HashCash Consultants, a blockchain development company, is proposing the activation of the Digital Identity (DI) feature on a blockchain. The objective is the authentication and tracing of the COVID vaccine supply chain.
“The blockchain Digital Identity serves to discipline a whole supply chain of COVID vaccines, where strictly designated individuals may be authorized to distribute a specific number of vials across residential blocks,” says HashCash Chief and Blockchain pioneer, Raj Chowdhury.
Background
Ever since the launch of the COVID vaccine, there have been concerns about:
- fraud
- counterfeiting
- unauthorised vaccines.
To give but one recent example, the US Department of Justice (DoJ) arrested a California-licensed naturopathic doctor for her alleged scheme to:
- sell homeoprophylaxis immunisation pellets
- falsify COVID-19 vaccination cards by making it appear that customers had received the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized Moderna vaccine.
In July, the DoJ charged Juli A. Mazi with one count of wire fraud and one count of false statements related to health care matters. The case is, apparently, the first federal criminal fraud prosecution related to homeoprophylaxis immunisations and fraudulent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID-19 vaccination record cards.
Such activities, or similar, have surfaced in multiple instances around the world. HashCash’s approach with DI seeks to smoothen out the still-persistent wrinkles in the verfiable vaccination system.
HashCash and Blockchain Digital Identity
Blockchain Digital Identity, designed by HashCash, digitally authenticates the personnel and thereby grants access rights. This serves to ensure, only designated persons can access specific containers of the vaccine.
In addition, such controls help chart the hierarchy for vaccine distribution. Designated persons in charge may distribute vials to localities. By maintaining a hierarchy in distribution channels, the organised issue of verified vaccines minimises uncertainty, even panic, among potential recipients. Indeed, HasCash believes the algorithm may be enhanced to deliver a prioritised issuance of vaccines based on population data in a particular region. The HashCash product, therefore, aims to streamline the vaccine distribution system in a region.
Enterprise Times: what does this mean
HashCash has previously theorised about a blockchain-based vaccine passport prototype. It argued this could be most beneficial at international ports of entry. HashCash has also designed Health passports to maintain a national record of health and immunization for citizens from birth to death. This seeks to improve the health sectors of developing economies.
Prima facie, the HashCash concept seems to make sense – and there is no doubt that fraud and/or misrepresentation is a genuine threat to public as well as individual health. Yet, to Enterprise Times, there is too little detail from HashCash about the practicalities of using a blockchain, and who would run/maintain this. Until more becomes clearer, it is difficult to assess whether the addition of blockchain-based DI has merit. It is also not alone…
