Blockchain helps businesses to profit from social progress
Asian farmers and voters ready to reap benefits of new technology
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| Hara incentivizes farmers to provide certain data by making it redeemable for digital tokens that can later be exchanged for fertilizer and other necessities. (Courtesy of Hara Token) |
By
SINGAPORE/TOKYO -- After wiping the sweat off her brow and adjusting
her straw hat, Liswati walks along one of her fields under Indonesia's
hot tropical sun, eventually squatting down to inspect her crops.
Instead of jotting down some notes with a pen and paper, she keys
information about soil quality and other conditions into her smartphone.
With
very little effort, she has given thousands of others involved in
Indonesian agriculture -- from government officials to nongovernmental
organizations -- data that can be analyzed and possibly utilized to
boost the country's farm output.
The underlying technology? Blockchain, the same digital tracker that balances cryptocurrency ledgers.
Liswati
is using a system provided by Singapore-based Hara Token, which connect
farmers to lenders, insurers, buyers and other parties. Hara asks
farmers to input information regarding grain prices, soil quality and
land ownership. In exchange for this data, farmers are given Hara
tokens, which can be traded for fertilizer and other necessities.
In
the Asia-Pacific region, blockchain-backed businesses are expected to
earn revenue of $4.59 billion by 2023, and the market is forecast to
grow at a compound annual rate of 54%, according to a report by
Netscribes market intelligence. The research company added that the
region's blockchain innovations will attract a significant volume of
venture capital.
Brant Carson, partner and colead of Digital
McKinsey in Australia and New Zealand, noted that blockchain's
disruptive potential has been "the driver of intense experimentation"
since its launch more than 10 years ago. Today, 14 major industries are
using blockchain technology in more than 90 ways -- to keep track of
supply chains, tell consumers where their groceries come from or to help
migrant workers make cross-border payments.
In Asia, blockchain is taking a stab at solving some of the big social issues of the day.
As
Southeast Asia's population swells, so does the need for food. But the
region's numerous small farmers lack the knowledge and techniques that
workers on industrialized estates use to improve yields. Indonesia's
palm plantations offer a glimpse into the plight of small farmers. In
2015, these farmers managed up to 40% of the nation's total oil palm
plantation area. Their yield, however, was 50% lower than that of
large-scale commercial companies, according to the World Resources
Institute.
By sharing data with one another as well as with other
stakeholders, these small farmers can close the gap with their
industrialized peers. And since blockchain opens everybody's books to
everybody else, it has been seized on to act as a conduit.
Hara's
tokens tie together a complex web of parties who have an interest in
Indonesian agriculture. Lenders, insurers and others who want a look at
what is happening on farms can buy farmer-provided information on Hara's
data exchange, which determines the value of the tokens.
The
farmers, too, have access to the data, which offers a real-time picture
of the state of Indonesian agriculture. Hara believes this picture will
help farmers become more knowledgeable about best practices and prices.
In theory, productivity will rise.
Hara is targeting up to 2
million users of its system globally including South and Southeast Asia,
Latin America and East Africa.
EToro, a social trading and investing platform, is more ambitious. It
has launched GoodDollar, a blockchain-powered universal basic income
experiment that endeavors to provide a sum of money to cover everyday
needs, regardless of a recipient's income, employment status or
resources.
Participants first create accounts on the GoodDollar platform and have their details verified via smart contracts.
Corporate
and investment partners can take part in the project by offering to
back the creation of further GoodDollars to, for example, help farmers
and strengthen the agricultural industry. The eventual goal is to
completely decentralize GoodDollar so the cryptocurrency is only
controlled by its users, not a single entity, and to enable all users to
convert GoodDollars into other cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and
Ethereum.
"The project is to implement a cryptocurrency that pays
social interest to those who have less," said Yoni Assia, co-founder and
CEO of eToro. "With the rise of technology [displacing workers], the
tech industry needs to find solutions for those [who have] less [with
which] to participate in the economy and pursue their purpose."
Chinese
e-commerce giant Alibaba is also adapting blockchain for social
purposes. In 2016, it created a blockchain charity tool called Ant Love.
The platform connects Alibaba's users with more than 1,000 charities.
The system allows donors to track transaction histories to understand
where and how their money is being used.
Blockchain has political
ambitions as well. The NGO MiVote India plans to use a blockchain-based
platform ahead of this year's elections. MiVote provides politicians of
any affiliation, including independents, with a tool that helps them to
digitally connect with voters.
Voters are identified via their
mobile phone numbers, which are associated with individual
identification numbers. MiVote will poll its users on food,
infrastructure, the environment and other issues, then notify them of
the results. When 60% of MiVote's users agree on a solution to a social
problem, it becomes a plank that MiVote-endorsed candidates must adopt.
MiVote
also tries to ensure that everyone's vote is counted. India, the
world's biggest democracy, is no stranger to electoral fraud. It is
operated through donations from NGOs or governments. As MiVote prohibits
donations from companies, some candidates use crowdfunding for their
election campaigns.
The NGO's blockchain solution assures that
once a vote has been added to the public record, it can never be
tampered with or removed. Instead of having one centralized version of
this record, thousands of individual databases observe one another to
prevent modifications.
"A real democracy is the enactment of the
will of the informed citizen," said Joydeep Mondal, CEO of MiVote India.
"MiVote-endorsed candidates will engage [their] community [via]
blockchain and create history in India."
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