Can Web3 Technologies Help Scale Universal Basic Income for Economic Equality?

Can Web3 Technologies Help Scale Universal Basic Income for Economic Equality?

Income and wealth inequality is a major challenge facing the world today.

The top 10% globally earn 52% of total income, while the bottom 50% earn just 8.5%.

Such inequality is driven largely by within-country inequality, and getting worse.

Technological progress, and automation in particular, is set to further exacerbate the problem.

Universal basic income (UBI) – where all citizens receive a monetary transfer, usually from the government – may provide an answer to this problem, but large-scale implementation of UBI requires further innovation.

The paper makes a case for the use of web3 technologies – digital transaction networks such as blockchain or other programmable ledgers – as the infrastructure for scalable and efficient UBI implementation.

UBI reduces screening and application costs for recipients and the administration costs of targeted programs for governments.

However, to date, UBI programs have been small-scale with largely temporary funding sources.

Web3 technologies could provide a scalable, efficient and decentralised infrastructure.

Credit: https://institute.global/policy/proposal-web3-based-universal-basic-income

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