UK university creates blockchain-powered coronavirus certificate

A British university has pioneered a blockchain-powered certificate to ensure that supply chains are protected from infection by the coronavirus.

Birmingham City University (BCU) and non-profit Centre for Citizenship, Enterprise and Governance (CCEG) have officially begun trials for the Сoronavirus Сlearance Сertificate (CCC), built on the Seratio blockchain platform.

“[The certificate] confirms that a supplier adheres to the highest standards of public health, sustainability, anti-bribery and even modern slavery. And in this case, we can verify the level of supply risk due to the coronavirus,” Olinga Taeed, visiting professor of blockchain at BCU, told Decrypt.

How does the Coronavirus Clearance Certificate work?

The Coronavirus Clearance Certificate is based around a QR code that tracks both financial and non-financial elements of the supply chain. Each movement of a product is logged on a blockchain, enabling buyers to monitor potential exposures to COVID-19 across the supply chain—including products, organizations, processes, projects and even people involved.

The immutability of the blockchain will enable it to register breaks in any given product’s life cycle, immediately highlighting areas that need investigating.

The solution has been in development for nearly a decade by CCEG, a think tank on the movement of value with around 165,000 members.“The immediate reaction from 300 of their 7000 C-Suite executives from multi-national organisations was to first focus on COVID-19... hence the Coronavirus Clearance Certificate,” Taeed said.

The UK’s Midlands region was chosen to run CCC’s trial, as it is one of the areas most heavily affected by the coronavirus.