CNN, Fox & more:
5 Ways to Use Blockchain for Social Impact and Global Change

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Today, we are thrilled to announce: The ivault™ App is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store now. In the meantime, our educational commercial has been featured on Fox Business Network, CNN Headline News, and many others. Watch the video below and read about 5 ways we use Blockchain Technology for social change, environmental protection, and saving lives…

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So, we can proudly say: Our flagship brand is a successful brand already.

But how did we get there? You will know after reading about these 5 things the ivault Blockchain can do to benefit society and make the world a better place:

1. _ Saving lives.
2. _ Increasing consumer safety.
3. _ Helping sustainable development goals and green consumers.
4. _ Tracking assets to prevent theft.
5. _ Building a safe social engagement platform to find local help.

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The ivault Blockchain explained on Fox, CNN and others

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In September 2021, our short educational video about ivault aired nationally on Fox Business Network and CNN Headline News. We added the video below for you to watch right away.

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ivault™ is a successful brand already.

However, a brand reputation like this poses requirements for any future-oriented company. It demands corporate efforts towards sustainability, environmental protection, and social responsibility.

Thus, we aim to use sustainable technology solutions based on Blockchain for social impact and the environment all around the globe. Below, you can read about the 5 things a “Social Blockchain” can be used for to make the world a better place.

For more information about our innovative product using Blockchain Technology for social change, visit ivault.app. Or try it yourself: ivault is available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store now.

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Using Blockchain for Social Impact

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— What is “Blockchain for Social Impact”?

The term “Blockchain for Social Impact” was coined by the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition (BSIC). Their mission is to incubate, develop, and implement blockchain solutions that can address social and environmental challenges across the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Now, we want to show you

• why we use Blockchain for social impact,
• how distributed ledgers can actually benefit society, and
• what it means to use Blockchain to drive social change.

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— Why use Blockchain for social impact?

First of all, we want to address social challenges because, in our opinion, every company nowadays has to take social and ecological responsibilities. To actively help the environment is a major necessity in modern economics and technological innovation.

It is no secret that companies usually want to make money. But some exclusively try to make as much of a profit as they can. Without caring for our planet or fellow human beings. These businesses are, for example, the counterfeiters we are trying to fight
— with distributed ledger technologies.

Secondly, distributed ledger technology, better known as Blockchain, is one of the most secure and powerful technologies available today. Unfortunately, it has not yet been used to its full potential.

That is what we want to change
— with ivault.

Beyond that, luckily, we are not alone. Some companies are already testing blockchain prototypes for future applications to benefit the health and well-being of people. Then, of course, there are similar projects with other promising future projects like Google’s program AI for Social Good.

Now, it’s time to get to the heart of things and discuss, what it really means to use Blockchain for social impact. We are going to show you, how we are using the ivault Blockchain for social impact. Some of the following track & trace solutions for B2B are already on market.

How to use Blockchain for social impact

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Here are 5 things Blockchain can be used for to benefit society, boost social change and help the environment:

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1. Saving lives.

With Blockchain as an anti-counterfeiting technology.

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What type of technology saves lives? Without the heading that suggests “Blockchain as an anti-counterfeiting technology,” you would presumably first think of some medical devices. Likewise, security technology can save lives — another basic answer to the question above.

Blockchain or Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) has rarely been described as a technology that saves lives. Yet, it is one of the best security technologies we have.

And we can also use it to store health records safely or enhance medicinal technologies in different ways. In our case, for example, to prevent theft and fight counterfeit products that cause millions of deaths each year all around the globe. Especially, in the pharmaceutical industry.

By making it much easier to detect and prevent counterfeit and stolen goods in the supply chain, Blockchain Technology as an anti-counterfeiting solution can reduce the number of deaths by counterfeit drugs and, thus, save many MANY lives.

Here is one of our most illustrative blockchain use cases for pharma that will have a massive environmental and social impact all around the globe.

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► Anti-counterfeiting pharmaceuticals

Counterfeit drugs can cause substantial damage, not just to a company’s reputation.

When it comes to the pharma supply chain, Blockchain Technology can be used to track pharmaceutical products and third-party ingredients more efficiently than ever.

In order to track products, we use a special blockchain design to store a digital twin of products. Products are then integrated with unique physical identifiers and modern tracking technology like QR, NFC, RFID, or GPS trackers to identify and track assets.

We are using supply chain solutions to combat counterfeit products in the pharmaceutical supply chain.

Essentially, what prevents death by counterfeit drugs is supply chain transparency and some way for the consumer to check a product’s authenticity before use.

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Use case: Blockchain as anti-counterfeiting technology for the pharma industry reducing the number of deaths caused by fake prescription drugs.

Our blockchain solutions enable the end customers to detect fake drugs themselves by scanning the ivault.verified anti-counterfeit label on a product’s packaging. If it is an original it is easy to verify product authenticity and the consumer can be sure that a product is really safe to use. This simple act can not only save lives, but also brand reputation.

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► Preventing deaths by other counterfeit goods

We are currently focusing on blockchain solutions in pharma as fake drugs are a major global threat to humankind.
Of course, it is not only fake medicine, posing serious health threats and causing fatal incidences. Almost every industry desperately needs better anti-counterfeiting technologies. Other examples of dangerous counterfeit goods you might not think of in the first place:

• fake car parts causing accidents (much more than you think… )
• fake chargers leading to electrocution deaths
• counterfeit toys and other kids products
• counterfeit pet food sold online
• counterfeit makeup deaths

That is why we want to take anti-counterfeiting technologies to the next level and provide solutions that are accessible and easy to use for your end customers as well.

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2. Increasing consumer safety.

By increasing supply chain transparency and protecting products.

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Successful companies want brand protection. That is a considerable market as traditional logistics and data management systems still fail to ward off counterfeit and pirated products.
 Increased supply chain transparency and security make it much easier to detect and prevent fakes and stolen goods from entering the supply chain.

However, DLT-solutions for businesses — like ivault — not only protect brands and secure supply chains. Blockchain can also enhance the safety of consumer products of any kind.

How? Product authenticity can be monitored and verified throughout the production — from third-party suppliers’ parts to the end consumer, including those who buy a product second-hand (or even third-hand). Supply chain managers can check the authenticity of parts and ingredients much like the end customer as described above.

By implication, increased product safety also means improved consumer safety which benefits society globally.

Nevertheless, trademark protection is by no means secondary. Here is an outraging story that shows: Better brand protection solutions (even for luxury goods!) benefits society globally — by fighting organized crime that is potentially funding other criminal activities:

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► TED Talk: Counterfeiting handbags is not a victimless crime

The end customers — an essential part of the supply chain — are affected much worse by cheap and harmful imitations like faulty car parts or fake drugs. While large corporations make “only a few billion in loss,“ consumers may have to pay with their lives.

That makes it understandably hard for people to feel pity for big companies suffering from brand counterfeiting but still making loads of money. 
Many people would still be glad to find a good Gucci fake on vacation.

But, as counterfeit investigator Alastair Gray states in a TED Talk (How fake handbags fund terrorism and organized crime):

“Counterfeiting is not a victimless crime.”

Even in the case of counterfeit fashion accessories, like the seemingly innocent fake handbags at the beach…

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ivault enables anyone with a smartphone to become a counterfeit investigator for their favorite brand or company. Consumers can scan QR-Codes printed on the ivault.verified anti-counterfeit label on the product packaging.

Embedded NFC chips are even safer and can be fully hidden inside a product or its packaging. Scanning an ivault.verified product with an NFC chip reader app still works very well even with metal objects.

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3. Helping people live a more sustainable life

By providing verified data about green products. 

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Nowadays, sustainability is an enormous and growing competitive advantage for companies. The modern consumer is concerned with the sustainability of products and manufacturing conditions, from organic food to fair trade fashion. To comply with Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is becoming more important for brand trust.

Now, Blockchain can guarantee product authenticity and provide verified data about original products, as mentioned above, through a simple QR scan with any smartphone to get more information about the green products, like sustainability certificates, stored on the blockchain.

This way, as a green company, you can create a new customer experience for those who care for the environment. To help consumers live a more sustainable life and build trust in your brand and products. Here is another example of a startup company that attempts to track sustainably caught fish — an excellent explanation of how blockchain tracking works and how it can contribute to a greener economy.

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► TED Talk: Blockchain for fish tracking

Supply chain innovator Markus Mutz discusses a fish tracking use case using Blockchain very well. His startup company OpenSC and WWF are developing a fish tracking prototype using a variety of different tracking technologies.

His TED Talk (How supply chain transparency can help the planet) is an excellent explanation of how supply chain transparency can help the planet using Blockchain, GPS-tracking, RFID, and QR for sustainably caught fish and other green goods. And how verified product information can help people live more sustainable lives:

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► Blockchain-based product authentication for green goods

With ivault, companies can not only provide consumers with immutable information about the environmental friendliness of green goods. ivault offers a new and more authentic communication channel to create a remarkable customer journey — based on improved supply chain transparency.

Moreover, our distributed ledger is green as well — the energy consumption is lower than that of any normal computer. We have already discussed how Blockchain can help the environment here: Sustainable blockchain supply chain solutions in 2020.

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Use case: Blockchain product authenticity verification process to retrieve data about the sustainability of a product.

The Blockchain-based sustainability check for mobile devices works essentially the same like the anti-counterfeiting use case in the picture you have seen before — scan a QR-Code or read NFC tags integrated with the sustainable product and the ivault platform will retrieve all the data on the manufacturing conditions and sustainability of this product provided by the company.

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4. Tracking assets to prevent theft

Both for B2B, logistics and supply chain, and for consumers.

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In the past, we have talked a lot about how we increase overall supply chain security to combat the counterfeit market. For some companies, the number of stolen goods can be a much bigger problem.

We have long been working on use cases for asset tracking, anti-theft and crime prevention as well. We are using Blockchain for container tracking and cargo theft prevention, for example. Some anti-theft systems based on the ivault Blockchain and small-scale technologies, like sensors and embedded chips, are already on the market.

Here is one of them — our pilot project for theft prevention:

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► Blockchain & GPS for theft prevention

A few months ago, we entered a cooperation to conduct a pilot for theft prevention of outdoor-stationary objects. The devices are connected to the ivault platform and feature multiple locating and transmission methods while using military-grade end-to-end encryption.

The battery life of the tracking devices is 10 years and various alerts are being sent in case of attempted theft, such as unscheduled movement, removal of the tracker, etc. The devices can be equipped or connected to a wide range of sensors for monitoring purposes.

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Blockchain for theft prevention using high-end GPS trackers.

Theft prevention combining Blockchain with GPS tracking devices (on market); can be used to track stolen containers and prevent cargo theft at large. Can also secure expensive medical devices that are being shipped and at high risk to be stolen.

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► Bike theft prevention on the ivault App

Private citizens, on the other hand, can use the ivault app to track physical assets. One of the results is that Blockchain can serve as a social deterrent to prevent bike theft and make communities safer.

The Blockchain Social Network concept also sets a new security standard for other social media platforms with a long history of abusing and selling personal data of customers…

In contrast, by using Blockchain to protect user data, we are creating a social platform that leaves no space for criminal cyber activities to hack and steal data. We are excited to combine our B2C solution for physical asset recovery with asset insurance in the future as well.

However, we will discuss both B2B and B2C Blockchain / Asset tracking use cases in the next entry.

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5. Building a social engagement platform

To find help when you need it

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As our CEO Arman Sarhaddar states in our US TV commercial: In the past, way before the revolution of the internet, people had more compassion for each other. If someone lost something, they would help look for it. If someone needed to borrow something, there would be no question to help out.

Unfortunately, those habits got lost in this fast-paced society we are living in — despite being more connected than ever through digitalization and globalization.

With the ivault mobile app for local communities, we are creating a social engagement platform for private citizens to find local help more easily. We enable every single person to use Blockchain for social impact by supporting each other. Apart from our huge lost & found database, anyone can lend or borrow items or simply ask their local community questions.

A digital social engagement platform like this makes it much easier to help others and to get help quickly whenever you need it.

And it can effectively boost social change.

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