Hyperledger Foundation Hyperledger Social Impact SIG, 25 Jan 2022

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From YouTube: How Blockchain Solves Social Inequality?

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A video from Prajit Datta, organizer of Hyperledger Sweden.

Blockchain, a term that is widely used in today’s world has indeed succeeded to make its mark in various sectors. From helping technology to grow and be more secure to helping people to uplift each other at the grassroots level, Blockchain has not disappointed the world. This is exactly why we need to focus on the issues where Blockchain can not only be an added benefit to the technological world but also to mankind from an emotional and well-being perspective.

Here is where gender inclusion and human empowerment come to play. Connecting millions of people to the basic information and their rights needs to be done in a simplified manner so as to strike the balance between what is right and what they are taught to be right. Prejudice in different societies has created biases that need to be broken and not be defined by gender roles. This can be in terms of job security, equal pay, or financial education. The gap needs to be bridged and the first step towards doing so is by accepting the fact that there is a problem. Blockchain definitely sees it and is a boon towards the right step.

Feel free to contribute at Hyperledger by joining our Social Impact Special Interest Group (SIG):

https://wiki.hyperledger.org/display/SISIG/Social+Impact+SIG

The Social Impact SIG is primarily focused on serving as a platform for exchanging ideas and exploration of ways to use blockchain technology in the context of social good. The Social Impact SIG will work with the other groups and technical teams, especially in the areas of implementation. The SIG will focus on convening a broad ecosystem, leveraging the skills, capabilities, and perspectives of individuals from the developer community, the social and humanitarian space, enterprises, government and non-government entities, and beyond.

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Would you like to hear how blockchain is driving a bigger revolution, a revolution which we have never seen before by simple definition? Blockchain is a distributed ledger technology that allows data to be stored globally on thousands of servers, while letting anyone on the network see everyone's entry in near real time.

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That makes it difficult for one user to gain control of the network. There has been a surge of excitement regarding blockchain, with people speculating about its applications to a whole host of industries and depicting it as a panacea.

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Could blockchain solve one of our society's most pressing issues? That is social inequality. I say it can. Firstly, let's start by considering the social inequality of income distribution.

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Currently, the richest 1 percent of the world owns half of the world's wealth and over 80 percent of the world's assets. Take a second to let that statistic sink in, but it doesn't end there.

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Analysts at the house of commons are predicting that if we don't act upon this soon, the top one percent will own two thirds of the world's wealth by 2030., imagine being in a room with 100 people, and one person owns almost 70 percent of the total wealth research analysts in the uk have attributed this vast disparity to the fact that the wealthy have invested a larger amount of their equity in businesses, stocks and other financial assets which have handed them disproportionate benefits, but it isn't just that the wealthy have invested more money into the financial assets.

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A large proportion of the globe simply isn't able to participate in such transactions at all.

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According to the world bank, there are currently billion people on the planet without access to a bank account imagine how tough it would be to live without a bank account, saving, borrowing, starting a business. Transferring money or buying a property would be immensely difficult.

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However, blockchain may offer a solution. A big obstacle preventing people from signing up with a bank is the procedures involving the customer, identification and verification of their sources of income.

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Anyone who is signed with a bank knows the tiresome process of onboarding and all the documents that are required to open an account.

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Therefore, many people, especially those living in rural areas, are discouraged from signing up as they either do not have these documents available or may not live in close proximity to a branch or find it too cumbersome to carry out this process.

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A simple solution to this could be that the customer information is shared through blockchain technology.

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This would store all the information about the person on an immutable chain allowing for all transaction related to the person to be documented when he or she wants to change to a different bank or open a new account. The bank can immediately gain access to the person's document through the ledger, and the customer doesn't need to be physically present.

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The benefits of blockchain go further. They can also address another major inequality, particularly affecting women, the gender pay gap. I think you will agree that there is a significant difference between what women and men are earning.

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Not only is this phenomenon psychologically damaging and demotivating to women, but according to recent reports from the world bank, the gender pay gap cost the world over 160 trillion dollars in earnings globally.

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Therefore, addressing this issue not only benefits women, but the entire population as a whole.

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So how can blockchain help well one of the biggest issues with the gender pay gap and why it has been difficult to track this data is due to lack of transparency.

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How can you actually tell that a man and a woman are producing equal output yet have an imbalance in earnings? This is very difficult to calculate. Utilizing. Blockchain companies would be able to see everyone's salary information in a clear and honest way.

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Such a system would provide the much needed transparency to payment schemes by indicating how much men and women are earning in relation to their performance, working hours, etc.

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This would lead to corporations to implement more fair salaries and make it easier for unfair pay to be noticed.

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Furthermore, in relation to my previous point about the people not having bank accounts, women are even less likely to have access to a bank account globally. 72 percent of the adult men have an account compared to 65 percent of women.

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Therefore, blockchain technology will especially play an important role for women, as it will promote their empowerment by increasing their economic participation. I have only touched upon two of the main ways that blockchain can help reduce social inequality. First, improving financial inclusion of the society and second reducing the gender pay gap that exists in our world.

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However, the benefits of blockchain go far beyond the points I have mentioned. It could even reduce corruption and improve ethnic diversity, which are the two other critical variables of social inequality, even if implementing the blockchain technology within our regular infrastructures will take some time and resources.

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I strongly believe our society is ready for a more equitable world where everyone is rewarded fairly for their contribution. So what are your thought about this.