PRESS RELEASE: Bitnation releases first batch of Vienna Convention compliant diplomatic blockchain passports

9th of October 2018, Amsterdam, Netherlands Bitnation has issued Vienna Convention compliant passports (ICAO and ISO/IEC 7810 ID-3 standard and machine readable) to the public, ambassadors and core team members to allow users to travel as they work with nations and communities looking to assert sovereignty. The passports are recorded on the Ethereum blockchain and use the Bitnation Jurisdiction app’s Public Key as a unique identifier.

Bitnation has begun a process to get its passports recognized as Laissez-Passer — similar to those issued by national governments or international organizations like the UN as emergency passports, for travel on humanitarian grounds or for official travel. Bitnation is seeking equal privileges and immunities to those of other nations - as set out by the Vienna Conventions on Consular and Diplomatic Relations - for its passport holders. The Bitnation passport program builds on the Bitnation Refugee Emergency ID, which won the prestigious UNESCO Netexplo Innovation Award Grand Prix in 2017: previous winners include Twitter and Spotify. A standard non-Diplomatic passport will be issued in 2019.

Bitnation’s Founder and CEO, Susanne Tarkowski Tempelhof, says: “This is a giant experiment, a hack if you will, in global diplomacy.

According to UN estimates there are 70 million refugees worldwide, and some experts believes the actual number of ‘people on the move in search for a better life’ to be as high as 1 billion - including digital nomads, migrant workers, refugees, internally displaced and stateless people. That means 1 out of 7 people globally do not live within the confines of the nation state in which they were born. How will nation states deal with ever increasing pressure to provide adequate legal protections and governance services to people on the move? I believe people will have to rely more on 3rd Party providers such as us.

Bitnation is well placed to address this problem as we’re a politically neutral global Blockchain Jurisdiction, we don’t lay claim to any territory and hence are not affiliated with any potential geopolitical conflicts. In addition we have active Ambassadors in many countries across the world who can assist Bitnation Citizens locally.”

Bitnation has created a decentralized jurisdiction for personal and business transactions on Android and iOS. The app is a peer-to-peer and encrypted chat protocol from which smart contracts can be created on any integrated blockchain. The Jurisdiction also allows the creation and joining of voluntary nations, and an AI-driven reputation and arbitration system will soon be integrated as a contract enforcement mechanism. Citizens create a pseudo-anonymous encrypted Public Key ID on the jurisdiction, which is linked to the passport.

Currently the passport is being tested in multiple jurisdictions by members of Bitnation’s core team. Anyone who wishes to join Bitnation’s diplomatic service program and obtain a passport will first be vetted through a 1-on-1 interview. The costs is US$149 payable in XPAT, Bitnation’s native ERC20 token, which can be purchased on Bancor, LAToken, and other exchanges. Passport applications can be submitted via the Bitnation website.

For further enquiries, please contact comms@bitnation.co

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