As the OpenStreetMap community has documented[1], this is unfortunately very much not open, and it is a real shame that a country would entrust something so public as addressing to a foreign, closed system.

[1] https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/What3words

It looks like they've got that covered: "If we, what3words ltd, are ever unable to maintain the what3words technology or make arrangements for it to be maintained by a third-party (with that third-party being willing to make this same commitment), then we will release our source code into the public domain. We will do this in such a way and with suitable licences and documentation to ensure that any and all users of what3words, whether they are individuals, businesses, charitable organisations, aid agencies, governments or anyone else can continue to rely on the what3words system." -- https://what3words.com/pricing/

Is the code and documentation placed into escrow with a third party to ensure that this happens?

So what happens in the case that England (their place of business) issues trade embargos with any of those countries?

What if they don't keep their word? A lot will come to depend on this.

Geohash is patent free btw. I am sure something can be done here as well.

The what3words algorithm has a patent pending though[0]. Let's see if it will stand up to geohashes as prior art.

[0]: https://www.google.com/patents/US20160073225

And this https://patents.stackexchange.com/questions/13629/i-had-inve...

Not particularly reassuring, can't someone just create an open system with a similar concept and release the mapping.

When someone told about what3words, they also told me that they made money by selling shorter or more pleasant word pairings to whoever was willing to pay, but the only reference to that I could find is [0]. Having that requirement would make it much more difficult to build such a system.

Apart from that, it's basically "just" geohashes with a different (population-density based) encoding.

[0]: https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/08/what3words/

Those were called One Words. That was their old businesses model and abandoned/pivoted.

>can't someone just create an open system with a similar concept

There's a pretty good, working parody at http://what3fucks.com

And that system maintains a hierarchical relationship, you and your neighbor share the first n words. Makes much more sens e

Can using a block chain a good solution for it?

Of course! Blockchain is the solution for everything! /s

Sorry I have a limited understanding of blockchain but what I meant is since people are already downloading the what3words app, using blockchain integration everyone can pick their own unique 3 words and the whole chain records who the address owner is. This way it becomes indestructible because if i understood correctly everyone has a copy of blockchain making it decentralized.