Since March of 2011, the Syrian Civil War has claimed the lives of over 500,000 innocent civilians, including 20,000 children and 13,000 women. The U.N. estimates that 3 million more lives will be at risk if Syrian President, Bashar al-Assad, continues the air campaign against his people.
Accountability via Immutable Evidence
By leveraging the Ethereum blockchain, I worked with early threat detection and reporting group Hala Systems to introduce a program that will prove the immutability of data collected from the ground in violent places, thereby providing a critically important tool for accountability and justice efforts. Such efforts help prevent or mitigate tomorrow’s violent conflicts.
14000
processed on the Ethereum network to immutably hash digital evidence
Evidence with a digital fingerprint
Pressing the limits of blockchain
The blockchain API that we integrated into the Sentry warning system was one of the first frictionless applications of the emerging technology that did not need direct input or transaction payment on behalf of the end user, and was leveraged in one of the earliest blockchain-to-IoT pilot use cases.
The Future of Automating Evidence Immutability
Beyond this use case, the platform developed as part of this proof of concept could be scaled as a production system and function as a protocol for automated blockchain reporting of specified events and help clear the fog of war.
Blockchain technology can facilitate collaboration amongst watchdogs, boost their efficiency, and reduce duplication of effort. Verifiable reporting from austere environments can ultimately help reduce the suffering that results from conflict, and aid in the inevitable peace-building and reconciliation efforts that follow it.