Blockchain: A Technology of Inclusion

Campbell R. HarveyDuke University and NBER

FUQINTRD 697: Innovation and Cryptoventures

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Examples of problems

• 1.7 billion are unbanked and excluded from transacting (paying or being paid)• Current system severely constrains funding to small businesses• Vast amount of waste and corruption in government programs designed to

help the underprivileged• Corporate monopolies distort prices• Middle people drive a wedge between producers and consumers increasing

costs of basic items such as energy• Many do not have identity – especially difficult for refugees

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Potential blockchain solutions• Democracy and governance• Agriculture• Identity• Financial inclusion• Energy, climate and the environment• Health• Land rights• Philanthropy, aid, donors• Education• Human rights• Water and sanitation Campbell R. Harvey 2020 4

Democracy and governance

• Citizens data can be erased or edited• Large amount of waste on basic programs, even in the U.S. such as

unemployment insurance or social security being paid to those who do not qualify

• Citizens can crowdfund initiatives

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Democracy and governance

• E-Estonia has 99% of government services based on blockchain tech

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Democracy and governance

• Voting (elections are routinely tampered with even in developed countries). Start small like overseas voting.

• https://www.votem.com/

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Democracy and governance

Many startups• https://voatz.com/• https://followmyvote.com/• http://votebox.co/• https://secure.vote/

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https://www.techrepublic.com/article/mit-finds-massive-security-flaws-with-blockchain-voting-app/

Identity

• Without identity, it is hard to access critical services (voting, healthcare, property rights, crossing borders, asylum, etc.)

• Blockchain provides a potential solution: decentralized identity• Decentralized identity is the point-to-point exchange of information about

people, organizations or things – enabled by blockchain – created specifically for a world of many networks, implemented on global standards.

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Identity

Large number of startups• https://www.validatedid.com/• https://keyp.io/• https://www.newbanking.com/• https://www.metadium.com/• https://www.thekey.vip/#/homePage• https://trusti.com/• 27 others herehttps://www.disruptordaily.com/blockchain-startups-identity-management/

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Agriculture

• Food fraud ($40b per year), contamination and recall, quality type, spoilage

• Increase transparency and efficiency

• Mainly focused on supply chain solutions and payment solutions

Campbell R. Harvey 2020 11https://www.cobank.com/-/media/files/ked/general/blockchain-report-may-2018.pdf

Agriculture

Many startups in the space• https://www.agridigital.io/(focus on grains industry)

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Agriculture

Many startups in the space• https://www.bext360.com/(focus on coffee)

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AgricultureMany startups in the space• AgriChain – A blockchain company focusing on enabling peer-to-peer agricultural

transactions and processing while cutting out the middlemen.• AgriLedger – A UK social enterprise project supporting farmers in tracing food origins,

getting easier access to financing, and storing transactions data.• Demeter – A central hub to rent and farm micro fields anywhere in the world – with no

middlemen, complexity or the overhead of a big organization.• Etherisc – A blockchain startup offering crop insurance to farmers via its decentralized

insurance applications.• Ripe – By designing a transparent digital food supply chain, the startup harnesses

quality food data to create the Blockchain of Food – mapping the food journey.• TE-FOOD – Applies identification tools to livestock, transports, and fresh food packages

to follow the items throughout the whole supply chain.• Worldcovr – Provide crop insurance to protect against loss of yield using satellites to

monitor the rainfall and trigger payouts automatically.Campbell R. Harvey 2020 14

Energy, Environment, Climate

• Waste of energy because of inefficient grids and thick layer of middle people (utilities)

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Energy, Environment, Climate

Many startups• https://gridsingularity.com/German startup focusing on exchange of granular and private data between different parties within the energy market

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Energy, Environment, Climate

• Many startups• https://www.powerledger.io/Australian startup, P2P energy trading

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Energy, Environment, Climate

Many startups• https://www.me-solshare.com/ • Bangladeshi company using

blockchain to share solar power

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Energy, Environment, Climate

Many startups• https://www.brooklyn.energy/

Even in US, projects have started to allow owners of solar panels to sell P2P to neighbors

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Energy, Environment, Climate

Many startups• Greeneum – An Israeli startup incentivizing customers for energy saving

and eco-friendly lifestyles by earning carbon assets in the form of cryptocurrency for every watt-hour of renewable energy generated.

• Grid+ – A US startup that allows consumers to cut out the energy retailer and buy energy directly from producers via an Ethereum-powered blockchain network, cutting and managing energy usage.

Campbell R. Harvey 2020 20https://www.startus-insights.com/innovators-guide/6-blockchain-startups-disrupting-the-energy-industry/

EnergyMany more:• Infrastructure• Incentivizing renewables• Energy data and provenance• P2P trading and microgrid• Tokenizing energy[40 additional startups here]

21https://www.disruptordaily.com/blockchain-market-map-energy/

Financial Inclusion

Blockchain addresses• High fees (remittance and payments. Note: remittance flows $466b in 2017)• Account opening process (2.4b have no digital identity)• Reinforces trust (which doesn’t exist in many countries)

Campbell R. Harvey 2020 22https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/lu/Documents/technology/lu-blockchain-accelerate-financial-inclusion.pdf

Financial Inclusion

Large number of startups• https://www.wetrust.io/

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Health

Blockchain addresses• Safe transport of drugs and equipment (WHO estimates 700,000 deaths a year

due to fake malaria and TB drugs)• Security of medical records• High costs due to inefficiency• Research

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Health

Large number of startups• PokitDok Country: USA | Funding: $48.67M

PokitDok’s platform-as-a-service enables healthcare organizations to quickly build modern commerce experiences across the healthcare value chain. Plug directly into 650 trading partners to access real-time transactional data at scale. No need to rip and replace legacy systems to innovate.

• Medicalchain Country: UK | Funding: $24MMedicalchain uses blockchain technology to securely store health records and maintain a single version of the truth. The different organisations such as doctors, hospitals, laboratories, pharmacists and health insurers can request permission to access a patient’s record to serve their purpose and record transactions on the distributed ledger.

Campbell R. Harvey 2020 25https://www.medicalstartups.org/top/blockchain/

Health

Large number of startups• doc.ai Country: USA | Funding: $12.3M

We are an AI company with the mission to decentralize precision medicine on the blockchain. We believe that the biological profile of the near-future will be consumer-controlled, blockchain-based, AI-powered and OMICS-data-centric.

• Akiri Country: USA | Funding: $10mThe world's first network-as-a-service optimized for healthcare. Akiri Switch is a software-defined network (SDN) and secure routing protocol for healthcare data. This data, which Akiri never stores, spans the entire spectrum of health, wellness, and medical information. Akiri supports security, identification, authentication, compliance, analytics, and applications.Campbell R. Harvey 2020 26https://www.medicalstartups.org/top/blockchain/

Health

Large number of startups• Gem Country: USA | Funding: $10.4M

Gem develops blockchain applications for healthcare. The Gem Healthcare Network, developed on the Ethereum blockchain, will add security via permissioned blockchains in which patients control access and there is a shared ledger system in which every new change is recorded.

• Blockchain Health Country: USABlockchain Health Co. is a San Francisco-based software company that uses blockchain technology to create a direct connection between medical research and users. BHC allows users to share information directly to researchers using their platform built on the blockchain.Campbell R. Harvey 2020 27https://www.medicalstartups.org/top/blockchain/

Health

Large number of startups• Patientory Country: USA | Funding: $7.22M

Patientory is building a HIPAA-compliant blockchain powered health information exchange (HIE) intended to enable EMR interoperability and enhanced cybersecurity protocols.

• Embleema Country: USACountry: USA | Funding: $3.7MEmbleema’s blockchain network offers a novel way to put patients at the center of clinical research.

Campbell R. Harvey 2020 28https://www.medicalstartups.org/top/blockchain/

Health

40 more here

Campbell R. Harvey 2020 29https://www.disruptordaily.com/blockchain-market-map-healthcare/

Land rights/registry

Blockchain addresses• Certifying ownership increases legal and economic security• Reduction in fraud• Reduces costs of transaction (reduces role of middle people)• Improves efficiency (less time delay)• Reduces expropriation risk

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Land rights/registry

Many startups• https://chromaway.com/solutionsSwedish startup.

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Land rights/registry

Many startups• https://cointelegraph.com/news/blockchain-registers-for-recording-

ownership-rights-around-the-world• For information on startups in 10 different countries

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Philanthropy, aid, donors

Blockchain addresses• Pledged aid does not get to the target because of fraud and inefficiency

($400b of aid comes from US alone)• Up to 10% is lost in transactions fees alone• Donors less willing to give because of lack of transparency (they don’t trust the

system)

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Philanthropy, aid, donors

Blockchain startups• https://disberse.com/Example project reduced the cost of transfer of UK donors’ funds to a women’s charity in Swaziland

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Philanthropy, aid, donors

Blockchain startups• http://ixo.foundation/Example project in South Africa whereby Ixo provided an app to securely measure pre-school attendance. This attendance was directly linked to UNICEF aid.

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Philanthropy, aid, donorsMany startups• https://www.trace

donate.com/Certified recipients of aid; Completely traceable and transparent

Campbell R. Harvey 2020 36https://v3.aid.technology/tracedonate/

Philanthropy, aid, donorsMany startups

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Philanthropy, aid, donorsMany startups

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Education

Blockchain addresses• Attendance• Achievement (transcripts, degrees, certificates)• Certification of teachers• Life-long learning and verification of accomplishments

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Human rights

Blockchain addresses• Identity• Reduction in human trafficking• Certification of working conditions and labor practices

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Water and sanitation

Blockchain addresses• Tracking and recording of water data (quantity and quality) in an immutable

way• More efficient market for water trading

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Further information

See my podcast• https://www.man.com/maninstitute/social-value-of-cryptocurrencies

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