In Honduras, Atlas Network partner Fundación Eléutera hosted an international gathering of technology experts, scholars, and other innovators working on a variety of blockchain solutions designed to integrate large portions of the informal economy into the formal sector.
From land titling to energy provision, blockchain technology — a highly secure and transparent ledger technology — promises to leapfrog some of the most challenging barriers to a more widely shared prosperity.
Matt Warner, Atlas Network COO, and senior fellow, during the opening talk.
During the event's opening talk, Atlas Network COO and Senior Fellow Matt Warner invited the tech-savvy audience to remember the inescapable social aspects of institution building, pointing to a long line of failed efforts by foreign aid agencies who underestimated the importance of decentralized decision making in society and juxtaposed those examples with successful reform efforts led by local think tanks who are often the most critical leaders in navigating the right vision for change.
"From Ivory Coast to South Africa to Honduras, we know that local, independent civil society leaders stand the best chance of understanding how to adapt proven solutions to local contexts," Warner explained to local press prior to the event. "We look with humility to organizations like Fundación Eléutera to play that key leadership role and we see from their track record it is already working."