Plain Talk With Rob Port

I make a living writing and talking about politics, and I divide the topics I cover up into two categories. First, there's the sexy stuff. The hot-button stuff. Topics that immediately stir up interest from the audience. It's the stuff we spend most of our time talking about. How big should the government be, and how much should it cost us? Stuff like that. Then there's the unsexy stuff. Like blockchain. What is blockchain? North Dakota Chief Information Officer Shawn Riley knows. He's an advocate for it. He tried to explain it to this humble political wonk on this episode of Plain Talk, and what he said makes a lot of sense. Blockchain is a way of recording transactions in a way that's simultaneously secure and transparent. He believes it could be used in everything from recording title histories for property to tracking mineral rights and, yes, even voting. Nerd stuff, I know, but the impact could be very sexy in terms of that thing we all care about, which is how much government is costing us. Riley estima