On July 9th, an article from Guangming Daily began circulating that explained how blockchain technology could be used to fight infections. The article featured DNV GL’s health codes (My Care), which are used to show visitors or clients that the facility has undergone proper measures to ensure the safety of the staff and general public. Relevant third-party certifications and data are linked to the blockchain, providing an immutable record that users can check with their mobile devices.
Now, the article has also appeared on the website of the Central Cyberspace Administration of China, also known as the Office of the Central Cyberspace Affairs Commission (CCAC). This is a top-level bureau, answering directly to heads of state, including President Xi Jinping and Premier of State Council Li Keqiang. The CCAC is directly involved in setting online policies and regulating the internet, so having this exposure is tremendous proof of credibility for both the solution, the companies, and the infrastructure behind it. This bureau has an enormous amount of influence within China, and is generally conservative by nature, making it all the more significant when VeChain can appear on the web page.
The article included multiple references to both VeChain and DNV GL, and even included quotes from VeChain CEO Sunny Lu:
Sunny Lu, Co-founder and CEO of VeChain, believes: “In the ‘new normal’ brought about by the epidemic, consumers’ pursuit of trust is unprecedentedly high. Blockchain technology will improve data integrity and commercial credibility which is an important guarantee for multi-party cooperation and mutual trust.” As a strategic partner of DNV GL, VeChain’s one-stop blockchain data service platform provides a safe, stable and efficient underlying area for this infection risk resolution system using blockchain technology. Sunny Lu told reporters that with flexible frameworks and tools, this blockchain technology platform [ToolChain] can be customized to research and develop according to the application requirements of different scenarios, greatly reducing development and deployment times, allowing enterprises to operate at both a low cost and risk.
While COVID-19 has proven to be devastating for both industries and society as a whole, it has also given urgency to governments and organizations considering the use of new technologies. It has given blockchain technology a chance to shine in areas like data management, traceability, food safety, and TIC (testing, inspection, and certification). Companies like VeChain and DNV GL who are providing blockchain applications for enterprise and public health scenarios are now seeing opportunities to build strong ties with government and business leaders around the world.
Guangming Daily, where the article first appeared, is a state-owned publication founded in 1949. It focuses on fields such as education, science, technology, culture and theory. It has 37 domestic news bureaus and 23 overseas news bureaus, and its daily circulation is about 1 million copies. The online platform has about 37 million unique visitors each day.
According to DNV GL’s official announcement, the assessment “covers Color Line’s management systems, all the company’s six passenger- and cargo-vessels operating between Norway and Denmark, Germany and Sweden, and associated terminals”. As countries restart their economies and ease lockdown restrictions, updating and verifying a company’s infection prevention processes will be essential to avoid the chance of having a second wave.
In addition to its shipping line, Color Line operates conferences and exhibitions, hotel operation, restaurants, shops, entertainment and tour production. If proven successful, Color Line could potentially extend its use of My Care to other services and business units within the group.
“Congratulations to Color Line on achieving the My Care – Infection Prevention Ready trust mark for its vessels. Actively building trust in its infection prevention efforts demonstrates Color Line’s strong commitment to ensuring adequate and compliant infection risk management measures” – Lin Jacobsen Hammer, Sustainability & Training Manager Norway at DNVGL – Business Assurance
My Care readiness statement for Color Line’s shipping fleet
After last week got shortened by the Dragon Boat Festival, the VeChain team was back at it again. The first week in Q3 saw VeChain celebrate the two year anniversary of launching the mainnet and gave us a chance to reflect on how far the project has come. It coincided with the release of the latest executive report and we also saw some community projects announce major breakthroughs and progress.
The quarterly financial report was published, and with it contained some interesting news. Added to the usual token supply overview was the Ecosystem Reserves, which signifies the restart of the token buyback plan. The buyback was originally announced last year, and shows the VeChain Foundation has faith in the longterm value of the VET token. The Ecosystem Reserve already holds 445 million tokens, or about $4.5 million USD at current prices.
**The ecosystem reserve was acquired by the VeChain Foundation on the open markets. This reserve will be used to facilitate the long term growth of the VeChain ecosystem. VeChain Foundation is evaluating institution level custody service, and the reserve will be deposited into the custody and disclosed when the custody service is available.
After nearly a month of submissions, the window finally shut to submit new videos. There were over 80 different videos received, including dozens of well-made, professional explainers and introductions to the technology. The team must now pick between all of them and will announce 10 finalists on July 5th.
CEO Sunny Lu set to join the China-Singapore Dialogue
The event is hosted by Wanxiang Blockchain Labs and the Singapore Blockchain Association. The event will take place on June 4th at 9:30 am (UTC +8) and will be streamed live on Singapore University of Social Science’s YouTube Channel.
Cointelegraph Consulting & VeChain publish a joint food safety report
This report, entitled When Blockchain Meets IoT: Ensuring Food Safety in the 2020s, discusses how better food traceability has a lot to offer an industry plagued by a low rate of digitalization. According to the report, the benefits of IoT and blockchain are spread across three value drivers: cost reduction, revenue enhancement, and risk mitigation. Cointelegraph Consulting estimates that these savings can add up to $155 billion per year globally.
The report identifies five areas which will undergo tumultuous changes in the next ten years, including supply chain, global trade, food processing, stakeholder mindset, and food production. Blockchain and IoT are the keys to increasing transparency, trust and collaboration within the industry, empowering producers and retailers to deliver safer products for consumption around the world.
Sunny Lu interviewed by Digital Asset Investor (YouTube)
This week well-known cryptocurrency influencer known as Digital Asset Investor spent an hour chatting with Sunny Lu about the development of the platform. The pair touched on a few key topics including:
Why VeChain doesn’t use the Proof of Work consensus algorithm
The importance of the combining business mindsets and technical mindsets. Enterprises care about solutions, rather than just technology.
The misunderstandings about China “banning” blockchain and how VeChain is working on upscaling the business development in North America.
The busy travel life of Sunny and the importance of spending time with his family.
The implementation of the My Care solution in the biggest hotel from Intercontinental Group in Shanghai which is a dedicated hotel for the China International Import Expo (CIIE).
At the time of writing, the video had nearly 17k views.
DNV GL announces ArcelorMittal verified with MyCare
This massive steel conglomerate is now using MyCare to verify a UK office is compliant with infection risk management standards. DNV GL uses the blockchain to create a transparent record of their testing processes. ArcelorMittal is a global company with 191,248 employees in 18 different countries. They are one of the biggest steel companies in the world and supplies industries such as construction, automotive, energy, and transportation.
VeChainStats.com plans new site upgrades
Trusted community website vechainstats.com is planning to re-launch with a complete new website in fall 2020. According to their Twitter post, they plan to partner with Zoomcharts to give even more visualizations and interactive analytics to the community.
Sunny Lu scheduled to speak at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) on July 10th
We reported this previously, but this is a reminder that the event will happen next weekend. The event is hosted by a group of government agencies including the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Economics and Information Technology alongside strategic partners like Microsoft, AWS, China Mobile, and ICBC.
Third-Party Progress & Community Progress
OceanEx performs Q2 token burn
156,137,147 OCE were removed from the total market supply for this quarter. Each quarter, OCE tokens used to pay transaction and withdrawal fees are collected and burned. In total, over a billion have been burned since the beginning of this program four quarters ago. That’s over $2 million USD at today’s prices. Link
8 Hours announces upcoming VIMworld launch
The VIMworld gaming ecosystem is set to kick off soon, and early participants are eligible for rewards, tokens, and playable VIM characters. Read more about this here.
Jur completes upgrade and Connex integration
Legaltech solution Jur launched a new blog, and took the opportunity to announce they had upgraded their Jur Beta Platform to support Connex integration. The benefit is that the platform now runs smoothly in VeChain Sync. If you haven’t tried it, jump in and make your first legal contract today on the blockchain.
Safe Haven deploy Digital Inheritance smart contracts
Long-time VeChain project Safe Haven appears close to deploying a solution that would let users split their private key among appointed beneficiaries should they pass away. Their solution, called Inheriti, should make it easier for people to justify holding large sums of cryptocurrency without risking their family’s financial future.
There wasn’t any announcement, but it seems Real Items has been updating their website
The VThorium rocket is here
A simple dApp that burns VTHO on the way to the moon is now collecting prizes from the community. Anyone can add a prize, which so far includes things like Veriarti tokens, NFTs, and other digital assets. Find out more or just try it out at vthorium.com
Reminder: DApps on the VeChain platform are eligible for subsidies
COO Kevin Feng tweeted this week about the VTHO subsidy program.
If you run a dapp on the VeChainThor blockchain, don’t forget to apply for our ongoing VTHO subsidy program. It helps you reduce the operational cost, acquire more users and more tx. https://vechain.org/bounty-program/
Follow our new Twitter account for the latest in news, opinions, metrics, and other wholesome information on the world of VeChain. Special thanks to @VeChainStats and @Martijncvv for help in compiling this summary.
We previously wrote about DNV GL’s new My Care assessment and how it is being adopted by Chinese hotels. Yesterday Viking Line became the first My Care verified maritime business in the world.
MS Amorella – one of Viking Line’s cruiseferries
In a press release, the shipping company confirmed that the verification covers all of their seven Viking Line vessels and operations in six terminals.
“Everyone must be able to travel safely with us. We have long carried out infection risk preventive work and have now chosen to be assessed by a third party to quality-assure our work in conjunction with COVID-19. Our employees’ considerable efforts are impressive. We have achieved this thanks to their skills and engagement” – Jan Hanses, president and CEO of Viking Line.
What are the implications?
Viking Line is a publicly traded company that operates a fleet of ferries and cruiseferries in Finland, Sweden, Estonia and the Åland Islands.
As a shipping firm, their safety guidelines need to consider passengers, crew members and land-based employees from boarding to disembarking. Health guidelines and infectious disease control manuals need to be consistently reviewed and updated, especially in the current COVID-19 crisis. My Care reaffirms the company’s capability to manage and prevent infection risks.
By going online or scanning a QR code, passengers can validate their My Care – Infection Prevention Ready – certification and obtain further information about DNV GL’s assessment. This helps Viking Line regain consumer trust, reassures authorities that their vessels are safe and ready to operate, and potentially empowers Viking Line to negotiate more favourable terms with their insurance providers.
With increased health concerns, 3rd party certified infection risk assessments could become widely adopted and become a new requirement for businesses to operate.
Viking Line’s My Care -Infection Prevention Ready – Certification
“We would like to congratulate Viking Line on its My Care verification. The application of My Care creates trust since the focus is to prevent infectious diseases. It also demonstrates Viking Line’s strong engagement in further developing its HSE (Health, Security & Environment) processes. A third-party assessment provides assurance that the right measures have been taken to protect people, work transparently and increase the trust of passengers and other stakeholders” – Luca Crisciotti, CEO of DNV GL- Business Assurance.
Viking Line’s customers will view the following message after scanning the QR code:
How will this be expanded?
DNV GL is making My Care a focal point of their 2020 business strategy by pushing infection management certification into sectors that rely on a flow of customers from different regions. Possible examples include hospitality, transportation, logistics, tourism, and other similar industries. We’ve already seen multiple hotels in China being certified, proving that businesses and consumers value this third-party verification service. With COVID-19 showing no sign of abating, this doesn’t appear to be a short-term thing either. The ‘new normal’ should see an increase in customer and government sensitivity to infection management, offering a potential long-term market for My Care to occupy. The blockchain could be used to update regular inspection results, safety audits, certifications, and other actions that businesses have an interest in sharing with the public.
With governments phasing out lockdown restrictions and with the new normal in mind, DNV GL has launched My Care – an infection risk management assessment that combines DNV GL’s risk and HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) management expertise with the ISRS (International Safety Rating System) maturity approach.
The proprietary methodology is designed to help companies assess, improve and validate their capabilities in preventing and mitigating infection risks in the workplace. Depending on the requirements, two My Care solutions are available; readiness and/or maturity. Both, however, analyse risk management policies based on 6 main criteria: governance, strategy, communication, actions, data analysis and continuous improvement.
My Care inspections are carried by DNV GL experts who, after the assessment, provide clients with insight reports and recommendations based on governmental compliance and industry best practices. When companies meet a benchmark-level, a dedicated digital My Care trust mark linked to a verification statement stored on the blockchain is also granted. Displaying the My Care certificate, enables companies to reassure customers and stakeholders that the right standards and risk-based preventive systems are in place. This certification process, complete with data and analysis from third-party inspections, is a great use of a verified public blockchain.
In many countries, carrying fire and HSE risk assessments is already compulsory. This is particularly true for public facing businesses which, depending on the sector, might require additional licenses. Food serving companies, for example, usually need to obtain and display food hygiene rating certificates. In a post COVID-19 world, reducing infection risks of emerging pathogens will become vital and accreditations such as My Care could become part of the new norm.
“We have in the past combined our experience and expertise from HSE management systems and maturity models to develop healthcare standards. With My Care, we are building on this proven expertise, tailoring it for application in different industries, to help companies keep people safe.” Luca Crisciotti, CEO of DNV GL – Business Assurance
My Care in Action
It hasn’t taken DNV GL long to land customers. In China, where life has gradually gone back to normal, My Care has picked up a few big clients in the Suzhou Qingshan Hotel Convention Center and Hotel Nikko Suzhou. These clients are willing to go through extensive inspections from DNV GL to prove to their customer base that safety is their utmost priority during the current pandemic recovery. This was announced on June 5th from DNV GL’s Business Assurance team in China.
Hotel Nikko Suzhou is a luxury hotel with 29 floors
The Qingshan Hotel & Convention Centre (a 5 Star retreat)
The Hotel Nikko Suzhou was particularly gracious in their comment [translated] to DNV GL for their role in the verification process.
“With the help of DNV GL, Suzhou Nikko Hotel has discovered some blind spots and deficiencies during operations and the provision of services to guests, and have now perfected the hotel’s various emergency and standardized management systems. I believe that after this review, the hotel will achieve better performance and development in future management.” – Hotel Nikkon Suzhou
A representative of the Hotel Nikko Suzhou stands with DNV GL’s George Kang (member of the VeChain Steering Committee)
Moving forward, it’s clear that blockchain and third-party verification have a major role in returning businesses to normal. Customers will begin to take health measures more seriously at the commercial areas they frequent, demanding solutions like My Care. Potential government mandates could make My Care certification even more valuable, but it remains to be seen how widely adopted this solution will be. If this extends beyond the private sector to include public spaces like airports, train stations or subway networks, the amount of data could be quite large. All told, it’s good to see how fast DNV GL was able to respond to a crisis, bringing in blockchain technology to give customers a sense of safety as they transition to the ‘new normal’.
