How Will Blockchain Technology Solve The World Refuge Identify Crisis?
It is disheartening when I read stories of how some folks think that blockchain technology cannot solve some of the epic world problems!
I have read stories of how some folks are so against blockchain technology that they do not take a little time to check out some real life changing problems.
I love the way some folks are so hardworking that they will always create solutions in whatever circumstances they are in!
Tykn is a project that was born out of necessity! We shall understand more of this project below!
Tykn is a project started by Toufic Al Rjula who was a Syrian refugee in the Netherlands(more about Toufic later).
The Vision/mission of Tykn is
to help NGOs and governments help people better by providing a digital identity platform that brings the resiliency we want to digital identities. Resiliency to fraud and resiliency permanent loss.
Let us now get back to the CEO of Tykn and how the company was formed.
It is fascinating to note that Toufic Al Rjula the CEO of Tykn was a Syrian refugee in the Netherlands. He was born in Kuwait, the gulf war destroyed the whole region making him lose his birth certificate in the process!
We have all read stories of war day in day out, very many people are displaced at such times and they lose their identities in the process! Losing an identity means losing a passport, birth certificate whereby a person does not have anything to prove whom they claim they are!
I have read the touching story of how Toufic Al Rjula’s working permit expired in the Netherlands where he was forced to stay in refugee camps for two years.
He witnessed the problems many refugees face, inability to verify the authenticity of their documents and also many had lost their important documents like passports, academic certificates, and many other important documents.
It is also the first time I have heard of people who go by the name “Invisible People”
It is hard to believe that on Toufic Al Rjula’s driving license he being declared as "unknown"!
Toufic Al Rjula calls himself the "Invisible Man" and he is fighting for all the many people who lack identities("Invisible People")
What Problems is Tykn Solving?
If you have not grasped a concept of what Tykn is doing then we shall explore on that more below.
I will first quote from the website a statement you need to read and internalize!
A third of the refugees in Europe are children, and while they are lucky to get documented, hundreds of thousands in Syrian Refugee camps do not have birth certificates, and newborns in camps are unable to complete the birth registration process, due to economic, geographical and complex administrative barriers. Ultimately, the experiences the refugees shared with Tey in the Dutch refugee camp regarding the hardships they suffered as "invisible people" gave him the inspiration and motivation to found Tykn, together with social entrepreneurs Khalid Maliki and Jimmy J.P. Snoek, in order to work on providing self-sovereign identity to all.
1.Paper-based identification
It has to be noted that most governments still use paper as a form of identification. These paper documents can easily be lost through fire or war and even floods!
These paper documents are also susceptible to fraud and lack interoperability.
2.Lack of resilience in identifying documents.
This is caused by the centralization of these documents .it is always difficult to access this documents in times of emergencies because maybe the person in charge of the documents office might not be as quick as needed!
3.Insufficient knowledge of Blockchain
There is still a big challenge of lack of blockchain technology education in the government and NGOs sector.
I remember stating above that the vision of Tykn is
to help NGOs and governments help people better by providing a digital identity platform that brings the resiliency we want to digital identities. Resiliency to fraud and resiliency permanent loss.
What are the solutions offered by Tykn?
Tykn is replacing paper-based documentation by building & designing systems for the registration and verification of persons via a distributed ledger.
This will give the "Invisible People"legal identity and help them out of the chaos they are always in. Having a digital identity helps you be helped or served anywhere anytime.
It is very easy to access anyone's records when they are stored on the blockchain.
Lack of resilience in identifying documents will be solved by storing them decentrally with client-side encryption and sharding of files using IPFS, Storj, or any other decentralized storage solution (such as Oyster Pearl, Siacoin or FileCoin).
This will enable easy access of these records and they cannot be affected by man made and natural disaster like earthquakes,floods and landslides.
Insufficient knowledge of Blockchain will be solved by collaborating with municipalities and NGOs to help shape the best possible regulatory framework and political environment for an eventual restructuring of the system.
It is great that there are many countries that are beginning to endorse and see the potential offered by blockchain technology.
Tykn Labs Foundation will be in charge of disseminating knowldege about the blockchain to NGOs and government entities through hosting workshops and discussion panels.
So What Does TYKN Do?
I will summarize below what exactly Tykn does as most is already discussed above!
Beneficiary Identity Registration
This involves registration and verification of humanitarian aid through their software called Ana.
We have all heard or witnessed scenarios where many people miss aid during emergency scenarios just because they have no identification! These people may really be in need of the help but cannot because they have no proof of identification,there are also scenarios where some folks get double or triple the donation help because there is no proper identification system!
Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) Solutions
This involves empowering NGOs and governments with tailor-made Blockchain-based identification tools and building and designing of systems for the registration and verification of persons.
Contribution of Open-Source Software
The Tykn code(Sovrin) will be released as an open source-software
Meet-ups & Workshops
These will be run under Tykn Labs Foundation that will host and organize workshops/meetups.
In summary we see this project by Tykn as a solution to the many identification problems faced in the world especially by refugees!
You can read more about the Tykn project by checking out the links below.
Project Website: https://tykn.tech
Products & Services: https://tykn.tech/project-zinc/
Link to a press release: https://blog.tykn.tech/tykn-wins-best-ico-at-the-blockchain-innovation-conference-d8b650340e88
Next event: https://www.decentralized.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Tykn.tech/
Medium: https://blog.tykn.tech
Twitter: https://twitter.com/tykn_tech
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Jarau Moses
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