Susanne Tempelhof is an international entrepreneur, award-winning innovator, frontier governance and technology researcher. With a commitment to pushing boundaries, she has redefined traditional notions of governance and identity, leaving a lasting impact on the global stage.In 2008, Susanne founded Wise in Afghanistan, conducting social science research on local tribal- and governance structures, primarily for the US Department of Defence. This led to the successful sale of Wise to a US contracting firm in 2011. Onward to the Arab Spring, she established Shabakat Corporation in 2011, supporting grassroots movements during the civil war in Libya and revolution in Egypt. Recognizing the limitations of conventional ‘nation building’ approaches, Susanne embarked on a quest for alternative models of governance once again. She stumbled across Bitcoin at the end of 2011 and was blown away by its premise of a decentralized, global, currency. By the beginning of 2013 she had left the field of government contracting entirely, and set off on a quest to write a book, called the Googlement, about the idea. While doing research for the book, in the beginning of 2014 she came across the Ethereum white paper and the concept of smart contracts, and realized this was the key to launch her idea, with only a small fraction of the funds needed by her previous estimates made a decade earlier. Excited by the emerging technologies, she decided to launch her post-nation state concept, and write a book about it afterwards instead, rather than the other way around.Hence, in 2014, she made history by launching Bitnation, the world's first Network State, powered by the blockchain. Bitnation revolutionized the concept of governance with pioneering initiatives such as the World Citizen ID, Marriage and Birth Certificate, and Land Titles, sparking a global conversation on decentralized governance. In partnership with Estonia's E-Residency program in 2015, Susanne introduced a Public Notary service, showcasing the global potential of blockchain in delivering public services. The same year, she launched the Bitnation Refugee Emergency ID Program, which received the prestigious UNESCO NetExplo Award in 2017 for its humanitarian impact during the European refugee crisis. Building on these achievements, she developed a global network of embassies and ambassadors, and introduced a p2p jurisdiction accessible through Android and Apple apps.In 2017, WIRED magazine acknowledged her contributions as one of the "Ten Innovators Fighting for Your Right to Privacy Online". She's a regular media contributor and keynote speaker at conferences, having appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, WIRED, VICE, TechCrunch, The Economist, BBC Radio 4, The Telegraph, CNN, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, Foreign Policy, The Atlantic, The Independent, TEDx, Global Leaders Forum, University of Cambridge, London School of Economics, the EU Parliament, amongst many other venues.With a vast international background, Susanne has traversed over 65 countries and lived and worked in diverse regions, including France, US, UK, Netherlands, Sweden, Egypt, Libya, Ghana, Brazil, China, and Afghanistan. Fluent in English, French, Swedish, Latin and Portuguese, she embraces the richness of global perspectives. Read more about this authorRead less about this author