Vaccify — a COVID19 Initiative by TrustNet Pakistan
World post-COVID19:
Coronavirus pandemic, a medical emergency that has now affected millions of lives across the world. The human race is enduring the harsh impacts of it in one way or another. Since its outbreak, the concept of socialization has been diminishing steadily. The world is in a perpetual mode of mutations. After more than half a year of this pandemic, the world has agreed that major changes are inevitable in what we once knew as normal.
In the wake of this current emergency, it is hard to think of any aspect of human life which is not experiencing a shift of any degree. Today, as we look around there is a never-ending list of pressing matters to be addressed, and with time we are coming face-to-face with newer problems. Amid all the changes our world has been encountering, one question remained constant, “what would the post-pandemic world look like?”
After experiencing a considerable portion of pandemic life, we are somehow able to picture the world after it. It is not too early to say that the world is preparing for a new normal as it is something that needs to be done. There is no doubt in it that the world will be facing new problems as we proceed, but the curious human nature will keep finding solutions to fight for life.
Preparing for new challenges:
“Everything we do before a pandemic will seem alarmist. Everything we do after a pandemic will seem inadequate.” -Michael O.Leavitt
Coronavirus outbreak has not only created new problems but also intensified the older ones. It has also given rise to unexpected opportunities to bring a radical shift in many existing systems. The history of the world tells us how every time a pandemic has left the world with new solutions and findings.
To resume a near standstill life, people are now trying to gain normality in their daily routines. However, they are not unaware of the challenges the world will be encountering right after it. To keep up with life, one has to be a part of society that needs interaction, and that in turn requires trust. Once the lockdown is lifted and people are back to run daily life errands, ensuring trust would certainly be a major challenge. The cost at which we could deal with these challenges is our privacy.
Organizations and businesses would need to know the health status of employees or consumers to allow the necessary interactions. Hospitals and health care centers would require medical professionals and patients to be segregated on the basis of their Coronavirus immunization. The travel industry would need complete assurance that all passengers are safe to travel with each other. In short, authorities everywhere will have to make sure that gatherings of people are safe, be it a workplace, public place, or when traveling while protecting the privacy of people.
Gaining trust is a priority:
Coping up with post-COVID19 problems will require assurance that each person is eligible to work or travel or engage in any social activity. It will be extremely important to keep the virus from spreading and ensuring the safety of the masses. Once the vaccine is available to immunize people against Coronavirus, there will be a need to segregate people on the basis of their vaccinations. People would have to prove themselves vaccinated to be eligible to travel or work for which they would need to have some sort of credential as proof of their immunity against Coronavirus.
In today’s world, it is easier to fake one’s identity and difficult to maintain the privacy of personal information. Because of this, paper credentials cannot be something to be used as proof of a person’s health status. The problem associated with the paper credentials is their lack of immutability. Therefore, in the current situation of the world when everyone is threatened by deadly Coronavirus, gaining people’s trust is a priority. A system that can issue privacy-preserving tamper-proof credentials to ensure safety is the need of the hour.
Vaccify — A TrustNet Pakistan’s Initiative:
Vaccify is an open-source COVID-19 Initiative of TrustNet. The idea behind it is to issue digital certificates to people who are vaccinated (once the vaccine is available) for COVID-19. It is a Blockchain-based digital identity eco-system for all hospitals, healthcare centers, laboratories, and testing facilities across Pakistan. Its purpose is to enable them to directly send digitally signed credentials containing people’s COVID-19 vaccination status to their smartphones. It facilitates the governance of vaccination passporting by enabling institutions to verify people’s vaccination status, ultimately helping society to return to the norm and function in a seamless manner. Figure 1 explains the high-level technical architecture of vaccify and the actors involved in the digital trust ecosystem.
Within a couple of seconds, a digitally verifiable vaccination certificate can be issued to a person on their smartphone wallet app by an issuer. The person equipped with a digital vaccination certificate when traveling can prove the validity of his vaccination to an authority acting as a verifier. In figure 2 the image on left illustrates the story of a person who gets a vaccination certificate from a medical institute, whereas the image on right represents the story of that same vaccinated person traveling and getting his digital vaccination certificate verified at an airport.
Features of a digital credential:
A digital credential surpasses paper credentials because of some obvious advantages offered by the former. Digital credentials maintain the confidentiality of people. It would cryptographically verify their health status without revealing any personal information. Moreover, as it is based on Blockchain, all the records will be immutable. Unlike paper credentials, these will be issued in no time. In case of false certificate issuance, it could be revoked in seconds.
Vaccify will enable people to prove their vaccination against Coronavirus by a simple touchless QR code scanning. Digital credentials issued under Vaccify will also have international trust interoperability. It means the credential issued in Pakistan can be verified anywhere in the world. TrustNet Pakistan is using emerging technology to integrate this digital framework with commercial services in Pakistan.
Verifiable Digital Credential Technology preserves privacy and many international organizations including the United Nations approve it. Various sectors around the globe such as healthcare and financial services are using it already.
Also read: TrustNet joins hands with Xord
COVID Credentials Initiative (CCI):
COVID Credentials Initiative (CCI) is a global community to support projects of local communities. The purpose is to mitigate the spread of Coronavirus and reinforce economies by the use of Verifiable Credentials (VCs). TrustNet Pakistan along with more than 80+ organizations of the world is already a part of this initiative.
CCI helps projects of local communities in collaborating and by facilitating and providing them resources. The purpose behind these projects is to develop solutions in accordance with the culture and norms of a community. Therefore, as a global community, CCI assists projects of any region irrespective of its size. VCs have many uses but COVID-19 cases with trust and privacy issues are particularly considered to be solved by it.
Community contributions in Vaccify:
Developing decentralized digital trust solutions for on-going problems require technically efficient contributors. People from different communities are coming together voluntarily to support this initiative by providing their expertise in various domains. Xord and Pakistan Blockchain Institute are among the contributing organizations from Pakistan. These open-source contributions are not only helpful in advancing Vaccify but they are also a way of contributing back to society’s future digital trust ecosystems.
Find out more about Vaccify at https://vaccify.pk
