We would like to call your attention to the launch of the Hyperledger Governance,Risk and Compliance Special Interest Group (GRC SIG). The Hyperledger GRC SIG intends to focus on the adoption of blockchain technology in solving digital trust issues, making GRC practices more transparent, and simplifying the adoption by GRC practitioners.
Join us for our first meeting on February 9th, 9:30 PM IST/8 AM PST/4 PM GMT – Meeting Details
Technology has solved many legacy challenges, simplified processes and brought optimization, but, at the same time, it can add more complexities and expose to various risks if organizations don’t have expertise or adopted technologies in their nascent stage. With this SIG, we will help practitioners not just get familiarized with the technology but also assist in solving business trust issues by building decentralized GRC apps. We will also help them educate their organizations or customers about how to define the right set of controls to mitigate IT risk because of blockchain adoption.
To keep it simple, this group will explore using decentralized, permissioned Hyperledger blockchain technology to build applications that will streamline the way global organizations run their GRC practices. Blockchain has a huge potential for building trust and improving data accessibility by maintaining transparency along with cryptographic hash security. The SIG will discuss and explore the following relevant technologies:
Hyperledger Fabric and other Hyperledger umbrella projects for GRC
Tokenomics
DAO and Distributed Governance Models
New Consensus Mechanisms
The Governance, Risk and Compliance process includes these three elements:
Governance is the oversight role and the process by which companies manage and mitigate business risks
Risk management enables an organization to evaluate all relevant business and regulatory risks and controls and monitor mitigation actions in a structured manner
Compliance ensures that an organization has the processes and internal controls to meet the requirements imposed by governmental bodies, regulators, industry mandates, or internal policies.
As part of this SIG, we will explore the areas within GRC space where blockchain can play a crucial role. For example, blockchain can help with digital trust in third party partnerships. It can also promote adoption of technology for IT auditing, organization and regulatory compliance when it comes to blockchain-based enterprise solutions, crypto and NFTs, transparent Environment Social Governance aspects, and more
To make this group successful, we would be happy to work with enthusiastic developers, students, GRC practitioners and all manner of professionals to take this SIG forward and make it into an industry standard.
Visit our GRC SIG wiki page to learn more details about the SIG’s charter and how to get involved. We encourage you to join this community by visiting the links below:
We are excited to launch GRC SIG and are looking forward to collaborating with you. Come join us at the launch event on February 9th, 9:30 PM IST/8 AM PST/4 PM GMT! Find meeting details here.
Blockchain interoperability is one of the crucial features of blockchain technology, operating in three main vectors: enabling scalability, diminishing risks and eliminating silos¹. This blog post focuses on interoperability projects connecting data and value silos.
Standardization bodies are pushing forward drafts to normalize operations across the different interoperability layers. Those working on standards includeOpen Digital Asset Protocol (ODAP) from IETF², the interoperability working group in Digital Currency Global Initiative (DCGI) at ITU³, the subgroup 7 (ISO/TC/SG7) from ISO TechnicalCommittee 307⁴, the Cross-Chain Interoperability working group at the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance⁵, and many others⁶. Interoperability solutions can follow guidelines from standardization bodies for seamless integration across their targets and other interoperability solutions.
Several blockchain interoperability projects focusing on solutions for interoperability among public blockchains flourished in the last years⁶. However, enterprise-grade interoperability solutions have only recently emerged, and the necessary standardization effort is still in its infancy. Although many different categorizations exist⁶, we can broadly classify interoperability solutions into two categories with different philosophies and approaches. In the first, a common “settlement” chain (or hub) is created as a permanent infrastructure to which other chains (e.g., “sidechains”) can connect; the common chain serves as an interoperation medium, offering decentralized trust guarantees to the sidechains for the settlement of cross-chain transactions. Cosmos7 and Polkadot8 exemplify this approach, which is particularly suited to public blockchains and distributed ledgers.
In the second category of interoperability solutions, a blockchain network, be it public or private, is augmented with modules and capabilities that allow it to interoperate directly with another network without depending on third-party infrastructure. This second category, into which Hyperledger Cactus9 and the Hyperledger Lab Weaver10 fall, is useful in enterprise scenarios where privacy as well as performance are core concerns. Both these approaches have their pros and cons, which are scenario dependent.
The Hyperledger community has been involved in notable efforts to advance open source solutions that respond to modern interoperation needs, which can be wide-ranging, and provides a collection of solutions from which blockchain users and consortia can select as per their requirements. This post explores how four technologies (two projects and two labs) under the Hyperledger umbrella approach the interoperability problem (public blockchains – consortium blockchains – centralized systems), comparing them across multiple criteria.
Hyperledger Cactus
Hyperledger Cactus is a pluggable enterprise-grade framework to transact on multiple distributed ledgers without introducing yet another competing blockchain. It’s an SDK of SDKs.
Hyperledger Cactus aims to provide Decentralized, Adaptable and Secure Integration to and between Blockchain Networks. It aims to cover as many protocols as possible through an extensible plugin architecture where new protocols or functionality can be added by creating new plugins.
Hyperledger FireFly
Hyperledger FireFly provides an API orchestration layer over multiple blockchain ledgers, fostering interoperability in the application tier. Allowing common blockchain programming constructs like tokens, off-chain/on-chain data orchestration, and identity verification to be implemented in pluggable microservice code modules against multiple blockchains. Patterns already implemented that span multiple chains in a single business transaction, include using a Hyperledger Fabric DLT for private business agreement and document verification, orchestrated with tokenized value transfer on a separate Ethereum blockchain. FireFly also provides an API layer into which blockchain interoperability platforms can plug into in the future, for a simplified developer experience.
Weaver
Weaver, a Hyperledger Lab, is a framework with a family of protocols to enable interoperation for data sharing and asset movements between independent networks built on heterogeneous DLTs in a manner that preserves the core blockchain tenets of decentralization and security.
Interoperation using Weaver does not rely on trusted mediators. Rules and requirements are framed using the networks’ internal governance mechanisms. Interoperation relies minimally on shared infrastructure, which may provide identity services but does not play a part in core protocols through which data and assets are shared. Interoperation occurs through protocols that derive their trust from the counterparty networks’ native consensus mechanisms.
Currently, a protocol for data sharing across ledgers with proof of authenticity and provenance is supported (for Fabric and Corda). We are currently adding a new protocol that enables asset exchanges using the HTLC pattern.
YUI
YUI is a Hyperledger Lab that achieves interoperability between multiple heterogeneous ledgers. The lab provides modules and middleware for cross-chain communication as well as modules and tools for cross-chain application development.
For cross-chain communication, YUI is based on Inter Blockchain Communication (IBC) protocol by Cosmos project, with extensions to support various Hyperledger projects. IBC provides the basis for ledgers’ interaction of arbitrary data transfer and computation without the assumption of the trusted third party.
Currently YUI supports cross-authentication between enterprise ledgers (Fabric, Besu and Corda). Each actor of ledgers has to interact with only a respective ledger of its interest to complete a cross-chain operation such as an atomic swap of tokens.
Feature Matrix of Projects
Legend
✅: Supported ❌: Out of Scope or not in the current roadmap 📝: Design/PoC but no official implementation 🏗️: Not *yet* supported
Feature Name
YUI
Hyperledger Cactus
Weaver
Hyperledger FireFly
Remote API access
🏗️
✅
✅
✅
Standard Data Model
✅(a)
🏗️
❌
❌
Client Language bindings – NodeJS
❌(b)
🏗️
✅
✅ (d)
Client Language bindings – JVM
❌
🏗️
✅
✅ (d)
Client Language bindings – Rust
❌
🏗️
❌
✅ (d)
Client Language bindings – .NET
❌
🏗️
❌
✅ (d)
Client Contract Language bindings – Go
❌
🏗️
✅
✅ (e)
Contract Language bindings – NodeJS
❌
🏗️
✅
✅ (e)
Contract Language bindings – JVM
❌
🏗️
✅
✅ (e)
Contract Language bindings – Rust
❌
🏗️
❌
✅ (e)
Contract Language bindings – .NET
❌
🏗️
❌
✅ (e)
Trusted Relays
✅
✅
✅
✅
Trustless Relayer
✅
✅
✅
🏗️
Generic Data Exports
🏗️
🏗️
🏗️
❌
Ledger Data Backups
❌
🏗️
❌
❌
Blockchain of Blockchains – To Store Data (e.g. Transactions)
✅
❌
🏗️
🏗️
Blockchain of Blockchains – To Store Network Information
🏗️
❌
🏗️
🏗️
Cross-authentication – light client
✅
🏗️
❌
🏗️
Cross-authentication – Federated via other identity providers
✅
🏗️
📝
📝
Arbitrary data transfer and computation
✅
✅
✅
✅
Exactly-once operation
✅
🏗️
🏗️
❌
Handling misbehaviour
✅
🏗️
🏗️
🏗️
Does not incorporate interaction between new actor(s)
✅
🏗️
✅
✅
Generate state proofs for external consumption
✅
✅
✅
❌
Verify state proofs independently, without becoming a network insider
✅
✅
✅
❌
Move assets from one ledger to another
✅(c)
✅
✅
✅
Copy assets across ledgers while retaining provenance knowledge
✅(c)
🏗️
✅
✅
Atomically exchange assets in different ledgers
✅(c)
🏗️
✅
🏗️
Accountability (auditability) for data, assets, transactions that involved interoperation
Ability to support cross-network smart contracts (ledger–>ledger invocations)
✅
🏗️
🏗️
✅
End-to-end confidentiality
🏗️
🏗️
📝
✅
Privacy-preserving queries
🏗️
🏗️
🏗️
🏗️
Support for network discovery and connection bootstrapping
🏗️
🏗️
🏗️
✅
Support for routing data and assets via intermediate networks
📝
🏗️
🏗️
✅
Future Work for 2022 Q1
Hyperledger Cactus
Support for the Open Digital Asset Protocol (ODAP)
Improved documentation and more examples (similar to fabric-samples)
Increased number of maintainers
Public test deployment of a Cactus network
Cactus benchmarks that are reproducible by anyone the same way the functional test cases are as long as they have access to a cloud provider account or a k8s cluster
Hyperledger FireFly
Multi-ledger support
Pluggable DID provider support
Pluggable API Security (e.g. OAuth 2.0)
Active-active clustering
NoSQL database support
Weaver
Implementation of cross-network decentralized identity and credential exchanges as trust basis for interoperation (currently in design spec)
Relay driver and support data/state view and asset transfers in Hyperledger Besu (Hyperledger Fabric and Corda already supported)
Relay module: more robustness (fault tolerance), add message queueing features, distribution and load balancing, make compatible with ODAP
Cross-network transaction invocation and event publish/subscribe
End-to-end confidentiality support for state and asset sharing
Augmented data/state sharing protocol to use verifiable external observation features through which the freshness of state can be verified
Improved documentation, tutorials, and testing features
Added performance evaluation capabilities
Inter-compatibility with Hyperledger Cactus through merged and aggregated features
YUI
Other ledger support (possibly other Hyperledger projects)
Enhanced support for Solidity and Ethereum-based ledgers
Enhanced support for connecting the Cosmos ecosystem (such as Tendermint light client for Solidity)
Improved documentation and release samples
Notes:
a) Based on the Inter Blockchain Communication Protocol (IBC) (i.e., the specifications define packet data structure and the interface of handler of packets) b) Developers only need to interact with the ledger and the framework does not incorporate another layer between them c) Supported by auxiliary modules such as Cross framework d) Hyperledger FireFly API is REST and JSON, so all language “bindings” are supported e) Access to contracts via Hyperledger FireFly is also fully REST-ified, so all language bindings are supported
When I first came across Hyperledger Aries, I was still a student at the University of Applied Sciences in Utrecht. I had never contributed to open source, and only minimally understood how the process of contributing and maintaining even functioned. Now, only two years later, my company (Animo) specializes in building SSI solutions using Hyperledger Aries and other SSI technologies, and I am one of the core contributors to a lot of the open source libraries built on top of it.
In this blogpost I’m going to share what it’s like to be a maintainer for the Hyperledger Aries project. You’ll learn how you can start contributing and maybe even set yourself on a path to becoming a maintainer.
The ecosystem
Hyperledger Aries provides standards and protocols focused on holding and exchanging verifiable credentials, but it is much more than that. Hyperledger Aries provides the foundation for peer-to-peer interactions, exchange of verifiable credentials and secure messaging. It provides standards through the so-called Aries RFCs and has open source implementations in Go, JavaScript, Python, Rust and .NET.
Aries uses DIDComm for a secure messaging protocol, but DIDComm is a lot more than just a way to exchange credentials. Once you start getting a sense of the enormous potential of DIDComm, it’s difficult not to get excited. Aries provides you with an agent that helps you manage your digital interactions, just like your browser helps you interact with the web.
At Animo, we’re leveraging Aries at the core of almost all of our projects. We contribute to several open source frameworks, develop applications on top of these frameworks and build end-to-end solutions using verifiable credentials. For example, we recently started a pilot with the Centre for Emergency Control Room Innovation that leverages DIDComm for secure communication and exchange of location between the emergency call centre staff and a qualified volunteer. Although we are involved with several Aries frameworks, we have a particular expertise in (and fondness for) Aries Framework JavaScript (AFJ).
We use AFJ for most of our projects. We’ve contributed a lot to it because, simply put, we saw the potential of the framework and someone needed to do the work to get it there. Being a maintainer of a project means more than just contributing code.It means you’re responsible for the overall direction and vision of the project. Maintainers concern themselves with the roadmap, the place of the project within the ecosystem and coordination of working group efforts and calls. On a more operational level, there’s also a lot of reviewing pull requests, addressing github issues, answering questions on Rocket.Chat and writing documentation. If this sounds time consuming, that’s because it is. But putting in the effort is essential to creating long lasting, structurally sound code that can be freely used by anyone to build amazing things.
Contributing to a project hosted by Hyperledger, specifically, means you get a lot of the needed infrastructure other projects might not have. There is a wiki for meeting notes, a Zoom account for our meetings, GitHub repos, unlimited CI minutes, a chat platform, and assistance from the Hyperledger staff when needed.
Becoming a maintainer
I can recommend that every developer be involved with open source, and every company invest in open source software. Open source software provides the foundation for almost all software in the world, and is essential for a world where self-sovereign identity becomes a standard.
Besides, working on open source software can be a really good learning experience. You get to work with some of the greatest minds of the industry on the future of digital identity. Maintaining and contributing to Hyperledger, and open source in general, has been really valuable for me. There is something magical about how open source works, and how we can work together towards a shared goal, even if you’re halfway across the world.
I can imagine that sounds a bit intimidating. Luckily, you don’t have to start out this way. You can start the way we all do, by quietly listening to working group calls until you find something you want to participate in. Once you decide you’d like to become a contributor or a maintainer, you’ll find that communities will be happy to help you get started.
Here are some of my personal tips to get involved with a Hyperledger project. I’ve used the AFJ community as an example throughout.
Attend working group calls – Working group calls are the perfect place to introduce yourself and show your ambition to contribute to the project. This is also the place to stay up to date on the current and planned work of the project. (AFJ Meetings)
Get familiar with the codebase – Even though it can be daunting and hard to make sense of a project at first, it is important to get familiar with the project. You should make it as easy as possible for maintainers to review your initial PR and get it merged! (AFJ Repository)
Answer questions on Rocket.Chat – Help other people get started with the project and answer their questions! You learn a lot by finding answers to other people’s questions. And also don’t hesitate to ask questions yourself. There are a lot of people with very specific domain knowledge eager to answer your questions. (Aries Channel, AFJ Channel)
Look at open issues – Knowing what to work on can be complex when getting familiar with a new project. Github issues often describe missing features or bugs, which can be a great way to find the first item to work on. In AFJ, we currently have more than 70 open issues, all waiting for someone to pick them up. (AFJ Open Issues)
Read about the topic – Read about the topics that underpin the project. For SSI, I recommend reading the Self Sovereign Identity book. If you’re ready to get a bit more in-depth, I recommend to start reading the Aries RFCs. These are fundamental for contributing to any Aries project.
My best advice is to experience it yourself. Even the smallest pull request is valuable to a project and can give you the confidence to keep going. And, before you know it, you’re the maintainer of a project yourself.
If you have any questions, or if you’d like to make contributing to open source software your job, you can reach me at timo@animo.id. We’re always looking for motivated and ambitious people to join our team and are always happy to help new contributors get started.
One of the biggest barriers to growth for the blockchain industry is the availability of developers with the right skills and training. At Norilsk Nickel, we are tackling that problem directly with the Blockchain Master’s Program, which we launched in 2019 in partnership with MIPT and IBM.
Norilsk Nickel is constantly introducing and using advanced engineering technologies, and it is therefore logical that the company has focused its attention on blockchain technologies. In addition, working with students is one of the most important areas of the company’s activities. This has become the background for creation of a Blockchain Master’s Program in cooperation with the major technology players leading in their respective fields.
The Blockchain Master’s Program is based in the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, which is among the Russian technical universities regularly included in the top international rankings. MIPT is always interested in the development and implementation of educational programs in new promising areas. Educational programs at MIPT embrace numerous high-tech areas in partnership with Russian and international industrial companies.
One of the challenges in creating the Master’s Program was the fact that this was essentially the first Russian full-fledged educational program entirely dedicated to Distributed Ledger Technologies (DLT). The best experts in the market, from Russia and beyond, have been involved in the development of this educational course. Since all of them are practicing experts, the curriculum is updated on an ongoing basis taking into account the latest technology developments as well as business expectations. All our lecturers work in the fields they teach for leading companies, mainly in the IT sector.
The primary task of the Master’s Program is not only to educate the students but also to enable them to gain real practical experience. Therefore, it was not easy to create a balanced curriculum. We aimed to combine both theoretical and practical disciplines to provide students with the most relevant knowledge as well as skills that will assist them in pursuing a successful business or academic career.
Our Hyperledger Fabric course, a cornerstone of the curriculum, provides the students with detailed information about the modular architecture of the Hyperledger Fabric platform and its capacities for creating blockchain applications. Given the fact that Hyperledger Fabric is the de facto standard for the enterprise blockchain platforms, the study of this subject takes two full semesters. As a result of the training, students create their own Hyperledger Fabric projects helping to solve relevant application tasks.
One of Norilsk Nickel’s key education goals is supporting talented students. That’s why all applicants who have successfully passed the entrance tests can study free of charge. The Blockchain Master’s Program provides for paid internships as well, so any student who is serious about studying can get an offer as early as after the first academic semester. Meanwhile, the student can be engaged in both business projects and scientific and research activities. Norilsk Nickel, as a major industrial player, is committed to providing all interested students with the opportunity to build their career path concurrently with the study on the basis of real projects or scientific inquiries.
Over the three years of the Master’s Program existence, we have witnessed vertical growth of the number of potential applicants, which indicates the importance of having such programs. To meet the demand, we made a decision to double the intake of students this year.
We have also revised and adjusted the curriculum to make the program as relevant as possible, based on the development of technologies and the requests formed by the business environment.
We actively participate in various events both within and outside MIPT to demonstrate our expertise in blockchain technology. Such events enable the students and the IT community to understand the relevance and importance of this technology and help us to make it more understandable for a wider audience.
To grow the Blockchain Master’s Program further, we plan to strengthen the level of scientific research to compete with top technical academic institutions around the world. We already have reached some preliminary agreements for this expanded focus.
This four-part series is aimed at using the open source and collaborative nature of blockchain to tackle issues plaguing human consumption and improve society for future generations. We hope that this series can invoke quick movement on use cases with high potential to improve social good.
In Part I we looked at how governments can create markets to solve recycling contamination and reward citizensviablockchain. This engages consumers, reduces confusion and boosts recycling participation. Part II (below) focuses on using blockchain to track hazardous and toxic materials from the point of purchase to ensure proper material handling to prevent fires, death, and pollution. Part III looks at government tax credits to expedite the adoption of recycling and composting programs by communities and businesses, while using blockchain to verify compliance, traceability, and program participation. Lastly, in Part IV we will discuss Zero Waste initiatives that cities, businesses, and facilities can implement to reduce the carbon and pollutant impact of their supply chains.
Part II Tracking Hazardous and Toxic Materials
Pollution, Chemicals, and Fires
Pollution is the presence of some materials in the environment and the state of the natural environment being contaminated with potentially harmful substances as an outcome of human activities. Annually, there are over 4.2 million deaths due to outdoor air pollution. Water pollution caused 1.8 million deaths in 2015. As of September 2021, nearly 300 million tons of hazardous waste has been thrown out globally since the beginning of this year alone! Human consumption can cause substantial harm to our health leading to chronic diseases, environmental harms, and death. In addition, studies show that toxic chemicals are invading our bodies and breast-feeding women are passing these toxic chemicals on to their babies. These chemicals can cause cancer and reproductive issues, damage DNA, and disrupt hormone systems of animals and people, among a myriad of other risks.
Indeed, human consumption directly impacts our air, water, and soil throughout the entire product supply chain. From the extraction of raw materials to the manufacturing processes, transportation, distribution, storage, consumption, and ultimate disposal of materials in landfills and incinerators, each step of the chain releases carbon, chemicals, and other pollutants into groundwater, toxify the earth’s soil, and pollutes our air. However, for this specific blog, we are focusing on the end of the supply chain, looking at how we can keep potentially hazardous and toxic materials in circulation while minimizing impact by enforcing the proper disposal of these materials.
On the bright side, controlling pollution and human consumption has a great return on investment. According to the Lancet Commission on Health, the global economic costs of pollution are massive, totaling “$4.6 trillion per year—6.2% of global economic output.” In the United States, air pollution control pays off at a rate of 30-1. Every dollar invested in air pollution control generates thirty dollars of benefits. Since 1970, the United States has invested around $65 billion in air pollution control and received around $1.5 trillion in benefits. Indeed, hazardous materials have the potential to desperately impact vulnerable communities, but the efforts to control them also provide an opportunity to create jobs, improve health, and create economic opportunity.
Fires
Do you know where to recycle/properly dispose of your electronics, chemicals, and other hazardous materials? Do you know if your trash or recycling was the cause of a fire? Improper disposal of dangerous material can lead to fires that occur in collection trucks, trash cans and dumpsters, or a recycling, landfill, or incineration facility. For example, lithium ion batteries in electronics can cause fires that ignite nearby materials creating an uncontrollable blaze. These fires often require the fire station to put them out and result in additional chemicals such as Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) to be released into the environment.This further pollutes our air, water, and soil. Even when people know about the dangers, processes to motivate consumers and inspire behavior change are lacking. Further, because of the vast amount of materials in our supply chains, it is complicated to know what to dispose of where, and what can be potentially dangerous to frontline workers and vulnerable communities.
The scenario below provides greater detail using an example from our household electronics.
Scenario #2 Harry’s Hazardous Mishap
Let’s assume Harry just broke his new electronic device that contains a lithium-ion battery. Instead of taking it to a local electronics retailer, the local hazardous recycling center, or having it collected, he tosses the device into his trash can. On garbage day, the garbage collector (Wanda Worker) arrives, uses the claw to collect Harry’s trash and is off to the next home. It is a hot day. About thirty minutes later, Wanda is almost done with her route and begins to head back to dump her truckload. She looks in her sideview mirrors and begins to see smoke billowing out of her truck. She radios into dispatch that she might have a problem. Quickly the smoke starts to increase, and Wanda is forced to dump her truckload for her own safety, to protect the vehicle, and even prevent an explosion from occurring. Dispatch calls emergency services, and a firetruck and ambulance arrive shortly to put out the fire and check on Wanda.
A scenario like this happened as recently as May of this year in Manassas, Virginia. Find a news link here. Find the tweet here. The article also reports that there was a fire at the Material Recovery Facility as well earlier in the week. Two fires in one week! On July 7, 2021, a Waste Management vehicle caught fire in Oregon. This electronics recycling problem is not siloed to the United States; here is a video from a fire in Australia:
The statistics are not crystal clear on how many fires occur due to people improperly disposing of materials, but it has been reported that there are over 8,000 landfill fires occur annually. Humans have more and more devices in our home, and we must take special precautions when handling them at the end of life. Fires caused by batteries, devices and related materials are just one example. There are other chemical instances, such as paints, heavy metals and other substances that might not spark a fire, but are toxic when disposed of and can ultimately enter our groundwater supply. For example, when it rains on landfills, the rain can flush these chemicals into our water supply as leachate.
When businesses dump hazardous waste, there are often repercussions. For instance, Home Depot was fined $27.84 million in California for improperly disposing of hazardous waste. However, consumer enforcement is much more difficult, costly, and essentially non-existent as it requires a manual inspection of thousands of trash and recycling containers. In addition, there are privacy concerns surrounding people inspecting trash and recycling. In some cases, it could be ruled an invasion of privacy, whereas in other areas private receptacles are subject to inspection.
So where does blockchain come into play? Blockchain creates new models for ensuring that these hazardous items never end up in the wrong place and that those creating dangerous and unsafe workplaces for frontline workers, toxifying our water supply and contributing to air and soil pollution are held accountable. Dangerous and hazardous materials can be tracked from the point of purchase and verified once the person disposes of them in the proper location. This material list could range from electronics to chemicals and any other poisonous or toxic material. A discount or other brand powered incentive could encourage people to properly handle and dispose of these types of materials. Essentially, it would amount to a brand-powered “bottle” bill for hazardous and dangerous materials, which result in fires, groundwater contamination and air pollution, especially in vulnerable communities.
Chem Chain is a company that focuses on tracking the chemicals contained in products to educate consumers on the risks that exist throughout the supply chain and looks at the impact of the products we use on a daily basis. Deloitte also provided some guidance on how blockchain can be used to tackle these issues in the chemical industry supply chain.
The IBM Food Trust certification program could also be a model for tracking hazardous waste. It even provides a roadmap for monitoring and measuring the overall impact of individual consumers disposing of materials properly and the economic savings from reduced fires, pollution, and safety issues that are created by toxic and hazardous materials.
By requiring certificates on a blockchain chain powered by the state or federal government, municipalities and other entities could issue licenses for these types of household electronics from the point of purchase. The license would mandate that they can’t be disposed of in the trash or recycling. Instead, they must be dropped off at a collection site, to ensure that the materials are properly handled. Indeed, this could create a market for licensed material collectors to handle materials on an ad-hoc personalized basis from consumers homes and create more public awareness around this ever present issue..
Programs like this can encourage individuals to purchase more sustainable and circular products. But, in the case where these metals and lithium-ion batteries cannot be avoided, at least we can ensure Wanda Worker gets home to her family safely as the public becomes motivated to get educated and do the right thing.
The purpose of these blogs is to stir ideas and innovation in the circular economy to better understand the current interactions of material life cycles. The Hyperledger Social Impact Group hopes that these blogs can create interest for:
· Focusing on clean air, water, soil, by increasing material collection efficiently and eliminating waste.
· Calculating product lifecycles for consumers and business materials.
· Analyzing political, economic, social, and practical blockchain applications.
· Building proof-of-concept applications to demo for stakeholders.
If you want to be part of the discussion or, even better, help build solutions that reduce the impact of hazardous materials disposal, please check out the Hyperledger Social Impact SIG new member center. Or subscribe to the Social Impact SIG mailing list for updates and meeting notifications.