Renata Teixeira

Brazilian social entrepreneur who created Latin America's first blockchain-based platform for indigenous land rights documentation

Renata Teixeira (b. 1988) pioneered RightChain, a blockchain platform that has secured land titles for 34 Amazonian indigenous communities since 2020. Her system uses satellite imagery and GPS coordinates stored on Ethereum's Polygon network, providing immutable proof of ancestral territories. This work directly contributed to Brazil's 2022 Indigenous Land Recognition Law, which incorporated blockchain verification processes. Teixeira's team developed the EcoGuardian app, which allows real-time deforestation monitoring by tribal members, integrated with Brazil's IBAMA environmental agency. Her 2023 partnership with the WWF expanded operations to Peru and Colombia, protecting an additional 1.2 million hectares. Notable projects include the 2021 Xingu River Basin Mapping Project and the 2024 Traditional Knowledge Digital Archive, preserving medicinal plant knowledge of the Kayapo people. Teixeira's TEDx talk "Blockchain as a Tool for Cultural Preservation" highlights her vision of technology serving indigenous sovereignty. RightChain's open-source framework has been adapted by NGOs in Cameroon and Papua New Guinea.