Top 15 Blockchain Implementations beyond Finance
Blockchain for Social Good
1. Project Amply: Revolutionize early childhood development:
Project Amply strives to revolutionize early childhood development in Africa by combining mobile and blockchain technology to increase impact and accountability of public services and generate real-time data. In a pilot project, Amply is being used to replace an existing paper-based system to register children for a government funded pre-school subsidy in South Africa. Service providers use a mobile app to verify children’s attendance at classes and to capture other useful information. This will increase trust in the funding mechanism and make funding available to more children who need it. It will save administration time and costs. And it will provide really useful information about how and where services are being delivered.
2. Building Blocks: UN World Food Programme for using Blockchain Against Hunger:
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) developed a pilot known as ‘Building Blocks’ to harness technology in support of Syrian Refugees by deploying cutting-edge blockchain technology to make cash-based transfers faster, cheaper and more secure. In Jordan’s Azraq camp, 10,000 refugees are now able to pay for their food by means of entitlements recorded on a blockchain-based computing platform.
Blockchain for Education
3. Digitization of Education records using the Blockchain:
Sony intends to digitize education records using blockchain as a centralized ledger for storing educational information, such as degrees, diplomas, tests and more, as a kind of ‘digital transcript.’ The system prevents fraud, while providing access to third-parties for job interviews and assessment among other purposes
Land records and Reality
4. Sweden’s Blockchain-powered Land Registry:
The World Bank estimates that 70% of the world’s population lacks access to land titling. Getting everyone to agree on every stage of a property transaction, and to record it permanently somewhere, is a feat of security, coordination, and trust. Lantmäteriet, the land registry of Sweden, officially started to utilize Blockchain technology to register land and properties. Since early 2017, various countries including Brazil have begun to utilize Blockchain technology to facilitate the ownership of land and properties in a decentralized, transparent and immutable network. Keeping property records — one of the most important documents a person holds — on the Blockchain is important in developing markets such as Brazil. The Blockchain allows ownership and title disputes to be handled in a fair and transparent fashion, and serves as a backup in case the original is destroyed or misplaced.
5. Honduras — Permanent and secure Land Title Record System:
Honduras, one of the poorest countries in the Americas, has partnered with a Texas-based company to build a permanent and secure land title record system using Blockchain. In the past, Honduras has struggled with land title fraud when the country’s database was basically hacked. So, bureaucrats could get in there and they could get themselves beachfront properties. By building an immutable title record, backed by blockchain, Honduras can leapfrog systems built in the developed world as this would allow for more secure mortgages, contracts, and mineral rights.
BenBen is building a land registry in Ghana to help lock in property rights for citizens. Land records are stored in a centralized database and it is virtually impossible to collateralize property rights in Ghana because the paper registry system is unenforceable in court. Because of unenforceability, banks won’t accept land as collateral. This situation leaves millions without the possibility of leveraging their property to get loans and rely on the rule of law for protection — continuing the ongoing cycle of poverty for much of the population. BenBen is creating a top-of-stack land registry and verification platform for financial institutions. This platform captures transactions and verifies the data. BenBen works with financial institutions to update current registries, enable smart transactions and distribute private keys for clients — to allow an automated and trusted property transactions between all parties.
Fisheries
7. The Earth Twine-Stratis Platform -World’s first seafood dedicated Blockchain:
The first implementation of blockchain technology for the seafood industry, the second largest traded commodity on Earth. The global fish & seafood market had total revenues of $158.1bn in 2015. This partnership creates the first dedicated blockchain system for origin data and tracking for the international seafood industry. This platform combines collaborative technologies (Earth Twine, SPARKL, Stratis), and will provide the means for tracking mandatory data for IUU compliance
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Cargo & Shipping
8. Blockchain for Marine Insurance.
EY teams with Microsoft, Maersk to launch the first blockchain platform for marine insurance, alongside Microsoft, A.P Moller-Maersk and others. Blockchain will be used to take paper out of the marine insurance equation. EY has worked closely with blockchain developer Guardtime. Microsoft and Maersk are among firms to join the collaboration. The distributed ledger will be used to capture information about shipments, risk and liability, and to help firms comply with insurance regulations.
It will also ensure transparency across an interconnected network of clients, brokers, insurers and other third parties. EY explained that its decision to secure marine insurance data with blockchain was due to a “complete inefficiency” in the sector.
9. Watson-powered Blockchain Service:
Shipping giant tests IBM’s blockchain tech to track cargo: Maersk Line, known as the world’s largest container shipping company, has teamed up with IBM to start using blockchain to track its cargo. Watson-powered blockchain service helps companies use blockchain. For Maersk, it’s to give buyers, sellers and customs officials a way to keep track of the goods it hauls as they make their way across the globe. Everybody involved can check where the shipment is at any point. A single container making its way from East Africa to Europe could require stamps and approvals from as many as 30 people. By the time it reaches its destination, it would have gone through over 200 different interactions. By using blockchain, Maersk can get rid of all the paperwork and make the process smoother and faster.
10. Shipping Giant Deploys Blockchain to Combat Industry Cyberattacks:
Anglo-American shipping corporation Marine Transport International (MTI) has implemented its Blockchain pilot which will avoid NotPetya-style cyberattacks. As per MTI, it could lead up to “90 percent reductions” in administrative costs. In recent months the shipping industry has fallen victim to industrial-scale cyberattacks which have left large shipping lines, completely paralyzed and unable to serve clients. A Blockchain-enabled supply chain is highly resilient to cyberattack — a copy of the essential shipping data is stored on each node on a decentralized network, meaning that even if one node is compromised, the data is safe nevertheless.
11. Pilot Voyage — Blockchain Taking Hold in Shipping, Insurance:
Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) completed its first blockchain pilot voyage as the latest development in a wave of plans for maritime applications. HMM, along with other members of a blockchain consortium, conducted a first pilot voyage from Korea to China (Busan to Qingdao) with reefer containers. HMM applied blockchain technology from shipment booking to cargo delivery. Combining the blockchain technology with Internet of Things (IoT) technology enabled the cargo to be monitored in real-time.
Smart Cities
Dubai Government signs Blockchain MOU with Avanza Solutions. Under the leadership of His Highness Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Avanza Solutions signed an MOU with Smart Dubai Office on 11th April 2017 to implement a citywide blockchain based payments platform. Through Cipher, Avanza has successfully delivered an immutable, agile and instant reconciliation and settlement platform to Smart Dubai Office for DubaiPay payment platform. The pilot project was delivered in collaboration with Dubai Smart Government and Emirates NBD — the largest retail banking franchise in Dubai and the market leader across core business lines. Smart Dubai Office plans to roll out Cipher across all its existing 38 partner government entities, partner financial institutions and Departments to set up the first blockchain based building block within its financial plumbing.
13. EmCash — Dubai’s First Official Blockchain Based Cryptocurrency Project .
Cryptocurrencies are becoming the next best investment in the financial world as apart from investing in it, large companies even developing their own cryptocurrency project based on their own blockchain. For example: OMISE had come up with its own cryptocurrency project named as OmiseGo (OMG). But recently, after watching the growing popularity of cryptocurrencies, many countries have also jumped in development of their own blockchain and cryptocurrency project. emCash is a blockchain based cryptocurrency project, developing by the Emcredit, a subsidiary of Dubai economy and a blockchain start-up Object Tech. Recently, the Dubai government itself announced that they’re developing their own cryptocrrency project which will be used as a mode of payment within the economy. The purpose is to make transactions cheaper, faster and reliable. This cryptocurrency will be stored on emWallet, an application introduced by Emcredit for the online payment as well as offline payments instantaneously.
Justice
14. Project CrowdJury — a distributed, border less, justice system through Blockchain technology.:
CrowdJury aptly called “A justice system for the internet age” intends to provide an online platform that crowdsources judicial proceedings: filing of complaints, evaluation of evidence, trial and jury decision.
Telecom
15. Blockchain Consortium for Telecom Carriers
In September, 2017, Japan-based SoftBank Corp. (“SoftBank”), U.S.-based Sprint Corporation (“Sprint”), Taiwan-based Far EasTone Telecommunications Co., Ltd. (“Far EasTone”) and U.S.-based TBCASoft, Inc. (“TBCASoft”) announced the launch of a new blockchain consortium, the Carrier Blockchain Study Group (“CBSG”). In the future, more telecom carriers will be invited to participate in the CBSG on a global scale. SoftBank, Sprint and TBCASoft also succeeded in demonstrating a cross-carrier payment platform system that uses TBCASoft’s innovative blockchain technology.
