GenZ’s Toolkit for a New Bangladesh: Blockchain

We all remember where we were “when it happened”: I was in a dark cabin, waking up on a flight from Los Angeles to Dhaka to reunite with my family. A fellow Bangladeshi sat nearby, and our phones were abuzz with notifications. We exchanged wide-eyed glances, not yet daring to believe the magnitude of what had just happened in our homeland.

A little over a month ago on August 5, Bangladesh’s GenZ achieved the unimaginable: toppling one of the world’s most corrupt governments in a matter of weeks, in spite of a cocktail of repressive tactics including the use of lethal force, internet shutdowns, and curfews.

Sharmeen Shehabuddin is Social Media Lead at Consensys. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the company.

Fun fact: Bangladesh has three de facto national pastimes (the 3Cs if you will): cricket, cha (tea), and, regrettably, corruption. While the first two inspire pride, the third has turned governance into a tragic farce. What is now known as the “Monsoon Revolution,” in which hundreds of lives were lost and tens of thousands injured, was not just another episode in Bangladesh’s history. It was a collective reckoning.

The abrupt end of 16 years of single-party rule has triggered widespread hope that Bangladesh will finally wrest itself from the clutches of corruption. Yet, the question remains: How do we ensure that corruption does not simply reemerge in a plethora of other forms? The answer lies in practical, enforceable tools like blockchain.

Caveat, of course: No technology, however advanced, can substitute for the moral compass of human conscience and empathy. A tool is only as good as its handler.

I am, along with millions of other Bangladeshis, defiantly optimistic as we inch toward a truly shadhin (independent) Bangladesh, where transparency and accountability aren’t just lofty ideals but the solid foundation we stand on. Rooting out the deeply entrenched corruption that has suffocated our institutions for over 50 years won’t be easy. But we have the tools to build the future we owe to the young lives lost at the hands of those meant to protect them.

A growing Bangladeshi community of Web3 builders stands ready to bring decentralization and transparency to our public goods. Peer-to-peer messaging apps, like Briar, kept the Monsoon Revolution’s organizers connected via Bluetooth when the government cut off the internet for days to silence protests. This reckless attempt by the government to stifle dissent not only further underscored the nation’s resolve for drastic change, but also its readiness for decentralized technology.

We’ve just been hit with our most catastrophic flood in 30 years. Natural disasters hit us hard and often; the aftermath is almost always marked by suffering and mismanagement. In Bangladesh, foreign aid often has a notorious tendency to vanish before it reaches those who need it most.

Fortunately, a glimmer of hope shines through the World Food Programme’s Building Blocks system, which offers a model for efficiently and fairly distributing food aid to its intended recipients. Building Blocks has already made a meaningful difference here in Bangladesh with the Rohingya refugee crisis, as well as in Jordan, Kenya, and other countries. We can do more.

Our electoral process is a nightmare, where elections are called before voters even make it to the polls, with the 2014 and 2018 elections standing as grim reminders. But then we had Sierra Leone, quietly trialing a voting system using Kiva Protocol in 2018, and Thailand, where over 120,000 voters in the Democrat Party’s 2018 primary elections used the Zcoin blockchain . Every vote, recorded on an immutable ledger. No more tricks; no more deceit. If Bangladesh embraces such a system, it’s wonderful to fathom the trust we could restore in elections.

Bangladeshi land disputes are the stuff of legend. Slum evictions, the never-ending land acquisition sagas, families killing each other – all tales of woe. Meanwhile, there’s a practical model for us to draw inspiration from right next door. In 2024, the Indian state of Assam launched a blockchain-based pilot project for land registry, building on existing digital systems like ULPIN (Unique Land Parcel Identification Number). There have been compelling proposals for a blockchain-based land registry in Bangladesh over the years, unfortunately with no follow-through.

The garment industry, the backbone of Bangladesh’s economy, has long been plagued by poor working conditions and wage delays. Meanwhile, countries like Vietnam and Cambodia have used blockchain for years to ensure transparency in supply chains, guaranteeing fair wages and safe conditions for workers. In Colombia, blockchain networks help indigenous coffee farmers secure, timely, and fair payments. We can and should adopt these practices and finally give our workers and farmers the respect and compensation they deserve.

These examples demonstrate that blockchain technologies aren’t some far-off use-cases with no relevance to Bangladesh; they’re here, they’re real, and they’re addressing the very challenges we face. While blockchain has been adopted by services like bKash, adopting these technologies for public service can enable Bangladesh to finally build a government that’s transparent, accountable, and efficient. There are several proposals floating around about the revolutionary potential of blockchain adoption in Bangladesh. What we desperately need now is a focused strategy and implementation.

With Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus heading our nonpartisan interim government, Bangladesh is looking at a world of possibilities and the Professor is a man of indefatigable energy. Having worked for him as a writer years ago, I can attest to his endurance, a pace so intense that I eventually burned out and started a bakery just to recover.

We can finally serve the people of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh, not just the interests of a select few. This isn’t simply about eliminating corruption; it’s about restoring public trust in our institutions, trust we owe to those brave young students who gave their lives this summer for a fair and just society.

And so, here I am, just a girl who tweets and makes memes for a living, standing in front of a newly formed interim government, asking it to adopt blockchain in its public goods. The old guard will resist, as politicians do, just for the sake of it. But Bangladesh has endured too much to retreat into the shadows of its past. The global Web3 community should be here to help. We can never forget that the true strength of any system lies in the people who uphold it, not just the technology that powers it.

As Rabindranath Tagore, our subcontinental treasure who penned the national anthems for both India and Bangladesh, wrote, “Let my country awake.”

Note: The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of CoinDesk, Inc. or its owners and affiliates.