Blockchain for the greater good: a round-up of #HyperledgerSocialImpact solutions

While blockchain is taking an increasingly strategic role across a number of industries, one of its biggest areas of impact is powering applications that address the greater social good. Blockchain-based solutions are bringing new scope and scale to social impact efforts around the world. 

Read on for details about a sampling of #HyperledgerSocialImpact solutions where Hyperledger platforms are unpinning innovative new approaches to solving very hard and human problems: 

Fair Fashion

The Brazilian textile industry represents 10% of the nation’s industrial GDP, and it is also the second-largest employer in the country. Despite its importance, fashion is ranked second as the industry with most cases of forced labor or conditions similar to slavery.

As an effort to fight this problem, in recent years, brands and manufacturers in the textile industry have been auditing production sites. Because of the lack of integration between the actors of this production chain, auditings is still very inefficient, as it involves high costs and offers a vast scope of error.

To solve these problems and reverse this scenario, Blockforce – a Brazilian blockchain researcher and builder and general member of Hyperledger –  in partnership with C&A Foundation, Instituto E and COPPEAD-UFRJ, developed a blockchain-based solution called Fair Fashion. Designed using the Hyperledger Fabric framework, this solution promotes visibility and accountability in the fashion supply chain, with the goal of improving working conditions and the efficiency of processes in the production chain. 

QMC HealthID

Quantum Materials Corp (QMC) in San Marcos, Texas, has created a mobile app called QMC HealthID, which is seeking to enable people to return to the workforce by providing Covid-19 test credentials without compromising their personal privacy data protection rights. This is achieved by partnering with verified test partners who store the user’s diagnosis in QMC’s HIPAA compliant database. From a compliance perspective, QMC HealthID records all its interactions on a blockchain, providing regulators with an immutable audit trail. QMC is leveraging Hyperledger Sawtooth, which is deployed and managed by Sextant, the blockchain management platform provided by Blockchain Technology Partners (BTP), a Hyperledger member.

Silver Lining Initiative

Over 100 million people around the world will go to sleep tonight without a roof over their heads. Fortunately, technology companies are in the middle of a full-fledged technological revolution that is changing the way we deliver healthcare and social services. A prime example: the Silver Linings Initiative, the world’s first blockchain-based digital identity and marketplace solution designed specifically to empower and connect those experiencing homelessness. Envisioned by Troon Technologies, the Silver Linings Initiative aims to combat two of the biggest challenges experienced by the homeless population:

1.     Identity verification and acquisition of government identification;

2.     Access to, and awareness of, social support services.

This is managed through a proprietary software application that combines a user-friendly UX with the power of the blockchain to create a safe, secure, and trustworthy system of social support.

Trusted Voices

The exponential growth of fake content and disinformation represents a major trust gap, and points out inherent design issues in the architecture of the Internet that need to be addressed if we wish to safeguard trust and the legitimacy of information resources. Penta Network, which focuses on using distributed ledgers for data related problems in multi-stakeholder ecosystems, is tackling this challenge with Trusted Voices. 

Trusted Voices is based on Hyperledger Fabric and other blockchain technologies to provision a chain of custody for information and media assets. Trusted Voices makes it possible to demonstrate the authentication of digital content at time of original publication and subsequently track it across digital platforms, including social media. A robust chain of custody enables consumers to track content and trace information assets back to their authors and origins. Content traceability offers a powerful tool to combat the proliferation of inaccurate or unauthorized content, while concurrently protecting the intellectual property rights of the authors. There are broad opportunities for this technology: from flagging and removing fake news and disinformation to collaborative networks based on shared content. 

Verified.Me: Data and Digital for Good

Verified.Me is the product of collaboration between a variety of industry players working together to build a solution that respects and protects citizens’ personal information for the benefit and betterment of all. By taking a multi-participant ecosystem approach, Verified.Me raises the bar against bad actors thereby helping to mitigate fraud and improve the digital lives of its users. Verified.Me is built on top of blockchain based on the Linux Foundation’s open source Hyperledger Fabric.

Join the conversation about solutions and applications that address the greater social good with #HyperledgerSocialImpact this month on social channels. Or get involved with the Social Impact Special Interest Group.

Cover image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay.