Blockchain for Social Impact: Addressing Global Challenges

Blockchain technology offers safe and transparent transactions without the need of any intermediaries. It has the ability to positively impact different industries and solve some of the most critical issues that are being faced by society including climate change, human rights and inequalities, and poverty amongst others.

Moris Media, the top digital marketing agency in India, explores how the Blockchain technology can be used for making a positive social impact and can be used for addressing global challenges. We investigate how blockchain might prove helpful to meet the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the end of 2030. For the uninitiated, SDG is a cumulative adaptation of 17 goals globally that addresses present-day critical challenges including environmental protection, alleviating poverty and ensuring that the world has a peaceful and prosperous approach throughout.

Deciphering Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and its importance:

The SDGs are a global framework for action that the United Nations approved in 2015. This has been critical executed for addressing a wide range of challenges that the world is facing socially, economically and environmentally. Major factors that have targeted in this campaign concern health, education, gender equality, sustainable energy, decent employment, and justice amongst others. SDGs have the end goal of making the world an equal opportunity platform thereby ensuring that no one is neglected or left behind. This approach is being facilitated through collaborations amongst governments, civil society, the commercial sector, and other stakeholders. Achieving the SDGs requires creativity, teamwork, and accountability, as well as the mobilization of resources and data.

The usefulness of Blockchain for achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

Blockchain, as a technology, has displayed excellent capabilities that can make it a significant contributor in getting the SDGs monitored and implemented. It may improve transparency and trust by maintaining immutable and verifiable records of transactions, contracts, and identities, hence minimizing fraud and corruption.

It will also be having the added capability of empowering the underprivileged and vulnerable sections of society. This will be achieved by providing them with access to financial services, digital identities, and ownership rights. By simplifying procedures, removing middlemen, and promoting peer-to-peer trading, blockchain may also provide efficient and cost-effective solutions. It may also help with data gathering and analysis by creating and storing real-time and trustworthy data, which improves decision-making and assessment.

Listing out some used-cases wherein Blockchain initiatives have made a positive contribution to society:

Blockchain initiatives having a good social effect are increasingly being utilized to fit with the SDGs. The World Food Programme (WFP), for example, utilizes blockchain to deliver monetary aid to refugees in Jordan, while UN Women and the World Identity Network (WIN) use it to combat child trafficking in Moldova. Blockchain is used by the BitGive Foundation to improve openness and accountability in philanthropic giving, while the SolarCoin Foundation utilizes it to incentivise the generation and consumption of sustainable energy. Furthermore, the BanQu platform employs blockchain to build economic identities for the unbanked and disadvantaged, enabling them to record their assets, transactions, and connections while also gaining access to financial and social possibilities.

Blockchain challenges and limitations that can hinder its societal impact:

Blockchain is not a one-size-fits-all answer to the world's issues, and it has significant limits and concerns. Technical expertise and infrastructure that is needed to facilitate Blockchain implementation might not be uniformly available across the globe. Blockchain implementation also calls for huge amount of energy and resource consumption that might have a detrimental impact on the environment. It also involves ethical and legal concerns, such as data privacy, security, governance, and legislation, which may differ among nations and regions. Blockchain can performing effectively and reliably only when it has adequate data to support it, therefore data inadequacy might prove to be challenging. Furthermore, every participant in this activity needs to display equal motivation levels, a thing easier said than done.

The way forward – Increasing the scope of Blockchain to create a positive impact on society:

Blockchain is an exciting technology that has the potential to provide new opportunities and possibilities for social impact. However, merely using blockchain as a technology is insufficient. We must also analyse the context, purpose, and stakeholders of any blockchain initiative to ensure that it is consistent with the SDGs' goals and principles. We also need to encourage cooperation and conversation among the many participants in the blockchain ecosystem, including as developers, users, funders, regulators, and beneficiaries, as well as establish an atmosphere favourable to innovation and learning. By doing so, we can use blockchain's potential for social good and contribute to the attainment of the SDGs.

Moris Media, India’s leading digital marketing agency, renders services in more than 40 plus countries across the globe. We leverage technology to benefit our clientele and as such observe every technological development that has the capability of offering positive societal outcomes.