santiago siri San Francisco-based entrepreneur Santiago Siri celebrated the arrival of his baby daughter Roma in a rather different way this week – by registering her birth on the bitcoin blockchain. Doing so seemed like a natural step for Siri, who’s interest in decentralisation and blockchain technology is evidenced by his role at democracy.earth where he is working with Pia Mancini, Roma’s mother, on upcoming blockchain projects. Spurred on by a meeting with Ryan Shea, co-founder of identity protocol startup OneName , Siri decided to record Roma’s birth on the blockchain – excited by the idea of doing so on a decentralised database that fell outside of any government’s control. Siri told CoinDesk: "The first database entry done to every single human being born until now has always been on a governmental database. Having Roma be the first exception to that, having her identity registered first in the blockchain [rather] than anywhere else, is a powerful statement that declares her a citizen of Earth rather than an arbitrary piece of territory controlled by central power." "This was her first birth certificate and as such it’s a simple piece of data that can always be proven anywhere in the world with an Internet connection. Politically speaking, that’s incredibly powerful if you think about it. While states rely on closed bureaucracies to support their institutional belief system, the world has the Internet and the blockchain," he added. Registering the birth Siri’s family, perhaps unsurprised by the entrepreneur’s ongoing fascination with technology, welcomed the idea to register Roma’s arrival on the blockchain. "Those close to me already know how passionate I am about blockchain and civic technologies in general. My family probably thinks that I am a bit crazy, but when I consulted Pia to do this she gave me her full […]
