Blockchain Standards for Sustainable Development
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.13052/jicts2245-800X.733Keywords:
Standards, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Sustainable Development, Transparency, Reputation, AutomationAbstract
Sustainable development requirements are often regarded as adding a layer of cost to production of goods and delivery of services. This perception can result in the dilution of sustainable development goals. To address this concern, it is necessary to improve both the methods by which sustainable development is achieved and the validation of its long-term benefits. Identification of better and more quantifiable indicators of value and progress are clearly linked to achieving sustainable development. This article explores the way that International Standards can help government agencies and development organizations to make sense of information communication technology and the way they can be used to improve and report outcomes. Standards can help ensure that innovations and processes are interoperable, reliable and secure. Blockchain standards will improve blockchain’s reputation as a useful layer of technology for tracking and auditing data, exchanges and transactions, making it an invaluable tool for achieving transparency and trust in sustainable development programs.
Downloads
References
HWJ Wittel and MM Webber, ‘Dilemmas in a general theory of planning’ (1973) 4(2) Policy Sciences 155.
United Nations, ‘Millennium Development Goals Report 2015’,Geneva: United Nations (2015) <https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:29mgxU8HQ2QJ: https://www.un.org/millenniumgoals/2015_MDG_Report/pdf/MDG%25202015%2520rev%2520(July%25201).pdf+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=au&client=firefox-b-d>
Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, ‘Closing the Gap in a Generation: Health Equity through Action on the Social Determinants of Health’, Geneva: World Health Organization, 170 (2008) <https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/43943/1/9789241563703_eng.pdf>
‘Sustainable Development Goals’,International Standards Organisation (2018) <https://www.iso.org/sdgs.html>.
S Mujica, ‘Unleashing action with International Standards,’ 130ISOfocus 2–3. (2018) <https://www.iso.org/files/live/sites/isoorg/files/news/magazine/ISOfocus%20(2013-NOW)/en/2018/ISOfocus_130/ISOfocus_130_en.pdf>
ISO (2019).TC/307 – Blockchain and distributed ledger technologies, accessed 28/05/2019 from: <https://www.iso.org/committee/6266604.html>.
K Lee and J Mathews, ‘Science, technology and innovation for sustainable development’, CDP Background Paper No. 16. New York: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (2013) <https://www.un.org/development/desa/dpad/publication/cdp-background-paper-no-16/>
See for example, R Hanson, A Reeson, and M Staples, Distributed Ledgers: Scenarios for the Australian economy over the coming decades, page 16 (May 2017, Data61), <https://publications.csiro.au/rpr/pub?pid=csiro:EP175257>; I Weber, M Staples, X Xu, Architecture for Blockchain Applications (Springer, 2019)
HM Osofsky, ‘Defining Sustainable Development after Earth Summit 2002’ (2003–2004) 26 Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review 111.
United Nations, ‘Johannesburg Declaration on Sustainable Development – A/CONF.199/20 Chapter 1, Resolution 1 – UN Documents: Gathering a body of global agreements’,World Summit on Sustainable Development, (4 Sep 2002) <https://unhabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/A_CONF.199_20-Johannesburg-Declaration-on-Sustainable-Development-2002.pdf>.
IL Owosuyim, ‘The Pursuit of Sustainable Development through Cultural Law and Governance Frameworks: A South African Perspective’ (2015) 18(5)Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal 2012, 2104. See also, Principle 1 of theRio Declaration, which states that “human beings are at the centre of concerns for sustainable development” – United Nations General Assembly, ‘Rio Declaration on Environment and Development – A/CONF.151/26 Annex 1, Principle 1, Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (12 Aug 1992).
J Perez de Cuar, ‘Our Creative Diversity: report of the World Commission on Culture and Development’,UNESCO (1996) <https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000105586>.
Dr S Bertels, ‘Embedding sustainability in organisational culture: A systematic review of the body of knowledge’, Network for Business Sustainability, Simon Fraser University (2010) <https://www.sustainable.org/economy/economics-a-finance/1154-embedding-sustainability-in-organizational-culture>.
Based on estimates by theHistory Database of the Global Environment and the United Nations, OurWorldInData.org (2019) <https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2018/11/Annual-World-Population-since-10-thousand-BCE-for-OWID.png>
R Beddoe, R Costanza, J Farley, N Myers. et al. ‘Overcoming systemic roadblocks to sustainability: The evolutionary redesign of worldviews, institutions, and technologies’(2009) 106(8) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2483.
United Nations General Assembly, ‘Rio Declaration on Environment and Development – A/CONF.151/26 Annex 1, Principle 1,Report of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (12 Aug 1992) <https://www.un.org/documents/ga/conf151/aconf15126-1annex1.htm>.
Dr S Bertels, ‘Embedding sustainability in organisational culture: A systematic review of the body of knowledge’, Network for Business Sustainability, Simon Fraser University (2010), 9. <https://www.sustainable.org/economy/economics-a-finance/1154-embedding-sustainability-in-organizational-culture>.
P Macnaghten and M Jacobs, ‘Public Identification with sustainable development: Investigating cultural barriers to participation’ (1997) 7(1)Global Environmental Change 5, 5.
Dr S Bertels, ‘Embedding sustainability in organisational culture: A systematic review of the body of knowledge’, Network for Business Sustainability, Simon Fraser University (2010), 27 <https://www.sustainable.org/economy/economics-a-finance/1154-embedding-sustainability-in-organizational-culture>.
See also, P Macnaghten and M Jacobs, ‘Public Identification with sustainable development: Investigating cultural barriers to participation’ (1997) 7(1)Global Environmental Change 5, 5.
LV Mapes, ‘Scientists survey Pacific Northwest Salmon each year. for the first time, some nets are coming up empty’,The Seattle Times (9 Oct 2017) <https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/empty-nets-signal-trouble-for-columbia-river-salmon/>.
LV Mapes, ‘Scientists survey Pacific Northwest Salmon each year. for the first time, some nets are coming up empty’,The Seattle Times (9 Oct 2017) <https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/environment/empty-nets-signal-trouble-for-columbia-river-salmon/>
President Obama, ‘2011 State of the Union Address’,C-Span (25 Jan 2011) <https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4515144/obama-smoked-salmon>
‘Senior NOAA appointee calls for retraction of paper on illegal fishing’,Retraction Watch (6 Nov 2017) <https://retractionwatch.com/2017/11/06/senior-noaa-appointee-calls-retraction-paper-illegal-fishing/>
J Jowit, ‘World’s top firms cause $2.2 trillion of Environmental Damage, report estimates’ TheGuardian.com (19 Feb 2010) <https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2010/feb/18/worlds-top-firms-environmental-damage>
European Commission, ‘The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity’,Europa.eu (2016) <http://ec.europa.eu/environment/nature/biodiversity/economics/>
DW Jorgenson and P Wilcoxen, ‘Environmental regulation and U.S. economic growth’ (1990) 21(2)RAND J Econ 314.
JM Sklaroff, ‘Smart Contracts and the Cost of Inflexibility’ (2017) 166University of Pennsylvania Law Review 263, 276. See, fn 49
F Maon, A Lindgreen, and V Swaen, ‘Designing and implementing corporate social responsibility: An integrative framework grounded in theory and practice’ (2009) 87(S1)Journal of Business Ethics 71, 88.
TA Gardner, et al, ‘Transparency and sustainability in global commodity supply chains’ (2019) 121World Development 163, 164.
Transparency International, ‘Corruption Perceptions Index 2016’,Transparency.org (25 Jan 2017) <https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/corruption_perceptions_index_2016>
DMT Denny, RF Paulo, and D de Castro, ‘Blockchain and Agenda 2030’ (2017) 7Brazilian Journal of Public Policy 122, 122.
JD Sachs, ‘Restoring Civic Virtue in America’ Earth Institute,Columbia University: Centre for Sustainable Development (2016) <http://csd.columbia.edu/2016/12/05/restoring-civic-virtue-in-america/>.
See, for example, R Watson and RO Ackerman, ‘Poverty and climate change’ World Bank – Environment Matters Annual Review (2000) <http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/environment/publication/environment-matters>; O’Brien K.L. and Leichecnk, R.M., ‘Double exposure: assessing the impacts of claimate change within the context of economic globalisation (2000) 10 Global Environmental Change 221.
C Mora, ‘The projected timing of climate departure from recent variability’ (2013) 502(7470)Nature 183.
D Tapscott and A Tapscott,Blockchain Revolution: How the Technology behind bitcoin is changing money, business and the world (Penguin, 2016), 71
United Nations (2015).Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development. New York: United Nations, p. 51.
JC Giancarlo, Commissioner, ‘Address to the American Enterprise Institute, 21st Century Markets Need 21st Century Regulation’,U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (29 Sept 2016), <http://www.cftc.gov/PressRoom/SpeechesTestimony/opagiancarlo-17>
‘Disruptive innovation in financial services: A Blueprint for Digital Identity’,World Economic Forum (12 Aug 2016), <http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEFA_BlueprintforDigital Identity.pdf>
See, MM La Belle and HM Schooner, ‘Big Banks and Business Method Patents’ (2014) 16 University of Pennsylvania Journal of Business Law 431, 477–87.
ISO 20222: Universal financial industry message scheme, accessed 30/05/2019, from: <https://www.iso20022.org/payments_messages.page>
Certification under this standard is available, although not a requirement. See, International Standards Organization – ISO 9000 family – Quality management (Retrieved 1 Jun 2019) <https://www.iso.org/iso-9001-quality-management.html>
Quality Management System Education and Resources <http://qualitymanagementsystem.com/what-is-iso/iso-9001-certification-what-does-it-mean/>.
See, P Boring, ‘The Beauty of The Blockchain’,Forbes.com (17 Jun 2016) .
In 2013, the United States Department of State shut downSilk Road, a website that traded in guns, fake identity documents, credit card numbers, and drugs. It used blockchain technology and hide the identities of participants on the network.
Mt Gox filed for bankruptcy in Japan on 28 February 2014, with liabilities exceeding US$60 million – See, Hern, A., ‘MtGox files for bankruptcy in Japan after collapse of bitcoin exchange’,The Guardian.com (1 Mar 2014) <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/feb/28/bitcoin-mtgox-bankruptcy-japan>
For example, Bitcoin Savings and Trust was a Ponzi scheme that collapsed in 2012 with the loss of 700,000 bitcoin. Trendon Shavers, who operated Bitcoin Savings and Trust, was ordered by United States District Judge Lewis Kaplan in Manhattan to forfeit $1.23 million and pay restitution in the same amount for operating what the judge called a “classic Ponzi scheme.” Shavers, who pleaded guilty in September 2015 to one count of securities fraud and who now supports himself as a cook, said in court he had “royally messed up,” and had lost friends and embarrassed his family as a result of his fraud. See, N Raymond, ‘Texan gets 1–1/2 years in prison for running bitcoin Ponzi scheme’,Reuters (22 July 2016) <https://www.reuters.com/article/bitcoin-fraud-texas-idUSL1N1A7270>.
B Leighton, (2019). “Ten years from now, Blockchain will be mainstream” – Helen Zille at Blockchain Africa 2019, accessed 29/05/2019, from: <https://www.coininsider.com/blockchain-africa-2019/>
K Jayakar, ‘Globalization and the Legitimacy of International Telecommunications Standard-Setting Organizations’ (1998) 5Indian Journal Global Legal Studies 711, 724.
G Hileman and M Rauchs. ‘Global Blockchain Benchmarking Study’, Cambridge Centre for Alternative Finance. (2017) <https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3040224>
For example, Pakistan, the European Committee for Standardization, and South Africa.
United Nations, ‘Addis Ababa Action Agenda of the Third International Conference on Financing for Development’,New York: United Nations (2015) <https://unctad.org/meetings/en/SessionalDocuments/ares69d313_en.pdf>
Productivity Commission, ‘Digital Disruption: What do governments need to do?’, Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia, 103 (2016). <https://www.pc.gov.au/research/completed/digital-disruption/digital-disruption-research-paper.pdf>
‘Motion Picture Experts Group Standards,Science Direct <https://www.sciencedirect. com/topics/engineering/motion-picture-experts-group-standards>
OECD (1999).Regulatory Reform and International Standardisation. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, Trade Committee Working Party, p.4
M van Rijmenam and P Ryan,Blockchain Transforming Your Business and Our World (Routledge, 2019).
