Corona Immunity Certificate - blockchain secured proof

Speed up economic recovery by allowing Covid19-immune persons to move freely to work, helping others and reduce infection fears.

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Starting point and motivation

The sooner people are re-integrated into the work process, the faster the economic recovery. Holding society in quarantine saves lives, but at what cost? The supply chains, welfare of society and social stability are suffering. Also, some people are anxious to collaborate physically in health care institutions, manufacturing plants, constructions sites or shops because they could get infected. This slows down economic recovery even further. However, there is a growing number of people that have – often unnoticed - overcome the infection, became immune and could safely return to work. Currently, these people are not systematically registered, and they can hardly prove their immunity. In the last days, several antibody tests (subtype IgG) have been announced that can determine with a very high probability the immunity of a person. Anyone who has taken such a test can move around safely and carry out their work. It can also be assumed that after a certain time the immune person is no longer contagious for others. The government in Switzerland, Germany, Austria, UK have announced to introduce these tests on a broad scale. But how can a person prove its immunity? Paper certificates could serve this purpose, but at the same time could be subject to fraud, especially if such immunity certificates provide substantially more freedom in movement. The use cases of a tamper-proof corona immunity certificate are manifold: For example, employees of a health care institution which are immune may need less protection than others; harvesters or construction workers who are immune can work more confidently together; airlines might seat immune (and non-contagious) persons beside persons of whom the immunity status is unknown.

What it does

We have developed a blockchain-secured and hence, tamper-proof corona immunity certificate, that should replace any paper certificates. Only testers (doctors, nurses, etc.) which have been previously authorized by official health authorities can issue and register immunity certificates on a blockchain. Based on their passport number, tested and immune people receive a secure digital ID represented by a QR code which can be either printed out or sent to their mobile phones. By scanning this QR code, a request is sent to the blockchain that returns, the immunity status, the passport number, the tester who issued the certificate, the test and the validity date of the test. The person who scans the code can now compare the passport number and can be sure that the certificate is valid and genuine. The same technology can be used to issue corona vaccination certificates as soon as they are available.

How we built it

In the last 3 years, our team developed a blockchain platform for corporate housekeeping on Ethereum technology. Based on this experience we opted for an Ethereum technology-based solution. For the implementation during the hackathon we have chosen to use the KOVAN network, a widely used Ethereum based test chain.

Challenges we ran into

The main conceptual challenge was creating a solution that combines privacy with tamper-proof blockchain records, while making the app simple enough to enable a wide-scale adoption. On technical side the biggest challenges were to make the javascript libraries play nicely together and to integrate the application with MetaMask without sacrificing usability.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We’re proud, that within 3 days we could implement a working easy and slim solution, which could be rolled-out with minimal changes within a couple of days.

What we learned

We experienced one more time that if people with different skill sets collaborate trustfully together, the solution gets better and better. From the original implementation proposal, nothing remained. ;)

What's next for Immunity Certificate - blockchain secured proof of immunity

The health authorities must become the owner of the application. Hence, we would like to present the solution and our considerations to representatives of these institutions. In our opinion, the solution developed at the Hackathon can be rolled-out without major changes once the health authorities (in Switzerland the Federal Office of Public Health) have decided on its implementation. We could conduct a pilot for health care workers within 2 weeks. The same blockchain and application could be used for corona vaccination certificates (or other vaccination certificates) once they are available.

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