(Rejected: 4) Singapore-Based Company to Develop an Innovative Blockchain and IoT Platform for Ecological Conservation

A Singapore-based blockchain company, Flowchain, seeks to build an IoT and blockchain-powered framework that will guarantee environmental sustainability and ecological restoration.

According to the Singapore Environment Council (SEC), the young generation should have a crucial role in driving behavioral and mindset change. A survey revealed that 60% of consumers are uncertain or do not know how to recycle them. Only one in ten young Singaporeans recycles electronic waste, and around 34 percent of these citizens do not do it correctly.  

Additionally, IoT companies and researchers have resulted in inserting numerous sensors in natural environments and farms to gather environmental data. This approach may prove disastrous as an overabundance of sensors, and the absence of ideal recycling mechanisms could aggravate the e-waste problem. 

Deploying Blockchain and IoT for Ecological Preservation

Payments for ecosystem services (PES) are gaining traction as ideal elements in environmental governance and ecological preservation. For example, climate change is being mitigated via carbon offset payments, whereas biodiversity loss is being tackled through wildlife conservation performance payments.

Blockchain technology can, therefore, come in handy in reinforcing PES programs by availing tamper-proof blockchain smart contracts.

Additionally, Blockchain can play an instrumental role in presenting ecological preservation by presenting a verifiable, immutable, and secure record of who exchanges what with whom and who has what at a given time.

On the other hand, IoT can propel ecological preservation by offering real-time data. Notably, deforestation accounts for 15% of all global carbon emissions. IoT can come in handy in tackling this menace by attaching sensors to trees enabling them to detect and monitor illegal logging at a certain distance.

Companies can also use IoT to develop systems to monitor their hardware. Expressly, the system will be able to detect and inform the relevant stakeholders if the life cycle of a certain part is over or it has become faulty. Part of the solution entails offering guidance about the replacement procedures.

Notably, in order to tackle the e-waste challenge, Flowchain has come up with a creative data collection method, whereby photos will be gathered from the smartphone cameras of tourists with their consent. 

The Singaporean blockchain company seeks to leverage on tourists’ photos and those taken by environmental protection researchers and volunteers in creating a mega database that will include GPS information. Expressly, the sources will be audited by PPKI, the company’s patented technology. 

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