There will be those who have a touch of nostalgia who will wish for the times when humans weren't lost in their smart phones. A lost era of the past where people swear society wasn't attention hungry nor reliant upon the likes and gratitude of mere acquaintances or strangers. I'm here to argue that we can't go back in the past and we need to operate within the current domain we live in. Smart phones are here and frankly the internet is a basic human right.

Disagree? The United Nations Human Rights Council deemed this to be the case in July of 2016. To thrive in the modern world (today) the internet is an extension of man that helps us access information instantaneously. Having a smart phone therefor is the tool that empowers us. While there are negatives to having a smart phone, I'm of the belief that the positives far outweigh those negatives.

Why digitize the homeless?

Data is key; data is insights. Without the necessary insights, we can't make informed, data-backed decisions about how much resourcing we need to allocate towards the homeless. Fummi is an Android app that will be placed on Android devices, distributed to the over 3,000 homeless in New York City for free. An initiative led by Blockchain for Change, the homeless will now be able to check-in on shelters, access many of the services that are offered to them, as well as receive funds through dollars of cryptocurrency.

The last part I find particularly interesting. If the government is to distribute funds to the homeless through cryptocurrency, does this mean that they will play a more active role in it? If a centralized agency plays a big role in a decentralized system, do the two reconcile or contradict each other? Also, what does this mean if the government can distribute assets to the homeless that appreciate and depreciate in such a volatile manner? Would this be responsible of the government of irresponsible?

If a centralized agency plays a big role in a decentralized system, do the two reconcile or contradict each other?

A bigger question I have is whether we extend this service beyond the homeless to the more fortunate, those who still require government services through welfare and food stamps. I don't have any answers to these questions, but it has been on top of my mind for a while. Now that cryptocurrencies have gained a lot of ground, I start to wonder if it's still a fad or something that may actually be used in the future. I've argued in the past that the true power lies in the blockchain ledger rather than the actual cryptocurrency and Blockchain for Change is another example supporting my hypothesis. We will find out more in the months to come, but it seems like the potential is certainly there.

So if digitizing ourselves is becoming a basic human right, than maybe the decentralized network of the blockchain is our only hope. With it comes mutual accountability and gives us more hope for the future, rather than giving merit to any dystopian movie that warns us of the infringement of power and privacy by central governments.