There’s no better time of year to reflect on the power of technology to improve lives so we are celebrating #HyperledgerSocialImpact month. Organizations of all sizes and types are levering Hyperledger technologies to power solutions that are driving real change. The impact ranges from boosting financial inclusion to tackling climate change and sustainable and equitable business practices to increasing access to healthcare, education and more
Read on for just a sampling of the solutions powered by Hyperledger technologies that at work for the greater good.
Bakong (and beyond): CBDC payment data for credit underwriting in emerging economies
Access to credit is crucial for micro-, small-, and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) to share in growth, especially in emerging economies. However, they often lack the records needed to verify creditworthiness. Hyperledger contributor SORAMITSU has learned firsthand the challenges faced by emerging-market MSMEs and lending institutions alike through its work on Bakong, the National Bank of Cambodia’s blockchain-based digital currency and payment infrastructure.
As a finalist in the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Global CBDC Challenge, SORAMITSU designed an app capable of querying payment data relevant to credit underwriting. The app is designed for Bakong—which is built using Hyperledger Iroha—but could overlay any DLT-based payment system. Lenders could use the app to query data that are relevant to a given wallet’s creditworthiness, such as payments volume, regularity and geographical area of incoming and outgoing payments, and monthly average balance. Importantly, the app only allows queries to be designed in Boolean (true/false) format, and requires approval (a cryptographic signature) from the wallet being queried. By allowing lenders to query wallets under strict conditions of data minimization and informed consent, the application enables accurate underwriting, while mitigating the risk of data monopolization and threats to privacy. SORAMITSU will draw on the lessons learned in the MAS Challenge throughout its work on CBDC apps and functions targeting social impact worldwide—including in its new cooperation with the central bank of Laos.
Circulor: Transparency for conflict and critical minerals sourcing in the electronics and electric vehicle supply chain
Demand for raw materials such as cobalt, tantalum, and tungsten, which are critical to electronics and electric vehicle battery manufacturing, grows exponentially. Large quantities of these minerals come from Central Africa, where human rights organizations report extremely bad working conditions and cases of child labor. In 2014, UNICEF reported that there were as many as 40,000 child miners in the Democratic Republic of Congo alone. Amnesty International, meanwhile, reports that the cobalt industry is rampant with illegal and unethical practices. This results in increased pressure on manufacturers to ensure the ethical sourcing of their raw materials and full visibility into their supply chains. Leveraging Hyperledger Fabric and the Oracle Blockchain Platform, Circulor builds solutions to track minerals provenance and CO2 emissions and also improve efficiency in complex global supply chains. EV manufacturers like Volvo, Polestar, Mercedes-Benz and others who’ve committed to ethical sourcing utilize Circulor’s solution to track vital information about the authenticity and sourcing of raw materials—from mining and refining to actual use in battery units of the cars rolling off the assembly line.
INDETAIL: Socially conscious projects on the foundation of blockchain networks
INDETAIL, based in the Japanese city of Sapporo, is spearheading the global development of blockchain distributed ledger networks, working with investment-worthy partners on innovative, socially conscious projects. Among INDETAIL’s projects leveraging the Hyperledger Fabric-based Oracle Blockchain Platform are a token-based electric transportation system for seniors; a joint effort with Hokkaido Electric Power on electric vehicle charging stations in rural areas; an automated multilingual smart check-in service “maneKEY” for accommodation facilities; and the Riso Card, a digital wallet that supports online currencies and enables fingerprint identification.
Jyoti – Fair Works: Blockchain tech to help keep “fair fashion” in style
Jyoti – Fair Works is leveraging a Hyperledger Fabric-powered solution to give customers a view into its humanitarian supply chain. From its start, the company has made supply chain transparency part of its fair fashion brand. However, as demand has grown in recent years, Jyoti – Fair Works found its downstream supplier network was difficult to track. To maintain that transparency and to better explain it to the company’s customers, Jyoti – Fair Works has started using a blockchain application built on the Oracle Blockchain Platform by retraced, a participant in the Oracle for Startups program. By mapping its supply chain data—including certified details about the cotton growers, textile manufacturers, fabric dyers, designers, and seamstresses—in retraced’s application, Jyoti – Fair Works can update order, delivery, and production schedules and then create, print, and affix QR codes to both physical and digital garment tags.
KrypC Environmental Footprint Tracker: Showing consumers each bottles carbon and water footprint
KrypC has partnered with Heineken for a pilot blockchain program to show consumers each bottles’ carbon and water footprint. Imagine finding out the environmental footprint of your beer bottle by just one click! Hyperledger Fabric helped make this realistic by tackling the challenge of realizing full transparency over the hundreds of thousands of farmers in Heineken’s global supply chain. Consumers through this pilot were able to scan their bottle and view its actual journey as well as its environmental impact.
Oceanworks and Keep Sea Blue: Traceability of recycled plastics used in making consumer and industrial goods
Powered by Oracle Blockchain technology based on Hyperledger Fabric, Oceanworks and Keep Sea Blue provide traceability platforms and certifications that are used to encourage effective plastic waste collections from oceans and beaches, linked to sustainable reuse and certification of products made from the recycled materials. Oceanworks uses Oracle’s Intelligent Track & Trace SaaS application, and Keep Sea Blue uses a custom application built directly on the blockchain platform. Both companies have implemented monitoring processes that connect the plastics value chain—collectors, recyclers, manufacturers, brand owners—to track the journey of plastic waste, creating a transparent digital audit trail of the recycled material, and ensuring end-to-end recycled product transparency and traceability.
Symbridge: Building a market of trust
Envision this: A marketplace where there is trust and transparency. For a free market to operate truly efficiently, transparency is a vital ingredient. Transparency and trust are becoming increasingly important to investors who demand ready access to information, having been taken advantage of too many times or been shocked by headlines that have impacted their portfolio or their expectations for doing business with a company. In an industry like crypto where the market remains highly volatile, regulators are rightfully concerned for the consumer in being able to understand all risks involved.
Symbridge is the first of its kind digital asset exchange looking to change this. Built on the fundamentals of trust, innovation, and transparency, Symbridge combines all the security, efficiency, transparency, and accuracy of a decentralized exchange with the high-frequency and low-latency trading of traditional exchanges. Licensed in the United States, the Symbridge validation network, which was built using Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger Fabric, solves for these issues and helps to build a market of trust. All transactions that have taken place on the blockchain are visible to users of Symbridge’s blockchain explorer, allowing for full auditability. This creates a scenario in which investors can feel confident they are aligned with a company that shares their values and is willing to promote further positive impacts across the industry.
Join the conversation using #HyperledgerSocialImpact on social channels. Or get involved with the Social Impact Special Interest Group.
Cover photo by Louis Maniquet on Unsplash
