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| Blockchain Technology for Global Social Change | Profs. Jane Thomason (University College London, UK) et al.
©2019 | 243 pgs. | EISBN: 9781522595809 | - Edited by Leading Researchers in Blockchain
- Features 10 Chapters
- Covers Digital Government, Socioeconomic Inequality, &
Sustainable Development - Excellent Addition to Your Institution's Library
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Blockchain has recently been trending in the news due to the increase in popularity of cryptocurrencies, including bitcoin, dogecoin, and Ethereum. However, according to a recent UN article, blockchain and cryptocurrency are not only creating new opportunities in fortune 500 markets but could play an important role in international sustainable development. This is due to this groundbreaking technology being secure from fraud and providing transparency of transactions, thereby creating opportunities for use in regions that have a high-level of corruption or weakened infrastructure. This includes implementation in:
- The UN’s World Food Program: This is the largest humanitarian effort to provide money to underdeveloped countries.
- Protecting the Environment and Climate Change: Through the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), blockchain has been utilized to help efforts to stop illegal fishing. It can also assist in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and providing transparency in climate finance and clean energy markets.
- Supply Chain Management: Through storing data on the blockchain it can make it easier to monitor the supply chain and review opportunities streamline the process.
Additionally, according to a recent Forbes article, it can also aid efforts to prevent fraud in voting and remove the need for the manual collection and verification of ballots. Understanding the powerful opportunity of blockchain technology, Profs. Jane Thomason (University of College London, UK) and et al discuss the opportunities of utilizing blockchain for social change in their chapter, “Can Blockchain Really Help the Poor?: If So, Who Is Trying To?” from Blockchain Technology for Global Social Change (IGI Global).
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One of the great criticisms – and frustrations - for social entrepreneurs, researchers and technologists alike, is the observation that Blockchain has so much potential but so few proven and scalable use cases. Blockchain is an emergent technology, and many of the social impact projects only started in 2017 (Stanford Graduate School of Business, 2018), so there very few – if any - that are at scale. This means that a case study approach is the most suitable way of understanding how Blockchains can
be used.
Through the authors’ networks and knowledge, and by expert consultation, we have identified a selection of potential high-impact projects. Specific companies were invited to participate, by email and personal contact. A template tool was designed and presented to each organisation for completion. Data was received, analysed, presented, compared and mapped to the B4SC model identified in Chapter One.
Deployed at scale, there are infinite possibilities for Blockchain to ameliorate challenges faced by the poor and marginalised; providing safe access to critical resources and employment, financial inclusion, health care and education amongst many others. Such opportunity allows us to envision a world where the poor, with an identity on the Blockchain, can secure finance, where the two billion unbanked poor, can access the global financial system through a mobile phone and digital currencies, and where people who live on customary land, have the title secured on a Blockchain and can leverage that title to access finance. Blockchain could resolve complexities in the distribution of foreign aid; ensuring it is delivered directly to targeted beneficiaries using a smart contract, without using a middleman. While the potential for social impact is yet to be fully realised – for there are few use cases at scale in developing countries - those that do exist provide an exciting glimmer of the developments yet to follow and instil hope in the authors that Blockchain could be a revolutionary technology.
Many of the Blockchain applications that have been built in the West are built for smart phones and high infrastructure settings. However, many hard to reach populations have, at best, 2G networks (GSMA, 2018), they live in areas of unreliable mobile service or have limited access to electricity.
In this chapter, we profile two innovative case studies, Hiveonline and IDBox, in which the founders are building for low infrastructure settings in Niger and Papua New Guinea. These projects demonstrate that even in low connectivity settings, it is possible to deploy life changing technology.
The endeavour in this chapter is to profile innovative case studies in Blockchain solutions which may realise the technology’s potential if brought to scale. It is thus, through the learning and experimentation of these pioneers that a solution for significant social impact could be developed.
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