Is It Time for a Blockchain Brexit?

Unless even more time is requested by the UK, and unanimously granted by all 27 member states of the EU, the default option is for the UK to chaotically crash out from the European trade bloc, by leaving without a legal agreement, on Friday April 12th. As laws have borders, this lack of 'legal certainty' is particularly troubling as it risks disrupting cross-border supply chain networks which would be bad news for everyone.

Could thinking harder about what we mean by a 'border' be the key to unlocking the current political deadlock?

Let's consider the 500km border between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland and the failure to find a suitable 'Irish Backstop'.

Border in the Irish Sea, which is unacceptable because Northern Ireland would be treated differently from the rest of UK. Yet Brexit is supposed to be what the acronym implies: an exit from the EU rules and self-determining the free flow of goods and services across international borders.

The solution lies in rethinking the very idea of a border.

In the Internet age, the governance borders that matter most are not bound along geographical or political lines.

They are based on time, an invisible metric that is fairer and arguably the hardest of hard borders.

If you get down to it, this concept of "Border in time" is what a blockchain represents.

Individual per-product tariffs could be implemented, with automated payments made as products move back and forth across national borders.

The tariffs could be dynamically adjusted as political demands dictate; with as many borders in time, and currency-pair stablecoins, as needed.