A surefire way to be accused of over-hyping blockchain technology is to make some sweeping, breathless statement like, "It can solve climate change!" Even better: declare you have a token that can do that.

Well, bring it on.

The more I've thought about this technology, the more I've come to believe that saving the environment is exactly the kind of problem that energetic crypto minds should be focused on. It's why I recently hosted a #Hack4Climate workshop at MIT Media Lab, one of 17 worldwide promoting a "climate change and blockchain" hackathon at the United Nation's forthcoming COP 23 climate conference in Bonn, Germany.

Of course, a distributed ledger of transactions can't directly resolve the planet's climate problems. If our home survives this threat, it will be thanks to experts in energy, forestry, vehicle design and urban planning.

What blockchain technology and crypto tokens can help with, however, is the political problem – the core challenge of how to get mistrusting people and institutions to work together in pursuit of a common goal.

In short, it might finally enable us to unite and implement the steps those scientists have been urging us to take.

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