Do Van Long, Director, Vietnam Blockchain Corporation
During the past several decades, Vietnam has made great strides in structuring and maintaining a resilient economy with rapid GDP growth. The standard of living has risen in the nation with better education and health leading it to become one of the fastest-growing countries in Asia. With no signs of stopping, the country is now gearing up to become the cradle of blockchain technology. The enormous potential of the pivotal technology is propelling many startups in the country to jump into the blockchain bandwagon to increase the efficiency of their business. However, despite the growing interest in adopting this technology, the current state of implementation of blockchain technology solutions is still very new in Vietnam. The country still needs a large adoption of blockchain in various industries and human resource training to continuously develop solutions based on this technology.
Spearheading this movement, Vietnam Blockchain Corporation (VBC), a leading technology solution provider is fostering knowledge and the development of impactful blockchain applications in Vietnam. The next-generation technology company is providing blockchain solutions and services for various industries including Agriculture, Manufacture, Supply Chain, Logistics, E-Commerce, Fintech, Sharing Economy, Public Services, and Smart City.
“Our biggest mission is to empower Vietnam as a blockchain country and build blockchain expert hub and business gateway from Vietnam to the world,” says Do Van Long, the Director of VBC.
Enhancing Vietnamese Agriculture Product Value through Blockchain
Agriculture has always been a bright spot in Vietnam’s overall economic picture. However, the industry has been facing challenges when it comes to enhancing food safety, transparency, control over the supply chain, and consumer trust. Thus, to solve these issues, VBC has developed Agridential, a GS1-compliant blockchain-based traceability solution that enables transparency in information and product quality. “It is the name combined of ‘Agriculture’ and ‘Credential,’ which means we provide a credential solution for Vietnamese agricultural products,” explains Van Long.
The innovative platform helps farmers, cooperatives, and consumers to have easy access to information through the value chain, from the production process to consumption, and thus contributes to the increased value of agricultural products. One of the successful use cases of Agridential is its application on mango products in My Xuong Cooperative in Dong Thap. In this instance, VBC added a QR Code identification stamp using GS1 standards in blockchain technology to each mango to make the origin and quality of products transparent. This enabled consumers to verify the quality of agricultural products, minimized fraud in the supply chain, and helped businesses to improve the reputation and brand value in the market.
“Agridential allows consumers to trace and track all product information, from fertilizing to spraying, packaging to harvesting, and distribution. And since all information is recorded using blockchain technology, it makes it nearly impossible for anyone to delete, modify, or counterfeit the data,” asserts Van Long.
Developing Potential Blockchain Projects to Promote Social Development
Besides Agridential, VBC has also developed two more projects, Smart Ballot and Self-Sovereign Identity. The Smart Ballot is a pioneering voting application that is designed to improve traditional voting solutions using blockchain technology. It makes the voting process simple, fast, accurate, and free from manipulation. Most importantly, it adds transparency to the voting process to enable individuals to verify the accuracy of the result while ensuring the anonymity of the vote.
On the other hand, VBC also provides a blockchain-based Self-Sovereign Identity solution for digital identification. The conventional manual methods of customer identification such as face-to-face meetings are often slow, tedious, and error-prone. Thus, VBC developed the Self-Sovereign Identity solution to digitize the identification process and help governments, banks, and financial institutions to save time, capital, and human resources. Currently, the Self-Sovereign Identity solution is being deployed in several projects to protect the rights and interests of workers.
“Blockchain technology will be applied to protect the rights and interests of workers and magnify the benefits from existing programs and projects to support workers,” elucidates Van Long.
Promoting Connectivity and Development of the Blockchain Community
To foster collaboration and development of the blockchain community in Vietnam, VBC provides blockchain training courses, technology consulting services, and comprehensive and professional legal advice. It collaborates with leading Vietnamese universities to host blockchain courses and real-world projects to support Vietnam’s young generation to expand and improve knowledge of blockchain technology. Meanwhile, it also accompanies the State Agency to discuss the legal framework in the application of blockchain technology and support local management agencies. Over the years, VBC has developed many pilot projects in association with the ministries, government, and non-governmental organizations to promote the development and training of blockchain. In 2016, the preeminent company established Asia Blockchain Education Labs (ABEL), a project that includes in-depth courses on the blockchain which is developed and taught by leading professors in Vietnam. ABEL is strengthening blockchain training activities in Vietnam to further improve human resources’ expertise in this promising new technology.
“By keeping the human factor at its core, VBC acts as a trainer and an expert advisor for enterprises through training developers as well as technical advice in the production process, commerce, and services for business,” adds Van Long.
Leveraging Potential of Blockchain to Curtail the Outbreak of COVID-19
As the world is grappling with the coronavirus crisis, VBC is striving to bring its best efforts forward to tackle the pandemic spread. Currently, the company is working on a project called SARS-COV-2 TEST Certificate or COVID Check that allows the users to record their COVID-19 test results on the VBC Blockchain system. To ensure privacy, each user is issued a QR code (SARS-COV-2 Checked) which is recorded on the Blockchain in the form of encrypted data. That means it can only be accessed by their permission with their own private key. Once they scan their QR code on personal smartphones/devices, they can get access to their results (with the QR code of the person examined) along with the detailed history of the test results and details of Test KIT production tools.
In addition, the record will also include information regarding how the test is performed—according to which standards and instructions, the location of the lab, and licenses of operation for the SARS-CoV-2 Test and information of the distributors. Using the doctor’s public key and signature on Blockchain, doctors can confirm that the sample has been taken and examined. Apart from recording the test results, the application will also provide updated information on the latest situation of COVID-19 along with the location charts of the epidemic areas which are prone to spread quickly, isolating, quarantine, or safe to go to. VBC believes that this application can assist people with reopening activities while contributing to limit SARS-CoV-2 reinfection.
Continues Developing Value-Driven Blockchain Solutions
With its strong value and service excellence combined with technological conceptualization, VBC has been recognized and esteemed with numerous awards including Top 100 Asean Typical Enterprise, Top 10 Trusted Brand Awards 2019, Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam, and Top 10 Blockchain Development, World Blockchain Forum 2019, Singapore. But not resting on its laurels, the company aspires to further leverage the potential of blockchain technology and develop solutions to address the challenges in various sectors.
Moving ahead, the innovative company plans to work on several key strategic initiatives such as a wise finance management system and smart city while advancing towards its vision of making Vietnam the next big blockchain success story in South East Asia.