How blockchain can help with the COVID-19 recovery

Crypto and blockchain companies, both listed and unlisted, have seen tough times since bitcoin collapsed from it’s all time highs in December 2017 and sector investments dried up.

Since then the industry has advocated that it can help resolve problems from farmers in developing countries being cheated to money transfers being faster.

And now it says it can aid a crisis that’s bought down economic, health and social systems.

The world post-COVID is anticipated to be very different with safer supply chains and more sophisticated technology that can ensure business as usual even during crises.

Blockchain Australia CEO Nicholas Guirietto said yesterday in a LinkedIn opinion piece that blockchain technology could help in this new world.

“The emerging trust economy has long been predicted to change our economy and society for the better,” he said.

“The COVID-19 emergency means that we should accelerate those efforts so that we can recover more quickly and have greater resilience in the future.”

How it can help

Guirietto argued that blockchain could help quickly verify identities and credentials.

For instance, he said it could help ensure people with medical credentials wanting to enter certain areas were entitled to. It could also verify whether or not people had been tested and had been verified.

He said it could even verify that someone had “already purchased a packet of toilet paper this week and just need to wait a while before buying another”.

And once the worst of the crisis is over, this credential verification ability could be extended to help aid labour mobility, virtual working as well as social distancing requirements.

“Our current systems are not well designed for virtual working and lack interoperability,” he said.

“I was recently forced to attend a bank branch in order to record a physical signature allowing a colleague access to our online banking app.

“What was an annoying inconvenience a month ago has become a potential threat to health.

“Another key opportunity as we see a shift to much more extensive working from home is the ability to verify and share delegated authorities that we exercise on behalf of our employers.”

Unchangeable records

Finally, Giurietto suggested there could be a shift to blockchain-based contracts, and supply chains would strengthen.

In recent months, several people in the blockchain industry spoken to by Stockhead agreed a key strength was the difficulty of tampering with records.

“There are some countries where you could buy a piece of land and the record can be altered or changed by a third party and you can never prove that you owned that land,” Blockchain Australia’s Karen Cohen told Stockhead last year.

“With blockchain technology, the transaction is recorded and verified in multiple locations, so one party cannot simply change the original record.”

AgUnity’s chief operating officer Angus Keck told Stockhead,”no one wants to be cheated, it’s a natural human feeling.” His company sought to create a blockchain solution for farmers in developing countries.