Blockchain for Education

Blockchain Technology for Education

In the education sector, digital identity, trust, transparency and provenance, immutability is all very important, especially when it comes to the requirements of factual data storing and sharing. While Blockchain-related work in the education sector is not as advanced as the Finance industry, it is clear that the Blockchain can be used effectively for permanently storing and securing certificates, degrees, mark sheets, awards and achievements. It can also be used for payments and funding between students and other key players in the industry.  Furthermore, the use of Blockchain Smart Contracts…

Blockchain and Use Cases for the SDGs

With the advent of Blockchain technology and its potential to disrupt the way the world has been doing business for many centuries, there is an intense amount of gossip and buzz and an ocean of online literature on the topic. The blockchain revolution is considered analogous to the internet revolution in 1994 but at the same time a diverse and a large population in the developed and developing world, alike, do not even know if there is something called Blockchain, let alone what it really is or going to be,…

Blockchain for Governments

While some government officials are still in a wait-and-see mode, others see significant advantages in moving ahead now with what they see as immediate solutions and innovative technology implementations that may pay off in the long run. There are many examples of use cases across countries including: the European Union (EU  – anti-counterfeiting), Estonia (Digital Government), US (FDA, DHS, HHS, GSA  – security, anti-counterfeiting), China (Payments), India (Payments, Land Registry), Switzerland (Identity), Denmark (Voting), Dubai (Digital Government), Georgia (Land Registry), Gibraltar (Stock Exchange), and many more (Woods, 2018). Besides these…

Blockchain, Human Rights, and the Supply Chain

Blockchain and Supply Chain

By: Laura Marissa Cullell Marketing & Operations Officer How much do you know about the products you use or buy on a regular basis? Or where your cell phone parts come from? What about the people who made them? Or What materials were used and wasted? The journey of a product is long and vast, and goes through several distributors, third parties, storage facilities, suppliers that handle anything from design, to sales, and productions. A product passes through so many different stages, and hands before making it onto store shelves. It’s…

Blockchain and Fintech

Various reports and the number of Blockchain use cases implemented suggest that the financial sector stands to gain the most from Blockchain-based service implementations. Some of the many use cases discussed below are to highlight only the most obvious use cases. Trade Finance In trade finance Stock and Share sale and purchase transactions that can sometimes take two to three day are made through brokers and exchanges for clearing and settlement it requires tedious processing through paper and electronic media. Each party including middlemen maintain their record of transactions or…

Blockchain and Agricultural Transformation

Food Safety is of vested interest for both producer and consumer and to achieve that it is important to have the traceability of provenance for knowing if it is fresh and exactly where it comes from, who grew and processed it. This could also help in preventing fraud, false labelling, redundant middlemen, reducing transaction costs and overcoming some challenges of logistics, especially related perishable food items with shorter shelf life. Sam Mire (2018) mentioned that “linking agricultural shipping and monitoring processes using a shared, decentralized Blockchain ledger adds value to…

Blockchain for Health – SDG 3 and SDG 9

During the recent years we have seen a significant growth of Electronic Medical Records (EMR), mainly driven by legal compliances, need for efficiency and cost-effectiveness and above all proven effective for providing quality care by using the data for preventive medical care.  in various parts of the world. To provide proper and timely treatment to a patient (conscious or unconscious) anywhere, availability of patient’s EMR prove to be extremely important. EMRs need to be swiftly and seamlessly accessible to the health care providers at the time of need. Patients may…

Digital Identity – SDG 16.9: Providing legal identity for all

Provide Universal Legal Identity

Use cases related to Digital Identity are foundational for the success of most if not all use cases directly and will contribute towards SDG 16.9, i.e. “providing legal identity for all, including birth registration”. We have the right to be recognized as a person before the law. It is our universal human right[1] to be able to prove who we are in trusted and reliable ways while maintaining our privacy and security of data. Use cases for Digital Identity will benefit all SDGs.  The SDG 16, indicator 16.9 says that…

Data Privacy

The Merriam-Webster defines privacy as freedom from unauthorised intrusion. Data privacy is not necessarily about secrecy or having something to hide. It is about control related to the use and disclosure of data (Cavoukian, 2017); the capability to choose whether the information is disclosed to others and determine how it is used, as mentioned by Steven T. Snyder (2019). Snyder also added that “The highest degree of privacy for an element of information would be if its owner had complete control over its dissemination and use for as long as…

Blockchains and Trust

“There is one thing that is common to every individual, relationship, team, family, organization, nation, economy and civilization throughout the world — one thing which, if removed, will destroy the most powerful government, the most successful business, the most thriving economy, the most influential leadership, the greatest friendship, the strongest character, the deepest love. On the other hand, if developed and leveraged, that one thing has the potential to create unparalleled success and prosperity in every dimension of life. That one thing is trust.” The speed of Trust, by Stephen…

Blockchain x Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

cliBlockchain is most renowned as the underlying technology behind cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. And while cryptocurrencies are already disrupting financial systems and creating seismic shifts in our economies, there’s an important part of the story that’s missing from the mainstream narrative, especially in Japan. And that is: How can blockchain technology be leveraged to solve the world’s most pressing social and environmental problems? And that’s exactly why we, Social Innovation Japan, organised Japan’s first-ever summit focused on Blockchain x Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The U.N. Sustainable Development Goals are a set…

Riding the blockchain tide to wipe out uneasiness on the planet

Earlier on, tech revolution was around product development. It took a while, but then it was followed by Open Sourcing of technology – making it accessible to all. Likewise, came in Cryptocurrency – attempting to design a currency for fair and free trade – unbound by the mechanics of taxation, handling charges and federal policies. Backed by Blockchain, it made significant inroads on to the global markets and choreographed some seismic shifts in the way transactions were executed and currency exchanged hands. While the merits and the demerits of such…

Can Blockchain Help Feed the Hungry?

In the Azraq refugee camp in Jordan, Syrian refugees queue in supermarkets where cashiers are equipped with iris scanners. Once identified using biometric registration data from the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), they can spend food vouchers provided by the UN World Food Program (WFP). Food voucher transactions for 100,000 refugees in Jordan are now recorded on the WFP’s Ethereum-based blockchain, a system called Building Blocks. By the end of 2018, WFP’s Director of Innovation and Change Management Robert Opp hopes that Building Blocks will serve 500,000 people — WFP’s…