NICHOLAS RUSSELL TO REPORT ON SCOTLAND'S 500 MILES BLOCKCHAIN WALK

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. 

 Back in 2015, it was a straightforward origination thought, 'modern technology can be used to peacefully resolve mass conflict in any society that is democratic and computer-literate'. 

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. 

Commemorative photograph in Balbirnie's Business Centre, via Scotland's New York Times photographer Ken Paterson Photography - in conjunction with Lifetime Photography 

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 6^th 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