There are several entities trying to tackle this challenge:

 Global Digital Finance (GDF), based in the UK - “endeavours to drive efficient, fair and transparent crypto asset markets by building a knowledge base and best practice for ‘Truly Digital’ finance and the benefits tokens can bring all market participants.”

The International Token Association (ITA) is a German-based association that specialises in the identification, classification, and analysis of Blockchain-based tokens.

International Standards Organisation (ISO) has established ISO/TC 307 - “blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, which have been set up to meet the growing need for standardization in this area by providing internationally agreed ways of working.”

The Enterprise Ethereum Alliance  - “an organisation whose charter is to develop, open blockchain specifications that drive harmonisation and interoperability for businesses and consumers worldwide.”

So, the list goes on, with no real dominant body yet emerging that has been able to create a common set of rules and guidance for all to follow. The ‘cyber punks’, who were the earlier adaptors of Blockchain (in particular, Cryptocurrencies) will no doubt recoil at the thought of central guidance and, dare it be even said, rules. However, for governments and multinational corporations to have a set of standards/rules according to which they can work and build procedures and systems around will be music to their ears.

Interestingly, we have already seen increasing use of private Blockchains, such as JP Morgan’s Quorum, Maersk’s Tradelens and BP Vakt (previously as fierce competitors) now working together in a more collaborative manner using the same Blockchain-powered platforms. However, it is highly unlikely we will see any of the proposed Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDC) being run on a private Blockchain and being fully decentralised.

Blockchains are renowned for being able to help restore trust and offer greater transparency which, given the ‘fake news’ that is swirling around covid-19, is vital if governments are to be able to take decisive steps to protect citizens from the covid-19 pandemic. The MiPasa is designed to enable people to check whether they have been close to someone who has been infected with Covid-19. 

By using Blockchain technology it is possible to hold data in a highly secure manner and make it available globally. Conceivably even more useful is that any of the information held could be passed between different parties without disclosing certain information i.e. personal details. The use of anonymised data is proving to be very valuable and, indeed, was a topic addressed in 100+ page comprehensive report produced for the European Parliament, looking at the challenges of Blockchain and GDPR. Another ID project using Blockchain technology to track Covid-19 is being built in China by Elastos and is designed to track an individual’s health using strict privacy controls. Being interoperable it could be used between different cities and countries, hence if you were tested to be negative to the virus in the U.K, you would be free to travel to the USA by presenting your credentials recorded on this Blockchain-powered app.

In the case of tracking the spread of a virus such as Covid-19, various parties, e.g.  governments and organisations (such as WHO), will most likely be looking for trends – which age groups, sex, ethnicity etc, are catching the virus in different countries. From this the statistics would reflect mortality and survival rates, as opposed to whom individually has/ has not contracted the illness. Alongside this, a research paper looking at the sharing of digital medical records for oncology patients highlighted the use of anonymised data to be beneficial for the prompt care of cancer patients, as well as for the development of other medical research.

The ability for Blockchains to gather data, hold it securely and make it anonymised may well lead to greater demand for Identity Cards being used. In desperate times, such as now, unusual actions do happen. For example, the usually strict Disclosure Barring Service checks carried out for due diligence on potential new employees have temporarily been changed:

●       ID documents to be viewed over video link;

●       scanned images to be used in advance of the DBS check being submitted.

Instead of a digital currency that is made up of a basket of fiat currencies, they are now looking at issuing a series of digital currencies pegged to individual fiat currencies, and similar to some of the existing stable coins which currently exist e.g. Tether, US$, Circle etc. Interest in some stablecoins (such as Tether) have seen a substantial increase in their assets recently, as Tether is now worth over $6.35 billion, a rise of $2 billion in just March. It would appear that those at Libra wish to help central banks create their own individual fiat-linked stablecoin and, to start the process, Libra has applied to the Swiss Financial Markets Supervisory Authority (FINMA)s for a payments services license. Facebook’s David Marcus said, “Libra will sport a comprehensive network-level system around anti-money laundering (AML), Combatting the Financing of Terrorism (CFT), and sanctions enforcement" and "building stronger protections into the design of the Libra Reserve to protect consumers, even in the most adverse situations”.

However, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) has announced 10 proposals to central banks, and one of the them is to ban decentralised stablecoins if it is felt they cannot be controlled or regulated. Potentially, if the recommendations proposed by the FSB are enacted then Tether, for example, may need to become authorised in every country in which it wishes to issue its token. As a result, this would substantially increase its compliance infrastructure and costs. Could it be that the FSB proposals a method of simply ‘clearing the way’ so that, in effect, it will only be central bankers who are able to create digital currencies?

Meanwhile, in China, the government is still progressing its plans to launch a national digital currency (DCEP) as local government employees in the city of Suzhou will receive 50% of their May 2020 transportation subsidies in DCEP. The DCEP payments will be made by four state-owned banks - the Agricultural Bank of China, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the Bank of China and the China Construction Bank. It is not just in China we are seeing increasing adoption, as in Malaysia a payments platform (MoneyMatch) has announced it will soon be using Ripple. CEO of MoneyMatch, Adrian Yap, believes that banks make huge profits from FX-operations which are really expensive for the users. He recently stated, “After joining RippleNet, we were suddenly a credible partner for all these financial institutions and payment providers around the world. Working with RippleNet partners allowed us to cut our costs by as much as 40% and instead of transactions taking at least two days, we were completing payments in just a few hours.”