Coca-Cola Co and the US Department of State along with two other companies on Friday said they are launching a project using blockchain’s digital ledger technology to create a secure registry for workers that is to help fight the use of forced labor worldwide.
The State Department said this is the government agency’s first major project on this issue using blockchain, reinforcing the technology’s growing application for social causes.
Nearly 25 million people work in forced-labor conditions worldwide, with 47 percent of them in the Asia-Pacific region, the International Labor Organization said.
Food and beverage companies are under pressure to address the risk of forced labor in countries where they obtain sugarcane.
A study released last year by KnowTheChain (KTC), a partnership founded by US-based Humanity United, showed that most food and beverage companies fall short in their efforts to solve the problem.
Coca-Cola, one of 10 global companies looked at by KTC, has committed to conduct 28 country-level studies on child labor, forced labor, and land rights for its sugar supply chains by 2020, the study said.
The US beverage giant said it has been exploring multiple blockchain projects for more than a year.
“We are partnering with the pilot of this project to further increase transparency and efficiency of the verification process related to labor policies within our supply chain,” Coca-Cola global head of workplace rights Brent Wilton said.
The new venture is intended to create a secure registry for workers and their contracts using blockchain’s validation and digital notary capabilities, said Blockchain Trust Accelerator (BTA), a non-profit organization involved in the project.
BTA is a global platform for harnessing blockchain to deliver social impact.
The State Department said it would provide expertise on labor protection.
“The Department of State is excited to work on this innovative blockchain-based pilot,” Deputy Assistant Secretary Scott Busby said, adding that while blockchain cannot compel firms or those in authority to abide by labor contracts, it can create a validated chain of evidence that would encourage compliance with the contracts.
The Bitfury Group, a US tech company, is to build the blockchain platform for this project, while Emercoin is to provide blockchain services as well, Bitfury chief executive Valery Vavilov and Emercoin chief technology officer Oleg Khovayko said on Friday.
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