Yeah, I was expecting something insightful, but it's just an Ethereum promo. Nothing against Ethereum (although I'm personally not very excited about/interested in it).
I'm strongly of the opinion that democracy will never flourish in the Middle East. Any attempts by the US and its allies to impose democratic systems are naïve (although I suspect those at the top are well aware, but just won't admit so).
Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan all need secular dictators who can keep the populations under control.
I like the technology and pricing model, but I don't think that it is being put to its best use. I think a better use would be for news sites that require a login to view articles. At present I usually just go without viewing many as I can't afford to sign up to 10 different sites where I might view a couple of articles each week. If I could make a one off payment per article then I'd be all over it.
Christchurch should be pretty safe now with all the dangerous building having come down and new buildings being built to high seismic standards. I personally would never consider Wellington as I believe the earthquake risk is too high.
A few others have pointed it out already, but you're quite misinformed (not uncommon, most Australians assume NZ has worse internet connectivity).
NZ has a nationwide copper network owned by NZX listed company Chorus, and there is a gigabit fibre network nearing completion (Chorus and about 3 other companies). Network owners are prohibited from retailing and must provide retail ISPs access on fair terms (wholesale pricing is regulated).
There are a few Australian owned ISPs, but none that operate in both Australia and NZ.
75% of the population will have access to fibre at gigabit speeds by 2019 [1]. Coverage will increase to 84% by 2024. Not sure about latencies off the top of my head, but there are several new international cables under construction [2] which will help which accessing sites hosted overseas.