Social Impact with Blockchain
By Pedro Fonseca on ALTCOIN MAGAZINE
Everything is not related to money or currency; the world is far beyond that. Changing someone’s life by stepping forward for their betterment is a great opportunity. There is so much passion about doing something for developing countries, the needy or for humanity. But how can blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT) be linked with good for people or nations?
The nature of blockchain technology — that it’s secure, hard to mess with and open to both the rich and the poor — is precisely why it could be a game changer for people living in low-income countries or fragile states at risk of economic collapse, corruption or conflict.
While is true that blockchain has a potential to change lots of things in several industries and businesses, there are many ways through it is positively affecting peoples life’s. Bear with me for a moment while looking at the bright humanitarian side of blockchain.
Humanitarian Efforts
Blockchain is already being used on humanitarian efforts helping the social innovation organisations and Non-Government Organisations (NGO’s ) solving social challenges.
In India Akshaya Patra Foundation helps millions of children that don’t have anything to eat. Rooted in a vision to eliminate child hunger, the “Million Meals” project demonstrated how disruptive technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain can help address significant challenges in mass meal production and delivery. The project itself increased the number of served meals in 20%.
In Ghana Bitland is utilizing blockchain technology to provide land registry services. The company aims to provide the basic services and infrastructure needed to give locals and organizations access to survey lands and register properties as well as assets through the Bitshares blockchain.
In México Onesmart is addressing the misappropriation of funds in emerging markets with the scale of its prototype application, which ensures the delivery of state-provided social services to children and young people.
Digital Identity
Identity is an issue for more than one billion people because they might be homeless, refugees, trafficked people facing the severe problem of official identification. How do they get to prove their identity? Are they going to be identityless for the rest of their lives?
The ID4D-Identification for Development program, is developing initiatives using blockchain as mean for people to prove their citizenship and secure their record.
Secure voting
Voting is still a challenge in several parts of the word. Blockchain voting is still in its infancy, and hasn’t been used in any large-scale open elections. But it has been deployed for some voting processes.
For example, last year Nasdaq used blockchain for shareholder voting in Estonia. And, earlier this year, West Virginia used Voatz to become the first state to pilot test a blockchain-based platform for mobile voting, using the technology for 2018 primary elections. Blockchain is giving back the authenticity to all the voters.
Bringing it all together
The World Food Program is taking first steps to harness blockchain technology to enhance our ability to provide effective, efficient assistance to the people. Building Blocks, as the program is known, helps the WFP distribute cash-for-food aid to over 100,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan. By the end of this year, the program will cover all 500,000 refugees in the country. If the project succeeds, it could eventually speed the adoption of blockchain technologies at sister UN agencies and beyond.
In a few words
Overcoming the challenges for social innovation require a strategic shift in technology adoption, with a focus on enhancing transparency, increasing efficiency, promoting sustainability and achieving scalability. This is where technologies like blockchain have a critical role to play.
Smartly implementing blockchain in a way that it will help others is challenging, but a great idea is necessary for bringing greatness.
Got a great idea on the social impact of blockchain? Do you have an interesting use case? Let’s talk!
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