A Use Case To Protect Lives

Published in

XYO Network

5 min readMar 10, 2020

If you have recently read our announcement about the XYO Foundation or pointed your browser to the updated website, then you know that the mission of the XYO Foundation is to facilitate and promote the use and continued development of the XYO Protocol, brand, tools, and documentation. In promoting the application of XYO protocol development, we have been fortunate enough to have our software tools used in the service of saving lives in vulnerable populations.

The XYO Foundation is assisting FYCLabs and the Women’s Institute of Baja California in using the XYO bound witness protocol for location data certainty in preventing femicide, workplace/domestic abuse, kidnapping, sexual assault, and other physical threats against women in Mexico.

This is a work in progress with a beta available on the Google Play Store, and there will be a complete and updated case study after a thorough review, testing period, and statistical analysis of results in prevention and criminal investigation resolution.

Real-time emergency alerts to loved ones, witness verification upon incident, and a clean ledger for use in resolution or prevention of violent crime are possible with the use of the XYO bound witness protocol. In this use case we will highlight how our protocols are being integrated into this life changing application.

The App

Mujer Segura BCS, which is available in early access in the Google Play Store for use in the Baja California region is a pilot program which allows a woman who is in a state of distress to quickly ping an alert out to a list of loved ones. This list can only be added by the user and anyone on this list is quickly alerted through an app notification as to the last location when the alert was initiated.

This event triggers a release of initial information only to those on the list, initiates the XYO bound witness broadcaster and listener in the background, and gathers heuristics of surrounding location marks (including landmarks and other easily identifiable GPS points) to be included as supporting data with the alert.

When this bound witness protocol is active, the device in hand of the person in distress bound witnesses with other people using the app in a passive background state. These witnesses are passive and send an alert to the witness device so if in the case that the device is in use by a person who is actually witnessing the crime, they can take notes and contact authorities. Witnesses also stay passive irrespective of actual real life witnessing so that there is a chain of data to establish movement patterns which can aid authorities in finding the victim, and the criminals responsible.

In short, from the moment the victim triggers the Mujer Segura app’s alert function, a series of events occurs allowing for a chain of bound witnesses to help gather live witnesses, create a ledger of tamper-proof location history, and ultimately solve the crime. XYO’s Bound Witness protocol assures that there is a consensus chain of certainty that the location is not being spoofed. Adding this confidence that the data is accurate helps loved ones and authorities be sure that they are in the right path in finding the victim.

There are a lot of other factors that have to be considered before this program is fully functional and delivers results. Participation is key, as well as other integrations of our tech beyond the smartphone for an additional layer of post-alert tracking certainty. Mass adoption of the app is also important so there is an active network of witnesses that are on the ready in the event an alert is triggered. XYO Foundation is committed to working with FYCLabs and the Women’s Institute of Baja California in the smooth integration of our software tools so that there is adoption of this application which would lead to saving lives.

The Reason Why

While XYO did not initiate this project, we feel it is important to point out why we are participating through integration of our Bound Witness Protocols.

For many years there have been calls for the Mexican Government to improve prevention of gender-based violence and human trafficking. Local governments are now exploring and or actively working (in our use case) on new, alternative solutions for women using technology to help women in compromised situations. These situations would include kidnapping, human trafficking, workplace harassment, domestic abuse, and femicide.

Solving the issue of women’s safety in Mexico is a dire use case, here are the statistics as to why:

56% of Mexican Territory is seen as dangerous for women.
Women make up 60% of the Mexican population.
The number of femicides in Mexico has grown 137% over the past five years.
In 2019 alone, authorities reported 1,006 femicides (This number is most likely greater based on underreported statistics, specifically reported as femicide as opposed to homicide).

These numbers are troubling as these crimes not only affect the women who are victimized, but their loved ones. Mothers, sisters, daughters, and friends are lost affecting the mental health of entire neighborhoods and ultimately cities. This mental distress is not healthy and can stop civic progress, hamper equality initiatives, and tear families apart.

We feel that location data needs to empower the end user. From XY Labs’ COIN app which incentivizes location data using digital rewards to the open source XYO Foundation software, we are committed to using location data certainty for the benefit of the user. This partnership may be the ultimate expression of the empowerment that tamper-proof location data is capable of.