{"id":113124,"date":"2020-11-16T20:40:00","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T17:40:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on\/"},"modified":"2020-11-16T20:40:00","modified_gmt":"2020-11-16T17:40:00","slug":"covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on\/","title":{"rendered":"# COVID-19 popularized decentralization, but blockchain may not catch on"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"ez-toc-container\" class=\"ez-toc-v2_0_84 counter-hierarchy ez-toc-counter ez-toc-custom ez-toc-container-direction\">\n<p class=\"ez-toc-title\" style=\"cursor:inherit\">Table of Contents<\/p>\n<label for=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2d25231e169\" class=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-label\"><span class=\"\"><span class=\"eztoc-hide\" style=\"display:none;\">Toggle<\/span><span class=\"ez-toc-icon-toggle-span\"><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" class=\"list-377408\" width=\"20px\" height=\"20px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" fill=\"none\"><path d=\"M6 6H4v2h2V6zm14 0H8v2h12V6zM4 11h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2zM4 16h2v2H4v-2zm16 0H8v2h12v-2z\" fill=\"currentColor\"><\/path><\/svg><svg style=\"fill: #dd3333;color:#dd3333\" class=\"arrow-unsorted-368013\" xmlns=\"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" width=\"10px\" height=\"10px\" viewBox=\"0 0 24 24\" version=\"1.2\" baseProfile=\"tiny\"><path d=\"M18.2 9.3l-6.2-6.3-6.2 6.3c-.2.2-.3.4-.3.7s.1.5.3.7c.2.2.4.3.7.3h11c.3 0 .5-.1.7-.3.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7zM5.8 14.7l6.2 6.3 6.2-6.3c.2-.2.3-.5.3-.7s-.1-.5-.3-.7c-.2-.2-.4-.3-.7-.3h-11c-.3 0-.5.1-.7.3-.2.2-.3.5-.3.7s.1.5.3.7z\"\/><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/label><input type=\"checkbox\"  id=\"ez-toc-cssicon-toggle-item-6a2d25231e169\" checked aria-label=\"Toggle\" \/><nav><ul class='ez-toc-list ez-toc-list-level-1 ' ><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-1\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on\/#Will_decentralization_go_on\" >Will decentralization go on?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-2\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on\/#A_role_in_capturing_health_information\" >A role in capturing health information?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-3\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on\/#Will_equipment_be_delivered_%E2%80%94_and_will_it_work\" >Will equipment be delivered \u2014 and will it work?<\/a><\/li><li class='ez-toc-page-1 ez-toc-heading-level-3'><a class=\"ez-toc-link ez-toc-heading-4\" href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on\/#Blockchain_projects_are_still_of_limited_scope\" >Blockchain projects are still of limited scope<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/nav><\/div>\n<p>&#8220;<strong># COVID-19 popularized decentralization, but blockchain may not catch on <\/strong>&#8221;<br \/>\n<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.cointelegraph.com\/images\/840_aHR0cHM6Ly9zMy5jb2ludGVsZWdyYXBoLmNvbS91cGxvYWRzLzIwMjAtMTEvMDRiNGZmZmEtODVmMC00OWVjLTgxYTgtYjg4MTQwOWViMGM1LmpwZw==.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<div class=\"post-content\" data-v-5a136f3a>On Nov. 9, drugmaker Pfizer <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pfizer.com\/news\/press-release\/press-release-detail\/pfizer-and-biontech-announce-vaccine-candidate-against\">announced<\/a>\u00a0that its COVID-19 vaccine is 90-plus percent effective, and even though it may be premature to proclaim the pandemic\u2019s end \u2014 as the virus continues to rage in the United States and Europe \u2014 once can at least speculate: Where will blockchain adoption stand when the crisis abates?<\/p>\n<p>Some predicted, after all, that the global healthcare upheaval might provide a perfect storm for worldwide blockchain adoption. A Harvard Business Review article from April titled &#8220;How the Pandemic Is Pushing Blockchain Forward,&#8221; for instance, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/hbr.org\/2020\/04\/how-the-pandemic-is-pushing-blockchain-forward\">notes<\/a>:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cThe virus has revealed the weaknesses in our supply chains, our inability to deploy resources where they are most needed to address the pandemic. [&#8230;] Blockchain solutions that have been under development for years have been repurposed and unleashed to address these challenges.\u201d <\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Will_decentralization_go_on\"><\/span>Will decentralization go on?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The world was moving toward a more decentralized economic structure even before the coronavirus pandemic, but the crisis \u2014 with its shortages of reliable masks, ventilators and drugs; <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/trip-and-travel\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"10\" title=\"Trip &amp; Travel\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">travel<\/a> bans and remote-working protocols; contact-tracing initiatives, etc. \u2014 has arguably accelerated the process, and this should continue after the pandemic wanes. <\/p>\n<p>A survey of 12,500 Americans conducted between May and October, for instance, finds that\u00a0\u201c20 percent of all full work days will be supplied from home after the pandemic ends,\u201d compared with only 5% before the COVID-19 cataclysm. Working from home will \u201cstick,\u201d according to the researchers, because the stigma attached to remote working has vanished, it saves commuting time, and many employees really like it \u2014 at least for part of the workweek. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis [decentralization] trend will continue after the pandemic,\u201d Philipp Sandner, head of the Frankfurt School Blockchain Center at the Frankfurt School of Finance &amp; Management, told Cointelegraph, adding: \u201cThe present pandemic situation has shown us how valuable and efficient decentralization can be \u2014 allowing us to increase our resilience to unforeseen events while at the same time often improving operational efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Back in April, Ariel Zetlin-Jones, associate professor of economics at Carnegie Mellon University&#8217;s Tepper School of Business, told Cointelegraph\u00a0that the pandemic had driven home some hard lessons, mainly that dependency is a weakness: \u201cWe will need a more robust economy \u2014 one where supply chains are less dependent on a single producer, where workers are less dependent on the operations of a single firm, where individuals are less dependent on a single source of health care.\u201d In short, a more decentralized world economy was required, and blockchain <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/technology\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"4\" title=\"Technology\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">technology<\/a> seemed uniquely poised to play a role.<\/p>\n<p>Following up with Cointelegraph about the current situation, Zetlin-Jones said that he still anticipates more decentralization after the COVID-19 pandemic ends. \u201cI expect many sectors of the economy to continue to seek out ways to become better diversified against global shocks like a pandemic.\u201d He added: \u201cWhether this diversification occurs through decentralization or a few centralized actors increasing their level of diversification remains to be seen.\u201d Furthermore, according to him, blockchain can play a role in all this:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cTo the extent that blockchain offers one way to achieve this diversification, by decentralizing enforcement of a shared database or ledger, I remain optimistic that it will play a role in the economy going forward.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Others are more ambivalent, however. Hanna Halaburda, associate professor at New York University&#8217;s Stern School of Business, told Cointelegraph that \u201cBlockchain has not delivered as much as hoped\u201d during the pandemic. \u201cIt largely failed as a contact tracing solution: It was too slow, adoption was cumbersome, and it achieved no critical mass.\u201d IBM\u2019s blockchain-based COVID-19 tracking solution, for one, came up short, according to her. \u201cThe best contact tracing solutions were not blockchain-based,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>Still, technologies such as Zoom, the teleconferencing <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/download-scripts-themes-apps\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"9\" title=\"Download Scripts &amp; Themes &amp; Apps\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">app<\/a> whose use became mandatory for many people working from home, skyrocketed during the crisis, and this could have a spillover effect, making individuals and businesses more open-minded vis-a-vis new technologies, she admitted. <\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"A_role_in_capturing_health_information\"><\/span>A role in capturing health information?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>In his recent book <em>The Pandemic Information Gap: The Brutal Economics of COVID-19<\/em>, Joshua Gans, professor of strategic management at the University of Toronto, argues that blockchain technology could be used to verify whether people have been tested for infection as well as when or how they have been vaccinated against viruses. \u201cI think governments are still struggling to determine this,\u201d he told Cointelegraph. \u201cThe problem is that they are relying on centralized databases. Will those be secure and scalable enough? It is hard to say right now.\u201d As Gans further outlined for Cointelegraph:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cBlockchain technology lowers the cost of verification \u2014 being able to confirm that something happened to many people. Post-pandemic it may play a role in security given there is more remote work. But it could have a broader impact if it is used to capture health information in a trusted way \u2014 which is something we need more of.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Earlier this year, the Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research in Germany began <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.telegraph.co.uk\/news\/2020\/03\/29\/germany-will-issue-coronavirus-antibody-certificates-allow-quarantined\">issuing<\/a> vaccination certificates to individuals who had recovered from COVID-19, whose subsequent immunity could, &#8220;for example, allow them to be exempt from any (lockdown-related) restrictions on their work,&#8221;\u00a0according to Gerard Krause, an epidemiologist at the center. This is the sort of project that could be made more effective if it ran on a blockchain platform, in Gans&#8217; view.<\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Will_equipment_be_delivered_%E2%80%94_and_will_it_work\"><\/span>Will equipment be delivered \u2014 and will it work?<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>Meanwhile, hospitals and governments attempting to make emergency equipment purchases during the pandemic have sometimes been burned. \u201cGovernments that do not have expertise in purchasing protective equipment buy it from companies with which no trading relationship exists,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/cmsw.mit.edu\/blockchain-covid-19-crisis\/\">noted<\/a> a Massachusetts Institute of Technology researcher in a recent blog, adding: \u201cUpon delivery, it turns out that the goods are faulty or even counterfeit.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The Austrian Red Cross, for instance, <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tt.com\/artikel\/30727758\/fehlerhafte-masken-problem-duerfte-ueber-tirol-hinaus-gehen\">ordered<\/a> 20 million respiratory masks from a manufacturer in China, but the delivered masks were different from those ordered, and many never arrived at all. A tamper-free, append-only distributed ledger might have ensured that the goods weren\u2019t swapped in transit, the MIT blog post suggests. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf there were any lingering doubts over the value of blockchain platforms to improve the transparency of businesses that depend on the seamless integration of disparate networks, COVID-19 has all but wiped them away,\u201d <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.weforum.org\/agenda\/2020\/05\/why-covid-19-makes-a-compelling-case-for-wider-integration-of-blockchain\/\">wrote<\/a> Mariam Obaid AlMuhairi, project manager at the Centre for the Fourth Industrial Revolution UAE at the Dubai Future Foundation, in a World Economic Forum blog post in May. She added that the healthcare crisis can be viewed as a learning experience, demonstrating \u201chow to build transparent, inter-operable and connective networks.\u201d <\/p>\n<h3><span class=\"ez-toc-section\" id=\"Blockchain_projects_are_still_of_limited_scope\"><\/span>Blockchain projects are still of limited scope<span class=\"ez-toc-section-end\"><\/span><\/h3>\n<p>The technology may not yet be as versatile as some had hoped, though. In a recent study on commercial uses of blockchain, Halaburda and her colleague Yannis Bakos <a rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/blockchain.stern.nyu.edu\/\">looked at<\/a> 150 \u201cannounced\u201d blockchain projects. Only a small portion of these (10% to 15%) had been implemented as of March, and of those executed, almost all involved either supply chain management, certification or payments, suggesting the scope of commercial blockchain technology remains narrow.<\/p>\n<p>Local supply chains did get a big boost during the crisis, acknowledged Halaburda, but it\u2019s also reasonable to expect that after the pandemic subsides, things might revert back to being closer to where they were before the crisis. Durable goods, for instance, may still be manufactured in low-cost countries. Some of the benefits of localized production, such as not having to wait for personal protective equipment to arrive from thousands of miles away, may be forgotten in four or five years. <\/p>\n<p>Still, even if blockchain has disappointed in some areas, like contact tracing, it continues to offer powerful benefits \u2014 including transparency, interoperability and immutability \u2014 that could bolster supply chains in future crises. The technology could be useful in shipping medicines from pharmaceutical companies to pandemic-devastated regions, for example, or making \u201cmovement permits\u201d more workable in locked-down regions, as the WEF blog post suggests. <\/p>\n<p>Even Halaburda saw a silver lining amid the present darkness. \u201cThe pandemic has forced companies to adopt more technology solutions, and businesses recognize the need to adopt new technologies, including blockchain,\u201d she told Cointelegraph. <\/p>\n<p><template data-name=\"subscription_form\" data-type=\"markets_outlook\"><\/template><\/div>\n<blockquote><p><strong><span style=\"color: #ff6600;\">If you liked the article, do not forget to share it with your friends. Follow us on\u00a0<span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/publications\/CAAqBwgKMLG0nwswvr63Aw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\">Google News<\/a><\/span>\u00a0too, click on the star and choose us from your favorites.<\/span><\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\">For forums sites go to <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/forum.buradabiliyorum.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Forum.BuradaBiliyorum.Com<\/a><\/span><\/strong>\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>If you want to read more <a href=\"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/category\/news\/\" data-internallinksmanager029f6b8e52c=\"2\" title=\"News\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">News<\/a> articles, you can visit our <span style=\"color: #ff9900;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/general\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">General category.<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p><span style=\"color: black;\"><a style=\"color: #ff9900;\" href=\"https:\/\/cointelegraph.com\/news\/covid-19-popularized-decentralization-but-blockchain-may-not-catch-on\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;# COVID-19 popularized decentralization, but blockchain may not catch on &#8221; On Nov. 9, drugmaker Pfizer announced\u00a0that its COVID-19 vaccine is 90-plus percent effective, and even though it may be premature to proclaim the pandemic\u2019s end \u2014 as the virus continues to rage in the United States and Europe \u2014 once can at least speculate:&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":113125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2020-11\/04b4fffa-85f0-49ec-81a8-b881409eb0c5.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[74894,74983,74355,1545],"class_list":["post-113124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-blockchain","tag-decentralization","tag-adoption","tag-coronavirus"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113124","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113124"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113124\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}