This UNRISD Seminar will give development practitioners and researchers a better understanding of the potential of blockchain technology to contribute to the implementation and achievement of sustainable development. Speakers come from the blockchain community of thinkers, innovators and practitioners who are exploring the consequences of blockchain for social good and human development.
The Seminar will introduce the main characteristics of blockchain and distributed ledger technology, and present examples of its application across a range of use cases. It will also consider the risks and constraints related to deploying blockchain applications from the perspective of equitable, inclusive and sustainable development, and what can be done to mitigate them. Participants will explore the following questions.
- How realistic are our expectations about what blockchain solutions can do? How easy will they be to implement and how quickly they can be scaled up?
- What are the latest applications of blockchain technologies? In what ways are applications supporting implementation of the SDGs?
- What have been the impacts on social inclusion and exclusion? Who shares in the benefits? What are the implications in terms of ownership, access and opportunity? What can we say so far about using blockchain to strengthen governance?
- What are the regulatory and policy precedents, concerns and responses?
