By Carolina Lorenzo López, M.S. in Digital Marketing and Communications | Innovation Strategist | Digitization and Sustainable
Development Expert
On October 7, 2025, an audience from across the globe tuned in to the “How Decentralization Will Shape the Future of Money, Governance & the Law” webinar via Meetup. This wasn’t another speculative talk about blockchain buzz. Instead, it was a deep, vital dialogue on a fundamental transformation: governance in transition.
Moderated by Joshua Krieger, Co-Founder of The Edge of Company, The Edge of Show, and featuring Gerard Dache, Executive Director of the Government Blockchain Association, in partnership with the LF Decentralized Trust, the discussion previewed an upcoming event, The Future of Money, Governance, and the Law at the U.S. Capitol (Oct 29-30th) that will examine how blockchain is reshaping public administration at its core.
More than a century ago, sociologist Max Weber warned of an “iron cage of rationality”—a system where
bureaucracies become so rule-bound that they prioritize procedure over purpose. Today, that cage has
become digital. Across sectors, systems are managing vast amounts of data without necessarily adhering to reliability standards, and often without earning the trust of the people they’re meant to serve. Yet, there is a paradox of potential: the very technologies that once fueled bureaucratic sprawl now offer a pathway to escape it. When applied ethically and transparently, these tools can shift governance from control to coordination, from opacity to trust.
The core of the discussion revolved around how decentralized technologies challenge the old order. As digital assets rise and institutions falter under complexity, trust must become programmable. One standout insight:
“Decentralized IDs and stablecoins are gateway technologies.” Not because they unlock a new financial
system, but because they redefine the relationship between the individual and the institution. Decentralized technologies offer an alternative: systems built to serve, not control. Technical upgrades do not define the path forward, but by a return to purpose—governance that is ethical, inclusive, and grounded in trust by design. The future of governance will not be top-down. It will be human-led, digitally empowered, and radically transparent.
As noted in a recent International Monetary Fund report, some experts suggest that adapting the monetary system for the digital age may require actively promoting stablecoins issued and operated under robust, transparent frameworks. According to the IMF’s Frontiers of Finance analysis (Duffie, Olowookere, and Veneris, 2025), a compliance-by-design approach could enable stablecoin systems to process billions of dollars in daily transactions while embedding anti–money laundering (AML) and counter–terrorist financing (CFT) safeguards directly into blockchain protocols. Using tools such as zero-knowledge proofs and smart contract oversight, such systems could simultaneously protect user privacy and enforce global financial regulations—striking a balance between the efficiency of programmable payments and the accountability required for large-scale financial stability.
From Command to Coordination
Gerard Dache offered a powerful distinction: Government is institutional. Governance is relational. Institutions command and regulate; governance verifies, coordinates, and evolves. Decentralization is not about dismantling governments. It’s about redistributing trust, which entails creating ecosystems of accountability where power is shared, not hoarded. In the language of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 16 (SDG 16), decentralized governance can become the operating system for inclusive, just, and effective institutions. Governments today face a unique challenge. To maintain relevance and public trust, they must adopt systems that, paradoxically, decentralize their own power. Traditional regulations, built for static environments, must now evolve into agile frameworks by design.
Forward-thinking governance does not react. It adapts. It doesn’t just enforce rules. It embeds them into
infrastructure. Smart contracts track public funding in real time. Decentralized IDs prevent fraud before it
happens, and blockchain ledgers ensure transparency without relying on institutional benevolence. This is not the absence of regulation; it’s a blueprint for ethical automation.
The Rise of Self-Sovereign Identity
Decentralized Identity (DID) is more than a new login method. It’s a philosophical shift from institutional
ownership of data to individual control. With cryptographic validation, people can prove their identity without revealing more than they need to. The United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund is already leveraging decentralized identity systems to verify beneficiaries across the countries and territories where it operates. These secure, decentralized mechanisms enable pensioners to confirm their identity without dependence on traditional bureaucratic processes, dramatically reducing fraud, cutting administrative burdens, and lowering operational costs. In the humanitarian context, this approach carries even greater transformative potential.
For people on the move—a term widely used within the United Nations system to encompass migrants, refugees, internally displaced persons, and other mobile populations—identity is often the first casualty of crisis. Without verifiable credentials, these individuals can face immense barriers to accessing aid, healthcare, and legal protections. Decentralized identity frameworks can restore that lost visibility, enabling portable, self-verifiable identities that travel with the individual, offering continuity and dignity amid instability. Yet decentralization alone does not ensure fairness. If new technologies are not designed and deployed inclusively and contextually, they risk recreating existing hierarchies in digital form. For these tools to support equitable governance, they must be grounded in human rights principles, data ethics, and the inherent human dignity of every individual. Only then can decentralized systems truly serve the governed—not just the governing.
Stablecoins and the Programmable Economy
If digital identity defines who we are in digital ecosystems, stablecoins define how we move value within them. These assets, pegged to fiat currencies like the US dollar, are a bridge, enabling governments to explore programmable payments, social welfare disbursements, and tax systems with built-in transparency. Their structure matters. Custodial models, reliant on centralized reserves, risk reproducing the same concentrations of power we’re trying to escape. The opportunity lies in designing money that is auditable by code, not just accountable to institutions.
To view the full conversation, click here.
About the Author
Carolina Lorenzo López is an innovation strategist and sustainable development expert, known for bridging the gap between technology, governance, and social impact. Based in the U.S., she has implemented digitization initiatives across 162 countries within the entire United Nations system, while helping organizations and Fortune 500 companies navigate complex transformations in digital strategy, commercialization, marketing, and communications.
She is the founder of WoAgora, a boutique consultancy and a licensed private-sector contractor to the United Nations, where she works at the intersection of public-sector reform and private-sector innovation. Carolina is a member of Women Techmakers by Google, a published editor in six languages, and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists (a leading U.S. organization advancing press freedom and ethical journalism). Her work has been honored with the prestigious Alexander von Humboldt Medal, awarded by the German government.
