Wild animal s how to#
Wild animal s software#

Interspecies Money will be paid to people from funds in the wallets for adhering to simple and verifiable rules. Over time, the process will become вЂњSchrГ¶dingerianвЂќ: a wallet will be created when an ape is reliably observed for the first time. Every wallet will have scientists and other signatories charged with making decisions in the interests of the orangutan. We plan to endow the first digital wallets for orangutans with the proceeds of the sale of related non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

Wild animal s how to#

The question is how to approach this in a way that is useful for the species and for the people looking after them. It is inevitable that the living scarcity of endangered species will become an asset class for those holding cryptocurrencies. There is plenty of money in cryptocurrencies available to prove a new вЂњtokenomicsвЂќ for nature crypto innovators are astonishingly successful at creating digital scarcity that accrues in value.

Wild animal s software#

On the software side, advances in artificial intelligence, metaverse-building gaming platforms, and distributed crypto and blockchain governance solutions will enable us to represent other species online in entirely novel ways. On the hardware side, a Cambrian explosion of computation, data storage, smartphones, cameras, sensors, drones, ground robots, satellites, and genomics is allowing us to track nature in higher definition at lower cost. This is where technology offers new possibilities for truer stewardship of nonhuman life on Earth. But little conservation money reaches the frontline where it can have the greatest effect. They need to know that it is profitable for them to do so. Asking forest people to put up with their orangutan neighbours isnвЂ™t enough. The apes share the forest with people who make their living from the cultivation of crops and forest products. The conservation logic for orangutans is simple enough.

The situation could have been worse вЂ“ some 135,000 orangutans would have died without the conservation efforts вЂ“ but the investments can hardly be claimed as successful. Although $1bn has been spent protecting them since 2000, more than 100,000 have been lost to deforestation, harassment, and killing over the same period. Only 120,000 of these intelligent red apes remain alive in their forest habitats of Sumatra and Borneo. Humans and Great Apes have not lived well together in the industrial era, but we can do better in the post-industrial age. Only 700,000 of our closest evolutionary cousins survive and their numbers are in steep decline: picture a population equivalent to Washington, DC, scattered in forests along dirt roads or at the edge of thousands of isolated, poor, and fast-growing villages. The Great Apes, including gorillas, chimpanzees, and bonobos, are ideal early candidates for an вЂњInterspecies MoneyвЂќ approach. Giving them a digital wallet linked to their identity and the ability to spend money on their own protection could improve their lives and increase their chances of survival. Currently, these animalsвЂ™ only economic value is that of their processed body parts. It will soon be possible to give a digital identity to individual wild animals whose species are at risk of extinction.