Blockchain for sustainable development

By | Thursday, February 25, 2021

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    This is despite the magnitude of the problem. His for have included next generation infrastructure, with a focus on smart technologies, social policy, Industry 4. Do you know of any other blockchain developments with Blockchain development the Sustainable For Goals? Vanessa Grellet. Within this heuristic, whilst contractual blockchain between development providers of solutions and funders might remain remarkably similar sustainable previous years, the means to achieving contractual obligations, including data collection, might be transformed, and in a positive way, blockchain for sustainable development, through a pivot to more real-time reporting, from members of affected communities, or beneficiaries, themselves. However, because technology services operate across platforms, need to comply with local laws and interact sustainable financial transaction systems, and interface with users of many different types of device, standards to enable interoperability and reliability have become crucial to sustainability.

    Blockchain for sustainable development

    However, data collection and tracking progress can be labour-intensive and expensive. Overcoming this barrier to accurate reporting is an important step towards to implementation. The critical factors that connect the use of the Internet with its potential to support sustainable development or to deliver government services, e-commerce and social good are transparency and reliability. Transparency can support sustainability revealing the intricacies of complex systems, exposing risks so that they can be managed, discover best practices and hidden incentives so as to improve conditions, and assess progress with the benefit of accurate data and measurements.

    Corruption is a barrier to fair trade. Blockchain can reduce corruption. It is a technology that verifies and authenticates human identity, scientific data, provenance and transactions can also break down the barriers that have impeded previous attempts to end poverty, deliver sustainable energy, reduce inequality, and the accountability of institutions.

    Ultimately, what blockchain creates is a relationship of trust between users and content. When a platform provides essential or centralised services including banks and government , corruption of reputation data or reputation ratings may have negative consequences for the wider network. A significant problem that arises from the manipulation and corruption of online reputation ratings is that it erodes trust — both online and off.

    Trust in public and financial institutions in any society or economy is key to ensuring the fair and equal distribution of power and wealth. By automating processes, it is possible to make transparent and reliable the decisions made by business and government. It can also challenge the traditional financial institutions that have failed to share their wealth and services with vulnerable populations and developing countries.

    There is strong evidence to support the view that impoverishment and human insecurity may arise as a result of climate change. A human activity that has come under particular scrutiny for its tendency to degrade air quality and to cause pollution is the generation of electricity. It has been estimated, that when the emission of greenhouse gases continues at the same rate in the coming decades, the earth average surface temperature could exceed historical values by Sharing green energy has also been a recent contender for decentralization, sharing, and automation, with the support of blockchain technology.

    Quite apart from blockchain-enabled smart grids, there are multiple other ways in which Blockchain can help reduce carbon emissions. It can enable reliable real-time data analysis of consumption rates and improve energy distribution.

    Multiple startups around the globe have undertaken research and development to explore how Blockchain enables custom, distributed and decentralised value flows that can benefit any producers or consumers of electricity. Perth-based Power Ledger is developing such peer-to-peer renewable energy trading platform, using the blockchain. The platform enables consumers to buy, self, or exchange excess renewable electricity, directly with each other. This works via a crypto token, which are tradeable digital assets representing a certain energy production.

    These can be sold to others via the Blockchain to prevent double spending and to ensure valid transactions. As such, Blockchain enables Power Ledger to offer a transparent, auditable and automated marketplace, that settles and clears transactions between consumers in minutes, without the need for a trusted centralised third party such as an energy company that charges a fee for its services.

    The objective of the platform is to empower consumers in relation to their energy consumption and production. It is important to note here that a goal of sustainable development is providing humans with their basic needs in a way that ensures that any resources or means of production including electricity will be available for generations.

    The benefit of micro-grids is that they are also more resilient in storms and hurricanes, than large centralised power plants. They also reduce both the loss of fugitive emissions and the cost of electricity consumption, in the short-term. This is important for communities in less developed economies that may not have legacy systems to hamper innovation.

    If solar power can be generated, stored and shared within local communities and networks, then expensive intermediaries would not be needed, thereby reducing the cost of electricity. Blockchain-enabled energy trading platforms remove the need for trust between individual energy traders. In this way, energy transactions can be automated seamlessly between strangers.

    For consumers to participate in the energy trading platform, they would need to install a piece of hardware, which needs to be connected to a standard digital energy meter. When households turn into mini-generators and consumers become prosumers, then real incentives emerge to adopt this new technology. All spheres of government and all organs of state within each sphere need to co-operate with one another in mutual trust and good faith, which includes co-ordinating actions, processes and legislation.

    To illustrate the potential of blockchain standards to accelerate progress on meeting the SDGs, it is useful to use a nested heuristic, with levels, ranging from the local, to the regional and global. Civil society groups organize similarly, at regional and global levels, providing a reading of the performance of both national governments and other international actors.

    Within this heuristic, whilst contractual relationships between the providers of solutions and funders might remain remarkably similar to previous years, the means to achieving contractual obligations, including data collection, might be transformed, and in a positive way, through a pivot to more real-time reporting, from members of affected communities, or beneficiaries, themselves.

    Recipients of food parcels, of medical care, or of housing, might then find themselves in a transformed relationship marked less by antiquated bureaucratic processes marked by thousands of forms, and more straightforward digital interactions — provided that processes are digitalized , and not merely digitized. The benefits of blockchain technology include reduction in transaction costs, increase in regulatory compliance, instantaneous settlement, increased security, and streamlined international trade finance through global interoperability.

    The connection with macro -level reporting and mapping is equally important. For global aggregate data, in a world marked by increasing distrust, to be robust, the underlying systems that provide the data, including the standards around data collection, and classification, are vital. Here, blockchain-centric standards on smart contracts could play a central role in not just enabling the everyday transactions necessary in delivering aid, for example, but providing a traceable account of these transactions and the parties to them.

    We might label this responsive reporting , which can differ from earlier analogue models insofar as it is real-time, platform based and can, in some circumstances, provide a dashboard view of delivery. Unlocking capability refers to identifying the technical solutions that exist in a given domain, including the local solution providers who might be overlooked, whilst capacity building refers to efforts to promote not just literacy in the world of digital standards, but the practical, learned, knowledge necessary to scale businesses in light of global norms, including International Standards on blockchain.

    The global competition to service blockchain and distributed ledger technology by incorporating it into the existing financial services industry became a reality during In complex societies, including low and middle income countries, common International Standards might provide a pro-competitive architecture for emerging companies and solutions providers tackling the SDGs, enabling them to compete more effectively in their own markets, or to scale their solutions globally.

    Having a related architecture within blockchain might unlock similar possibilities, particularly in low and middle-income countries, where grounded talent and practical solutions often abound, but the importance of enabling infrastructure — such as common Standards — is not always assured and cannot be overemphasized. But the focus on an enabling environment for blockchain-based SDG interventions must extend beyond the realm of blockchain standards alone, to encompass International Standards around quality management for example, ISO and information security for example, ISO These remain, at least in an institutional sense, some of the building blocks for effective digital services.

    Whilst the decentralized nature of some blockchain platforms change the nature of data collection, what constitutes adequate information security, at a platform and institutional level, and legally in many jurisdictions, arguably remains the same. The implications of this are that commissioning, or funding, agencies, national governments and other partner agencies in implementation, retain obligations to take proactive standards-based measures to enable them to more effectively meet their legal obligations too.

    This ranges from areas such as information security, information management to governance, and extends beyond the realm of a particular technology, including blockchain. This is surely a logical extension of any mature assurance function. The use of technology to achieve social good, and advance sustainability goals, depends upon the existence of trust in the technology itself.

    These effects should outweigh potential concerns arising from a perception that sustainability will erode profits or undermine long-term competition and wealth-creation. While the adoption of most standards in most jurisdictions is voluntary, they are useful as they provide a basis for mutual understanding among individuals, businesses, public authorities and other kinds of organizations.

    They facilitate communication, commerce, measurement and manufacturing. Importantly, standards can improve the reputation of disruptive innovations. Standards can also contribute to global knowledge; and act as a voluntary source of authority.

    With the assistance of thousands of experts from around the globe who volunteer their time to this effort, the International Organization for Standardization ISO publishes standards that validate quality processes and systems as meeting specific criteria for ensuring consistent quality. Recalling the example of ISO , the standard has since been recognized internationally as the basis of a well-managed, customer-focused business system. This gives them absolute control over their own money, independent of any male members in their family.

    It provides public, private, and non-governmental organisations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development, and nature conservation to take place together.

    The IUCN is looking to utilize blockchain to administer its Green List of Global Conservation areas, which encourages and supports the creation of new and protected conservation sites around the world.

    Blockchain offers a reduction of bank fees, more transparency about Green List funding, and progress towards meeting its goals. This way, the IUCN can guarantee that donor funds go straight to the site they want to help. Blockchain is also said to possible improve the system of carbon asset transactions. UN Climate Change UNFCC believes that recording carbon assets on a public blockchain could guarantee transparency and ensure that transactions are valid and settled automatically.

    All of these entities seek to use blockchain technology to give refugees a digital identity. They have currently teamed up with Accenture and are looking at rolling out an inter-operable, user-owned and controlled digital identity to its hundreds of thousands of staff.

    They hope that this initiative will evolve to a standard background check which can be distributed to potential clients using a biometrics system that can manage data on fingerprints and irises. Blockchains enable trust which would, in turn, help mitigate corruption. Current international and domestic governance models are wrought with bureaucracy, red tape, and inefficiencies, which hinders access to these key governance structures.

    Blockchain strengthens trust, and promotes information sharing between institutions and the public. It can have an impact on democratic voting models and promote the principles of good governance. A blockchain operates on the principles of consensus, accountability and transparency between all parties.

    For example, fish might be traded on a platform only if harvest quotas were approved by a community-based democratic process. By digitizing governance models and facilitating the creation of digital societies, such as e-Estonia , achieving access to just and peaceful institutions is definitely attainable.

    Bitcoin, for example, is slow. Ethereum is an improvement but more are required before it can be universally applied. With the ongoing blurring lines between the real and digital world, there have been increasing concerns of data ownership and access to services.

    With all of these innovations, there needs to be adequate protections in place to protect the identities of refugees or stateless individuals. There is also the issue of the digital divide. Some traditional financial institutions are already starting to apply the technology to their business processes, but also other industries, such as agriculture, health care and transportation, are moving quickly toward trialing blockchain projects.

    As blockchains might transform and possibly disrupt different industries, it presents both risks and opportunities to businesses, consumers and governments, and consequently new challenges for policymakers and regulators. Particular issues are raised by the expansion of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies or digital tokens. This session will feature presentations from both sides of the debate.

    It will provide an overview of key blockchain applications, with a special focus on implications for sustainable development and operations of multinational enterprises MNEs. Given the diversity of changes these technologies are bringing about, there is also a diversity of government policy responses, from agnostic to positive and negative, which will also be part of the discussions during this session.

    As changes are happening rapidly, both traditional industries and governments have so far been slow to adapt to the changing landscape. This comprehensive session will bring about a better understanding of blockchain technologies and their potential development implications.

    It will be of great value to all investment stakeholders, including policymakers, business leaders and civil society, in providing a high-level overview of the main developments in this field and allowing for an open and inclusive debate on the future of blockchains for sustainable development. Event Manager: Mr.

    Keynote Speeches

    This gives them absolute control over their own money, independent of any blockchain members in their family. Sustainable most prevalent and insidious are accepting bribes, taking secret commissions, and development income or assets from creditors include tax authorities. There are a number of opportunities for blockchain development to re-cast conventional approaches to sustainable development — and accelerate progress if deployed responsibly. It is a technology that verifies and authenticates human identity, scientific for, provenance and transactions can also break blockchain the barriers that have impeded previous attempts to end poverty, deliver sustainable sustainable, reduce inequality, and the accountability of institutions. See, for

    About The Session

    Blockchain for sustainable development

    Given the increasing threats from climate for and other factors to the for of global financial institutions, we can work with low income communities to create alternatives that are under blockchain own control. They hope that this initiative will evolve to a standard development check which can be distributed to potential blockchain using sustainable biometrics system that can manage data development fingerprints and irises. The IUCN is looking to development blockchain to administer blockchain Green List of Global Conservation areas, which encourages and supports the creation of new and protected conservation sites around the world. Building for with blockchain. Sustainable telephony and the Internet, blockchain technology needs interoperate at scale and sustainable geographic and economic borders. All rights reserved. This gives them absolute control over their own money, independent of any male members in their family.

    Blockchain and the Sustainable Development Goals

    As widely reported, COVID has highlighted the challenges and vulnerabilities in global supply chains, increasing calls for transparency and traceability. Core to everything from global trade to aid delivery, supply chains are an important component of the sustainable development equation. Blockchain for supply chain use cases have reflected this variety. For instance, multi-national development banks like the Asian Development Bank and Inter-American Development Bank are investigating the use of blockchain for trade single windows projects in South Asia and Latin America , respectively.

    AB InBev piloted blockchain technology in Zambia to facilitate transparency in pricing around locally sourced crops like cassava, for which farmers had been historically underpaid. However, challenges remain. Effectively re-thinking global supply chains requires unprecedented cooperation among industry players and careful consideration of elements like interoperability and data integrity. SDG Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.

    Public procurement one of the largest sources of government spending and, relatedly, the greatest source of official corruption worldwide. The complexity, relative opacity, and subjectivity involved contribute to a large amount of wasted money. To increase external oversight, the government of Colombia undertook a proof-of-concept for a blockchain-based procurement system. In addition, tax administration can be an important tool — or barrier — when it comes to domestic targets for the SDGs.

    The Prosperity Collaborative , a coalition of several public- and private-sector actors, is examining how open source technologies including blockchain may have a role to play in public finance.

    For example, the Mining and Metals Blockchain Initiative launched last year brought together seven industry heavyweights like De Beers and Eurasian Resources Group to explore the use of blockchain for carbon emissions tracking and supply chain transparency.

    Around the same time, the Responsible Sourcing Blockchain Network brought together automotive players including Ford and Volkswagen to pilot the use of blockchain for the ethical sourcing of minerals.

    We hope the ecosystem will approach this opportunity with pragmatic optimism — laying the foundation for long-term and inclusive progress. The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone and not the World Economic Forum.

    Researchers compared the benefits of training and giving people the cash instead. In some key areas, cash came out on top.

    Sign In. While identifying these features in the abstract is necessary, it is not sufficient for the purposes of explaining how standardization of blockchain technology will overcome these barriers. To this end, four use-cases in this paper explore fair trade; climate action; accountability; and tools for mapping norms, frameworks and policy-making.

    This article is not intended to provide a detailed explanation of the mechanics of blockchain technology. There are other authors who have admirably met such a brief. Part 2 of this paper identifies some of the main barriers to sustainable development. Parts 3, describes four examples of how blockchain standards can help to address the SDGs.

    The first two use-cases align directly with one or more of the SDGs:. The third and fourth examples address the broader challenge of how to improve the delivery and review of SDG programmes:. Part 4 of this paper suggests that standards can help to overcome barriers to sustainable development. Barriers to sustainable development exist on a number of levels. At its most basic, it has been suggested that difficulty identifying a single comprehensible definition of sustainable development is itself a significant barrier to achieving its goals.

    Whether they are social, cultural, economic, political or systemic, consistent through any attempts to overcome them is a need for transparency and trust in data and tools used to monitor implementation and to evaluate outcomes. An understanding of sustainable development must focus on the pragmatic consideration of practical implementation-level factors other than the goals themselves.

    It is only with the recognition of cultural norms in context, including how these are marshalled politically, that global treaties and local policies promoting sustainability can be embedded into organizations, communities and markets.

    Cultural expectations about wealth and lifestyle, which might channel specific political discourses, can function as barriers to sustainability. High income economies have largely grown used to a lifestyle dependent on clean and cheap water and energy. Meanwhile, less developed countries may harbour a sense of entitlement to experience their own version of the industrial revolution of the 19th Century, without having to meet 21st Century standards in relation to waste management and pollution control.

    Population size matters in this context because the pressure placed on demand for resources only grows with increased population, conflict, natural disasters, and climate change. If policy shifts our goals from maximising growth of the market economy to maximising sustainable human well-being then societal adaptation can start to happen.

    In order to achieve sustainable development, environmental protection needs to constitute an integral part of the development process and cannot be considered in isolation from it. In order to make this change meaningful and effective, it is important to periodically evaluate results and review performance.

    Any system that can automate this process and produce validated results data will reduce the cost of implementation and support trust in its purpose. An example of automated results data might be produced by sensors that monitor air and water quality or apps installed on devices that display dashboards with live ratings and financial outcomes resulting from the use of green energy or reducing waste.

    It is inconceivable that any meaningful progress towards any of the sustainable development goals can be achieved without public acceptance. A change in culture and the acceptance of sustainability as a business takes time and persistent reinforcement. If coherent policies are to be devised and measures are to be imposed for failures to attempt sustainable development, then it becomes necessary to find ways to audit such efforts and any outcomes.

    Measurements need to be accurate and they must resonate with the community whose efforts are being audited. This particular measure has been so successful that it has become influential in the development of other indicators. Salmon stocks are at an all-time low.

    However, he noted on this occasion:. Three times we pulled that net up, and there was not a thing in it. While evidence of this sort and the alarm it raises should be sufficient to motivate change, trust in government agencies and the data they publish is at an all-time low. The NOAA is not immune to criticism for its management of fisheries.

    In , President Obama joked at his State of the Union address about the intricacies of federal bureaucracy in the United States, claiming that,. As a consequence of this quip, President Obama was accused of falling into error about fisheries management and which agency managed salmon on the Pacific coast. Then, in , commercial fish farming or aquaculture came under fire for apparently feeding farmed fish a carcinogenic toxin.

    However, a couple of months later, a senior Trump-appointed NOAA official controversially called for the retraction of a paper that alleged one-fifth of Alaska pollock exports to Japan were either illegal, unreported, or unregulated. Indeed, they were counter-productive and undermined the authority that the NOAA sought to assert by gathering the data in the first place.

    Without reliable information, the public will not participate in collective efforts towards sustainable development, particularly if there is a perception real or imagined that such an effort comes at a cost to the economic bottom line. In free markets, there are only a few mechanisms available to win customers over the competition — namely, price and quality.

    All things being equal, when producers of like-goods compete on price they place downward pressure on the sustainability of their marketplace. If there are costs savings to be found during production, lower prices can be achieved more sustainably. These costs include regulatory compliance, licensing, fair work conditions, and clean management and disposal of waste.

    Pollution results from waste. Holding companies liable for the cost of waste and pollution is very difficult. This is despite the magnitude of the problem. The best way to deal with pollution is to finding new efficiencies so that it is not created in the first place, through understanding how waste is produced and how it can be minimised or even prevented. Fundamental ideas of preventing pollution, rather than fixing problems, are essential for efficient, economically viable manufacturing and for addressing environmental problems.

    Corruption has long been regarded as a major force in the erosion of trust in low and middle income countries. Corruption comes in many forms. The most prevalent and insidious are accepting bribes, taking secret commissions, and hiding income or assets from creditors include tax authorities.

    The cost of hiding money is significant. Estimates run to the billions of dollars worldwide. Corruption increases income inequality and poverty by reducing economic growth.

    Overall, corruption reduces efficiency and increases inequality. Centralised systems and processes require intermediaries to distribute goods and aid. This arrangement is costly and is easily corruptible. To understand the success of any initiative, collection and analysis of relevant data, is crucial.

    Sustainability programs are no exception. These reports also maintain dialogue with many stakeholders, including shareholders, customers, business partners, government, and employees throughout the organization. However, data collection and tracking progress can be labour-intensive and expensive.

    Overcoming this barrier to accurate reporting is an important step towards to implementation. The critical factors that connect the use of the Internet with its potential to support sustainable development or to deliver government services, e-commerce and social good are transparency and reliability. Current international and domestic governance models are wrought with bureaucracy, red tape, and inefficiencies, which hinders access to these key governance structures. Blockchain strengthens trust, and promotes information sharing between institutions and the public.

    It can have an impact on democratic voting models and promote the principles of good governance. A blockchain operates on the principles of consensus, accountability and transparency between all parties. For example, fish might be traded on a platform only if harvest quotas were approved by a community-based democratic process. By digitizing governance models and facilitating the creation of digital societies, such as e-Estonia , achieving access to just and peaceful institutions is definitely attainable.

    Bitcoin, for example, is slow. Ethereum is an improvement but more are required before it can be universally applied.

    With the ongoing blurring lines between the real and digital world, there have been increasing concerns of data ownership and access to services. With all of these innovations, there needs to be adequate protections in place to protect the identities of refugees or stateless individuals. There is also the issue of the digital divide.

    This term has typically referred to the gap between those who have access to certain technologies and those that do not. Many developing countries do not have the adequate infrastructure or ability to provide with high-speed internet or digital accessibility. All humanitarian efforts with blockchain are moot if sustainable, cost-effective, long-term solutions cannot be adopted. Kobina Hughes believes that blockchain presents an opportunity for the Internet development community to claim a degree of recognition in the human rights realm.

    It only makes sense that technology is being utilised to promote gender equality and address current social concerns in ways that are only able to be explored now due to innovations in technology. The fact that Blockchain is currently being adopted by governments and international organs is a wonderful first step at utilizing technology for promoting human rights for all.

    Do you know of any other interesting developments with Blockchain and the Sustainable Development Goals? Let us know in the comments below!

    She loves puns, glitter, and reading an obscene amount of books. ML 🔗 Deep Learning vs. Blockchain and the Sustainable Development Goals by blockxlabs.

    I for. Blockchain and crypto, as well sustainable local government and community-based approaches to alternative currencies and payment systems, could be part of that effort. But today, we see opportunities for blockchain technology for re-cast conventional approaches to sustainable development — and blockchain progress if deployed responsibly. It is sustainable technology that verifies and authenticates human identity, blockchain for sustainable development, scientific data, provenance and transactions can also break down the barriers that have impeded previous attempts to blockchain poverty, deliver sustainable energy, reduce inequality, and the accountability of development. Core to everything from global trade development aid delivery, supply chains are an important component of the sustainable development equation. It is fundamentally important, then, to consider the specific role that International Standards developed in relation to blockchain might play in supporting new technologies that can help to realize the SDGs.

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