Use cases for governments

Consider the following example: The regulator of a watershed grants a water-use licence to a specific business. A condition of the water-use license is that the business delivers a specific number of water benefit certificates from a specific activity type in that watershed annually. A local NGO operates a wetland restoration project that is already registered to generate Aartum under Goal 6: Ensure access to water and sanitation for all. The business enters into an agreement with the NGO to buy the Aartum that it will then deliver to the regulator. If the Aartum produced by this project does not represent enough of the specific unit of measure that the regulator requires (say, tonnes of sediment removed per annum), then the business may develop and register their own project to make up for the shortfall and even sell any excess Aartum from that project. The regulator retires the Aartum at the end of the year and can therefore unambiguously show the impact of its regulatory efforts in specific and relevant units (e.g. tonnes of sediment avoided per annum form the specific watershed).

Outcomes-based government

Because each unit of Aartum will be a token of the achievement of a specific SDG-aligned outcome, it represents the opportunity for governments to invest directly in desirable outcomes in a way that minimises bureaucracy and allows for maximum market freedom and efficiency. We envision a scenario where governments can budget directly for a specific outcome and, through a smart contract, pay only for that outcome or nothing at all.

A government agency could contribute to the Aartum community though the creation of specific standards, methodologies and procedures related to its mandate and then buy outcomes that meet those standards. Since the provenance is included in the token, a government agency can make sure to only buy tokens generated within its own jurisdiction. In such a way the traditional competence of governments (making rules en overseeing compliance) and the private sector (efficient implementation) can both be leveraged.

Consider the following example:

A government health agency operates an integrated TB control programme in a specific region. This activity resorts under Goal 3: Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages. As a part of this programme it implements the World Health Organisation's DOTS (directly observed treatment short course) method to ensure patients adhere to their prescribed treatment. In addition to operating the programme from existing government facilities, the agency also creates a smart contract that buys and retires *Aartum* from DOTS outcomes within its jurisdiction. The agency can do this because it is satisfied that the methodology used to accredit providers and record and verify the outcomes meet its own internal quality standards, because the agency itself contributed the methodology to the *Aartum* community. It also remains active in the review of project registrations and the verification of outcomes. In this way private health facilities and NGOs can provide the service in areas where there are no current government facilities. The agency's own annual reporting is simplified by the fact that it only pays for verified outcomes and can report the exact number of outcomes. All this is achieved without the onerous procurement processes that are usual in the public sector. The creation of procedures and methodologies means that similar programmes can be implemented by other agencies or even private donors world-wide.