
venue for Scotland's inaugural #BlockchainDemocracy summit, organised by Neil
McEvoy of Scotland's most innovative and ambitious online platform - DigitalScotland as well as the brand new community hub and news portal at IndyNation.Scot
Over the course of time, when the
#BlockchainDemocracy potential began to be more fully realised, the avocation
has certainly extended, and by purely fortuitous circumstance I've thus far
become Scotland's exclusive features writer for the newly emerging
#BlockchainDemocracy capabilities.
It has been such an absolute honour to
write for many publications, and extremely humbling to have had those multiple
opportunities.
Our latest article summarising accumulated
investigative reporting, published a few days ago, on the massive Irish Tech
News Platform.
The header image was created by Brave @defiaye -
it’s a mosaic of our twitter pals.
You can read via Scotland Pioneers New Blockchain Polling Technology
Everyone involved in and around the @YesDayScotland twitter, has contributed voluntarily. There has never been any
crowdfunding or sponsorship. Everyone involved has only ever been driven by the
collective stated aims.
On 31st July 2018, as Scotland's government blockchain public infrastructure partner, Edinburgh's
Wallet services defined:
Without getting technical about
blockchain, nodes, cryptography, and asymmetric security, what this means is
really easily understood. In the future, all Scots will be able to use
smartphones and the internet, for all future democracy. Elections as we know
them today, are to be totally revolutionised.
And as DigitalSccotNews has confirmed,
Scotland will therefore now have capability to become the world's leading direct digital
democracy. That's an incredible prospect.
To my absolute subsequent astonishment I was
contacted a few weeks ago by a group of folk who were saying, they were
intending walking 500 miles, and that they wished to publicise the work created
by all of the community in and around YesDayScotland and #BlockchainDemocracy,
the ongoing and accumulated investigative reporting.
So I replied
Then they replied
Then I replied
And then I told my very lovely wife Gaynor
about the conversation. Then Gaynor suggested I would maybe be well advised to
take part in a much more meaningful way.
Since 14th August I've had the opportunity
to have a think about the sheer magnitude of their anticipated 500 miles walk.
To complete it, is clearly a huge challenge, truly epic.
There will obviously be global media.
There are already film-makers and professional photographers involved. And a cartoonist! With my
day job working in Scotland’s Hospitality sector, I can certainly also immediately
see how the total combined work could even create multiple future route options that’ll perhaps be defined as
Scotland’s very own equivalent of El Camino de Santiago, which is a 500 mile pilgrimage which ends in Galicia, Spain - now immortalised in the 2010 film, The Way.
I'm not the only person googling it!
A 500 mile pilgrimage from The Isle of
Skye to Edinburgh. Holy Moly! What a prospect.
The walk can certainly celebrate
Scotland's government's newly-announced commitment to the #BlockchainDemocracy
future. It can also highlight the brilliance of the people in Scotland who have
delivered that future capability, namely the blockchain professors and
academics from both The University of Edinburgh's Blockchain Technology
Laboratory, and Napier University's brand new Blockpass Identity Laboratory. It
can fully begin to properly acknowledge blockchain engineers, and blockchain technologists. Because these people are all, Scotland's rockstar thoughtleaders.
At the beginning of 2018, our
investigative reporting published one single sentence in conjunction with Professor Aggelos Kiayias, director of the Blockchain Technology Laboratory.
If asked to define one single sentence that defines the entire 4 years of investigative reporting, I would only choose this.
The 500miles walk can also begin to define
how blockchain as a generality beyond democracy, will have truly incredible
savings for public services, saving taxpayers an absolute fortune. There
are truly amazing values for the demonstrated implementation, for Scotland’s
citizens. We are looking at very significant benefits for our economy,
environment, innovation, and public services. In total, blockchain could
mean savings equating to 2% of GDP.
Our ongoing twitter has centralised a collection of #BlockchainDemocracy media quotes from across the span of politics, business communities, technologists, and many an ordinary Scot like us.
The walk can focus collectively on how
mainstream and marginalised Scots alike, can use blockchain technology and
digital assets ethically, to create a new and abundant life.
And in the very process of creating change,
this can also stimulate the emerging community of developers and practitioners
of ‘blockchains for social good’ applications.
So, with all these things in mind, I then
concluded that I could actually do the investigative reporting about the 500 miles walk,
from a behind-the-scenes perspective. Because so much good can obviously stem
from what the walkers are doing.
Translating to humanity itself, #BlockchainDemocracy
will have profound implications for Scotland’s future. These are circumstances
by which new digitalised infrastructures will create the architectural
underpinnings for new society in Scotland, driven by consensus, kindness, and ethics,
technology interfacing with a modern evolution of
sentiments, manners and moral opinions.
So, this Scotsman reached into his heart. And his
head. Then made a decision. I’m going on the walk. All of it.
I do so, to support the
walkers. Their stated ambition. Their dream of actually being able to complete
it.
I’ll be investigative reporting from beginning to
end. Then I’m hopefully going to publish a book celebrating what has been
achieved, with blockchain potentials spreading through communities the length
and breadth of Scotland, a celebration of who we all are today, and a total acknowledgement of what the future now holds. If you are an interested publisher, please do get in touch.
People are already on social media all over
Scotland, saying they will join the 500 miles walk at some point. A few yards, a few
miles, a marathon. It matters not. Even just to say hello to fellow Scots,
every tiny wee piece of support will help the walkers.
The walk is actually 560 miles. The longest single
day is 42 miles.
I know what lies ahead. I’ve previously walked the stunning 117 miles of the Fife coastal path, and the magnificent 100 miles Ayrshire coastal path. I’m under no illusion whatsoever.
There is zero doubt that some or all of the walkers
might not make it to the end. Injury is very realistic to expect. Nobody can
tell if the walk will actually be completed by any or all of the 7 of us
setting out on it. One thing for sure though. We will certainly begin it.
And if the unthinkable is achievable, and the 7 of
us blockchain pioneers somehow actually make it together to the final day in Edinburgh
on Saturday 6th October, it’ll be great to join everyone else who is
meeting that day, to participate on #AUOBEdinburgh - social media is suggesting
that’ll maybe be the biggest ever get-together in Scotland’s history. What a
day to finish a walk. 500 miles begins on 15th September. I'll be live on twitter from Portree, on The Isle of Skye. Please do join us for chat!
All best wishes,
Nicholas
MD and owner - Balbirnie House
Writing guest blog today, as Editor-in-Chief, investigative reporting for Scotland's accelerating #BlockchainDemocracy
MD and owner - Balbirnie House
Writing guest blog today, as Editor-in-Chief, investigative reporting for Scotland's accelerating #BlockchainDemocracy
