Blockchain refugee identity
E: info overtureglobal. Combining the tech buzzword du jour "blockchain" with the refugee crisis might seem like an odd fit. But within the vast bureaucracy of the United Nations' World Food Programme WFP , a small team operates with the nimbleness of a startup to distribute aid-for-food funds to more than , Syrian refugees using blockchain technology. Called Building Blocks, the team of UN staff, software developers, and experienced aid workers focuses on delivering food aid to refugees as rapidly as possible.
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Content:
- Here are three ways blockchain can change refugees' lives
- Can Blockchain Finally Give Us The Digital Privacy We Deserve?
- How blockchain technology is helping refugees and relief organizations
- Gravity Earth is using the blockchain to help refugees gain access to financial services
- How the World Food Programme uses blockchain to better serve refugees?
- Giving the Marginalized an Identity
Here are three ways blockchain can change refugees' lives
Good luck getting into a bar. According to the World Bank, more than a billion people have no way to prove their identity. The un-verified include refugees, trafficked children, the homeless, and other people who slip through society without developing many institutional affiliations.
The problem feeds on itself: the longer a person goes without associations, the harder it is provide enough of a record to create them. They see promise in using blockchain technology to create an immutable record, one that has the added side effect of making financial transactions cheaper and more efficient. Though best known for underpinning volatile cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin and Ethereum, blockchain technology has a number of qualities which make it appealing for record-keeping.
For now, these efforts are small experiments. Syrian refugees stationed at the Azraq Refugee Camp receive vouchers to shop at the local grocery store. The WFP integrated blockchain into its biometric authentication technology, so Syrian refugees can cash in their vouchers at the supermarket by staring into a retina scanner. These transactions are recorded on a private Ethereum-based blockchain, called Building Blocks. The program has been so successful that by the end of the year, the WFP plans to expand the technology throughout Jordan.
Blockchain enthusiasts imagine a future in which refugees can access more than just food vouchers, accumulating a transaction history that could stand in as a credit history when they attempt to resettle. While most of these systems are enabled by existing technology, like the internet, recently the group has started to review blockchain-based opportunities. In an upcoming pilot program, the alliance will incorporate blockchain into a biometric system used by the United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, to facilitate transactions like cash transfers, shelter or food.
In addition to helping the aid group save on bank fees and making sure that aid goes directly to refugees, a blockchain-based system can help refugees build a more permanent identity. This approach is finding backers beyond those who work with refugees. A New York City startup called Blockchain for Change has developed an Android app called Fummi that allows homeless people to access food pantries and shelters, tap into financial services, and generally manage their digital identities.
In December, the startup teamed with a group that relies on federal subsidies to provide smartphones to low-income people to distribute mobile phones to 3, homeless people, starting in the Bronx. The app shows when people have checked into shelters, or how much they have paid for showers or haircuts. The app has a digital wallet for dollars, and also a cryptocurrency created for the project. To start, the currency can be redeemed for talk-time and data.
But the goal is to help people connect to services more regularly and efficiently, while bringing down the cost of the services. Because those without homes tend to move around regularly, many re-apply for a federal program like food stamps in a new place every few months at great administrative cost.
Because their transactions, which compose their identity, are permanently stored on the blockchain, the startup hopes federal program can tap into the permanent transaction recorded on the blockchain to reduce the sign-up costs.
In the earliest days of the web, which turned 29 earlier this week, its proponents believed that they held the potential to make the world a more free and open place. Blockchain enthusiasts believe that, ultimately, tracking identity on the blockchain will eventually allow people to exercise more control over their personal information.
Applications which show only parts of the ledger to people who require verification of aspects of your identity could let us present just the minimum amount of information. Rather than flashing the bartender a license containing your home address, you could present a QR code that provides her permission to check your age. But in the rush to apply blockchain technology to every problem, many point out that relying on the ledger may have unintended consequences. Many of these projects, like the UNWFP project, are built on private blockchains so that organizations can exert more control over their development.
For his part, Greenfeld suggests governments could easily use state-sponsored machine learning algorithms to monitor public blockchain activity. But as bitcoin enthusiasts branch out of their get-rich-quick schemes to wrestle with how to make the web more equitable for everyone, they have the power to craft a world of their own devising.
Right now we have the power to determine its direction; the dangers exist, but the potential is enormous. Correction at p.
They are actually called, Blockchain for Change. Mike Isaac. In the past, she has written in-depth articles on Read more. Senior Writer Facebook. Topics Blockchain ethereum United Nations refugees.
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Can Blockchain Finally Give Us The Digital Privacy We Deserve?
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations. Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems.
How blockchain technology is helping refugees and relief organizations
About 1. The BIMS technology captures and stores fingerprints, iris data and facial images of individuals, providing undocumented refugees with their only personal identity record. Because it uses several biometric elements, BIMS is more inclusive and accurate in matching an identity and detecting and eliminating multiple enrolment attempts. We are combining this biometrics capability with the work in development by the Decentralized Identity Foundation DIF , of which Accenture and Microsoft are founding members. The Alliance describes itself as unique among initiatives focused on digital identity, in that partner organizations jointly manage a pooled fund, used to implement pilot projects, and work jointly to develop user-centric technical requirements and data privacy standards. In the coming year, the group plans to launch pilots focusing on refugee populations and childhood immunization. ID is by no means the only active effort to address the problem of refugees and digital identity.
Gravity Earth is using the blockchain to help refugees gain access to financial services
His asylum claim took two years to be processed, during which time he had no legal proof of his identity. Al Rjula, who is Syrian, had been living in the Netherlands on a work contract before seeking asylum. Born in Kuwait in the s, Al Rjula had faced this issue before. During the Gulf War, his birth certificate was destroyed in a fire at a government building in Kuwait City.
How the World Food Programme uses blockchain to better serve refugees?
The responsible use of innovation and technology enables WFP to build pathways to peace, stability, and prosperity for those recovering from conflict, disasters, and the impact of climate change. Blockchain technology is part of that solution. Building Blocks is designed to let people securely access assistance to meet their household essential needs according to their priorities. Concurrently, no sensitive information, such as names, dates of birth, or biometrics, are stored anywhere on Building Blocks. The system uses anonymous identifiers to ensure the privacy and security of people served. Jordan: Since , WFP has leveraged Building Blocks to support the rising influx of Syrian refugees in Jordan and to date supports , people with food assistance.
Giving the Marginalized an Identity
Imagine having no identity or personal data records after you are forced to flee your home and everything familiar to you. More than 65 million refugees seeking asylum or trying to reintegrate into society, face this scenario day in and day out. As difficult as it is for refugees, blockchain technology could help make establishing identity easier. In Lebanon, host country of the largest per capita refugee population in the world, blockchain-enabled social change is already happening. At its core, b lockchain is a digital ledger that records transactions in an immutable way, and therefore can serve as an ideal platform for storing personal records and transferring and allocating humanitarian aid in the most secure way possible.
Khalid and Jimmy met Joram alias , a Syrian engineer who is now a cleaner in a textile factory because he cannot prove his academic or professional experience. His documents were destroyed and the institutions that could confirm the authenticity of those documents are also gone. In this is too common among the 1. And who, because of that, are unable to access services such as healthcare, education, banking or find a job.
A refugee spends on average 17 years in a camp, a time when they are classified as statistics even as they struggle to rebuild their lives. But what if it was possible to have the displaced people carry details of their lives including educational background, financial records, personal profiles, business ventures and even social transactions that would ensure they do not have to start lives from scratch in the event of displacement, repatriation or resettlement? Banqu , a software technology company launched in is attempting to do just that and with impressive results. The company is embracing blockchain technology to allow refugees and displaced people to store vital details about themselves in a verifiable and unchangeable network that gives the owners of the information full control. It prevents the storage of information in centralised systems or being owned by governments and big corporations.
But we found that Syrian refugees living in rural Lebanon often have to make difficult choices when buying essential items at the expense of food. Their e-vouchers can only be used in exchange for food, not other essentials like nappies. This places refugees in a vulnerable position — shop owners often charge higher prices for scanning non-food items as food, but refugees have no choice but to depend on shop owners to cooperate. Collective purchasing allows refugees to pool their cash and e-vouchers so that one person can buy non-food items for another and be repaid with food. Instead, the community can manage their resources and needs among themselves. Unfortunately, the e-voucher system prevents refugees from buying goods in bulk.
Over one billion people worldwide don't have any form of identification, making it difficult to access many of the social institutions the developed world takes for granted. WFP launched a project called Building Blocks in to look into blockchain's capabilities. Blockchain can help create a decentralized identity for those with no proof of their existence. Hana Heraaki lives in Jordan's Zaatari camp for Syrian refugees.
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