Culture within the 4th industrial revolution. How Botho can help blockchain become a key driver of sustainable development in Botswana (eBook)

Essay from the year 2019 in the subject Sociology - Economy and Industry, grade: N/A, , language: English, abstract: Blockchain is the brainchild of a person or a group of people who go or goes by the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto. Originally devised to support digital currencies such as Bitcoin, blockchain has quickly evolved into something more, with the technological community finding other potential uses for the technology in many industries. Blockchain can be defined as an incorruptible virtual ledger of transactions programmed to record these transactions along with every other item that may be deemed valuable. It is basically time-stamped series of non-modifiable records, and it is managed by a network of computers that are not owned by one entity (this is the block). These computer networks are secured and grouped together using complex cryptographic principles (this is the chain). Blockchain works because of principles of openness, transparency, accountability and most importantly, trust. The genius of blockchain also resides in the fact that apart from the infrastructural cost that supports the technology frame, there is no actual fee for the transaction. One party initiates the process by creating a block, and only after this block is successfully verified by a predetermined number of computers is it added to a chain. The integrity of the whole chain is dependent on this single block, and because there are so many blocks in the chain, the corruption of a chain is pretty much impossible since the whole chain would have to verify a fraudulent process. Interestingly, a rudimentary version of blockchain has always existed in Botswana through the culture of BOTHO. BOTHO is based on similar principles, having been defined as an example of a social contract of mutual respect, responsibility and accountability that members of society innately have towards each other and a process of earning respect before giving it, and to gain empowering by empowering others. Batswana believe that KAGISANO (Harmony) an only be maintained through mutual respect, honesty, transparency and accountability, the very principles used in the application of blockchain technology. This paper aims to deconstruct blockchain and insert BOTHO principles within it to make in a viable option in sustainably developing Botswana's economy and driving this economy into the 4th industrial revolution.