My name is Emmanuel, a soon to be student of International Business and Economics. I have been involved in bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies for nearly 3 years - mainly through investment, brokering and trading. I am now embarking on a blockchain project that aims to encourage the application of blockchain within small businesses. The inspiration for this project was the variety of innovative and creative applications of variations of blockchains that are testing its limits and uses in the real world. The purpose for writing this article is to share a few of these discoveries with all of you. I hope you find them as interesting as I do. If you do, more will follow!
AgriLedger (http://www.agriledger.com/)
AgriLedger is a blockchain based initiative with the aim of ensuring that farmers in developing countries receive fair value for their produce. The AgriLedger team highlights three very real problems with the produce market in the developing world:
- Proving your identity and what you own is difficult with a lack of technological infrastructure and secure storage of documentation.
- Appraising the real-time value of produce is near impossible due to the infrequent recording of historical transactions.
- Many farmers and producers in the developing world have insufficient access to financial services.
Of course, these structural gaps leave farmers open to exploitation by their large, often multinational customers. To combat these issues, AgriLedger proposes a blockchain based system of smart contracts, integrating the farmer's identity with a mobile wallet - provided by AgriLedger on a cheap smartphone - for ease of identification and faster payment processing. This integration not only economizes and secures financial transactions for the farmers, but also enables them to raise capital in the form of credit and micro finance, allowing them to grow their operations. Furthermore, the AgriLedger system aims to track transactions at local markets in order to inform the farmer of the most recent price for their goods and the extent of current demand so that they are able to obtain the best price at any given time.
AgriLedger also helps farmers to make their production and operations lean. In providing a system that informs, records and executes specific tasks, AgriLedger's farmers are able to monitor stock levels without paperwork, choose between accepting payment in cash or more supplies and avoid disputes which saves time for production.
Although AgriLedger faces difficulties (notably unreliable internet connection and insufficient technological education) in realizing its goal on a large scale in the developing world, it has shown that blockchain technology could have a significant role to play in the future of the developing world.
Alice.si (http://alice.si/)
Too often, donations that are made in an attempt to further some social cause end up wasted when those behind the fundraising fail to achieve their objectives. Notwithstanding the good intentions, the fact remains that money that could have been made use of in a successful social project is lost, with real consequences for those who would have benefited from the success of such a project. The purpose of Alice.si is to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful social enterprises, guiding donors to successful projects and offering an incentive to other charitable projects to improve performance. This is encapsulated in their slogan 'Hyper-transparent philanthropy, where donors only pay for results'.
Alice.si achieves this task by providing a system of smart contracts recorded on a blockchain in which donations are held. Donors are able to track the impact of their donations on respective social projects which informs future donations, ensuring their money earns the maximum intended social impact. Moreover, Alice.si has an ultimate aim of 'restoring the public's trust in charities, so more donations can be raised to fund their social missions'. In my opinion, combining the two serves as a way to increase charitable output, improving the lives of many around the world. This is why I think Alice.si is a noteworthy example of the application of blockchain technology in society.
Although AgriLedger faces difficulties (notably the lack of internet connection and technological education) in realizing its goal on a large scale in the developing world, it has shown that blockchain technology could have a significant role to play in the developing world.