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Digital Planet: Blockchain Technology Cleaning the Niger Delta

Factual: Science & Nature

Blockchain technology cleaning the Niger Delta

22/08/2017 GMT

Blockchain Technology Cleaning the Niger Delta

BBC World Service - Digital Planet, Blockchain Technology Cleaning the Niger Delta

Can the cryptocurrency technology blockchain help the Niger Delta environmental issues?

Can the technology that underpins all cryptocurrencies, blockchain, be critical to solving the environmental devastation of the Niger Delta wrought by the oil industry?

Environmental devastation in the Niger Delta as a result of oil exploration has lasted decades, with drilling and spills seriously affecting the eco-system and livelihoods of those living in the region. An NGO believes the answer to the problem is Blockchain, the technology underpinning cryptocurrency.

The pirates of today aren’t like Blackbeard or Charles Vane. Now, in the 21st century, it’s Pirates 2.0. Hackers armed with a computer, safely on land but with the potential to cause mayhem to an industry that handles 90% of global trade.

When we, or any other living organism, get injured, we can heal over time. Now, thanks to researchers in Belgium, robots can join that illustrious club. They have designed a soft robot which can heal itself, with the hope that in the future they could aid rehabilitation and prosthetics.
 
According to over 100 leading robotics experts it’s time to stop the development of “killer robots”. In an open letter to the United Nations they have called for a ban on the use of Artificial Intelligence in managing weaponry before the technology reaches a “Pandora’s Box” moment.


(Photo caption: Creeks and vegetations devastated as a result of oil spills in the Niger Delta © Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP/Getty Images)


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