Building a Socially inclusive future through Blockchain
Blockchain technology’s potential for social good has become a hot topic for many philanthropists, social entrepreneurs and related non-profits.
With the general population being increasingly enthralled with blockchain’s potential as a tool for social change, there is an ever increasing gateway for bringing blockchain technology more directly into social impact work, and bridging the gap between technologists and humanitarians.
Blockchain which is inherently democratic because of the absence of centralised control, and with its time stamps, verification systems, audit trail and protections against tampering, blockchain seems perfectly fit for disrupting this arena for a positive social impact.
Democracy and Governance Perspective
The explosion in investment and innovation in the application of blockchain technology to aid Democracy and Governance speaks of its great potential to impact public sector and citizens.
The integrity of electoral processes is facing a lot of flak even in stable democracies. For democracies across the world, Elections are the biggest celebration of freedom and equality of choices, but the dilemma of inefficient and non-transparent elections has continued for decades. Therefore, there is a need for implementing new systems gradually and transparently to strengthen legitimate voting by increasing the ability of governments to verify citizens’ identity. Once verified however, votes via tokens on a blockchain can be completely traceable and instantly countable.
Many security and logistical practices of exchanging important information in government institutions have become archaic and there is need to streamline them by using this distributed ledger technology. Storing sensitive information of citizens on blockchain is a logical step as it makes it harder to illegally erase or edit. This also makes it easier for exchange of information among various government institutions. The presence of a de-centralised system ensures that all information is safe from hackers, or other hostile non-state actors. Also, this reduces maintenance costs required to maintain major data centres.
Digital Identity
Proving their identity is an issue all across the world for millions of people. People belonging to remote and underlying regions are most affected. Backed by increased levels of transparency and efficiency, Blockchain technology can play a significant role here.
Not being able to prove their identity, people are often without access to several critical social services. For example, even opening a bank account may be impossible for them; benefits like pensions, or even transferring cash through legal route might be a distant dream for them. They are also left out of the voting process in most cases.
Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development
In order to have a Better Planet we have come up with couple of existing and new age blockchain use-cases that can help us repair some of the world’s major global environmental challenge.
The energy, climate, and environment sector, given its characteristic of millions of transactions to trade and distribute energy, has the potential to be transformed by blockchain technology. Blockchain has the capability to improve the efficiency of existing grids by making use of a decentralised platform with more data control and micro-optimisations of energy at the facilities level. It can also facilitate peer-to-peer transmission and support the creation of micro-grids.
Financial Inclusion of the masses
There are millions of people without access to banks as discussed above leaving a tremendous opportunity for Blockchain to include them in its ambit. Blockchain has the ability to lower transaction & settlement costs. With the use of blockchain, the need for infrastructure will be reduced significantly making it cheaper for both the customer and banks apart from providing digital identity and property rights.
Health Aspects
Healthcare is probably the sector that will be most affected by blockchain, and positively. There are several applications for blockchain waiting to over haul this sector including health records going digital and a clear cut and streamlined pharmaceutical supply chain. Blockchain is destined to be here due to its features such as decentralisation which ensures increased levels of security.
Blockchain could be very helpful in segregation of counterfeit medicines from originals ones. The safety aspects involved in the transportation of medicine and vaccines from manufacturer to end user is a highly critical topic of concern worldwide. This would settle the debate between original and counterfeit medicines once and for all.
Philanthropy and Aid
People shy away from charity, due to trust issues with where there money reaches, and unsureity about what their money will be used for. Blockchain is the perfect solution to build confidence and increase funding levels and effectiveness by addressing some of the key issues.
Currently, once the money leaves the account of the donor, there is limited tracking or transparency available to determine exactly how the funds were used and who ultimately benefited. Donors are also becoming more results- and impact-focused, and trust in the recipient organisation is crucial to their giving decision-making.
Proponents contend blockchain will touch, if not disrupt, every major industry and will even alter the way that people and societies interact. Blockchain can result in increased levels of efficiency, and promote transparency at a whole new level. The best part is that Blockchain has the ability to transform systems and leapfrog in its ability to aid in infrastructure solutions that previously weren’t even thought to be possible.
