How Can Blockchain Help Fight Coronavirus

Coronavirus (COVID-19) had a massive outbreak in Wuhan, China which was reportedly linked with seafood and since then it spreading worldwide. The severity of the epidemic is so huge that it is affecting global industries – such as healthcare, supply chain, insurance, agriculture, and government.

Though coronavirus is not the first epidemic that has caused a serious threat to life, it’s severe and is impacting the global economy, too. The impact is so widespread that China’s economy has lost its annual real GDP growth by 2-3% and services have fallen by 5%. Not only China is facing the heat but it is affecting the overall global population and the count has reached approximately 170 countries. Kia Motors has closed its manufacturing plants in South Korea and Air France–KLM lost $200 million of revenue due to the virus. The commodity market has typically trembled and oil prices have reached $26 per barrel due to fear from the demand perspective.

There is an acute stumbling in the global market and blockchain solutions at enterprise scale are deemed helpful to combat the virus and limit the impact that it is having on the world.

Blockchain in Action

The technological companies have realized the potential of blockchain and started implementing blockchain solutions. Let us further explore what are the various divisions where the distributed ledger technology can be executed to realize the utmost benefits.

• Donation Tracking

People are very cautious at this point; panic and uncertainty prevail all over the world. Individuals are donating monies but are unsure where this money is being transmitted. The outbreak is so huge that it is the trust which is driving the donations.

Thus, to counter the situation and to channelize the donations in the right manner, many tech companies have come up with a solution and developed a donation-tracking platform. It is already gaining immense popularity and citizens from all over the world are reconsidering their willingness to donate through this platform. A blockchain-based startup named Hyperchain has already attracted $2 million in donations. It connects the donors with those who require funds urgently and then track their donations until it is received by the authenticated authority or person.

• Insurance Claims

Blockchain can help mitigate the risk of spreading infection from face-to-face contact by enabling the processing of transactions of insurance claims online, without human involvement.

Blockchain is aiding in such domains and many enterprise blockchain solutions have been devised to build claim-sharing platforms. These platforms have processed over 25,000 claims until now and more than 104 million users are already connected with these platforms.

• Tracking supply chain of medical materials

A dramatic supply gap has been witnessed in the demand and supply of medical supplies. According to the NDRC (National Development and Reform Commission), daily production of masks is approximately 15.2 million per day and the demand is estimated between 50 and 60 million units. Thus, the shortage of masks and other medical supplies is also because of the hoarding of goods and numerous fake facial masks have been seized to date.

Thereby, to maintain a steady flow of goods, blockchain-based platforms have been developed to trace the demand and supply of medical products and controlling the desired quality of the products. This system has been widely implemented in North Carolina, Indiana and Tennessee and proper recording of masks, gloves, and other protective gear has been implemented.

• Tracking of data

At this time, it is required that every piece of information shared should be properly validated to avoid any panic. Thus, various healthcare and life science institutions are associating with blockchain solutions to track the proximity of the virus. The same information is being widely used by various researchers, scientists, and journalists to understand and come up with a remedy to combat the virus.

A coronavirus tracker named Acoer is gaining rapid traction and ensuring that information transmitted through their blockchain-based platform is trustworthy, transparent and tamper-free.

• Cross-border payments

Charity organizations, governments, and health institutions majorly get aid from global vendors and thus a lot of donated money is wasted in the transaction fee. The United Nations World Food Program introduced projects on blockchain technology for distributing aid to global vendors and for arranging the money transfer. This process is saving millions of dollars by reducing bank transfer fees.

Summing Up

The society is fighting against coronavirus and blockchain has the potential to provide solutions that can limit the impact of the virus. Multinational health organizations, government institutions, start-ups, and other tech companies are widely recognizing the need for decentralized technology and integrating the same into their operations.

If you are considering building a blockchain-powered product, Antier Solutions can help. We offer blockchain solutions at enterprise scale, helping companies with blockchain integration. Our blockchain engineers, together with subject matter experts, follow a coherent roadmap to navigate your blockchain development journey to offer meaningful business outcomes.

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