Instead of starting with what the tech is and what it can do, I think the newly emergent Blockchain allows us to start with the problems, the biggest problems humanity faces.

The number one global problem is the problem of identity. And that is curious because each of us walks around with our own unique identity literally on our fingertips. A thumb press on a smart screen, either a phone or a tablet, should be enough to get anyone started. That identity could be established anywhere, and carried globally, to be renewed each time a finger is pressed against the screen.

So easily established, that digital identity should be coupled with an automatic bank account where each person taking the initiative to establish their identity should be rewarded with a small fraction of a Bitcoin. The Bitcoin part is that money in that bank account you should be able to move globally and for free.

Wealth redistribution is a heated political topic. But what about passing a law saying all wealth must reside on the Blockchain and must be associated with a valid identity, biometrically verified? It is said the number one reason the poor countries are poor is because money moves so easily from the poor to the rich countries, usually corruption money. It can be said in the same breath that there is such breathless inequality in the rich countries because the super-rich take their money out of the system and park it somewhere in the so-called safe-havens.

Giving every single human being a digital, global identity and an automatic bank account, and requiring all wealth as well as business transactions to reside on the Blockchain will give us the tools with which to tackle inequality globally. The dollar a day people are the best at paying back loans. This arrangement will also take plentiful credit to them to create an upward spiral of prosperity. Small businesses will get built in the lowest income brackets hitherto starved of credits.

Tackling inequality and abject poverty will give us a handle on climate change. It is not the other way round.