Michael J Casey is chairman of CoinDesk's advisory board and a senior advisor of blockchain research at MIT's Digital Currency Initiative.
In this opinion piece, the first of a weekly series of columns, Casey outlines why he believes tokens, despite the excessive fervor and hype around ICOs, could hold the key to solving some of humanity's most pressing problems. The secret? It's all about incentives and collaboration.
A surefire way to be accused of over-hyping blockchain technology is to make some sweeping, breathless statement like, "It can solve climate change!" Even better: declare you have a token that can do that.
Well, bring it on.
The more I've thought about this technology, the more I've come to believe that saving the environment is exactly the kind of problem that energetic crypto minds should be focused on. It's why I recently hosted a #Hack4Climate workshop at MIT Media Lab, one of 17 worldwide promoting a "climate change and blockchain" hackathon at the United Nation's forthcoming COP 23 climate conference in Bonn, Germany.
Read more @ the source: https://www.coindesk.com/why-tokens-matter-rising-above-ico-mania/