Vaxport

A globally recognized and trusted form of digital identification for the traveler in the post-Covid world.

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Inspiration

According to a recent study done across 28 different countries among 21,000 adults, about 75 percent of adults agree that COVID passports should be required of travelers entering their country.

What it does

Vaxport authenticates travellers who have received COVID vaccines by cross-referencing their passport and vaccination receipt with countries' healthcare databases. It outputs a unique QR code which travelers can show at destination countries' borders as proof for vaccination, and therefore be waived the 14 to 21-day quarantine period. It takes various forms of inclusivity into account as its primary point of reference is vaccination data, rather than an individual's gender, economic, racial, and/or social background. Additionally, the Vaxport website if available in many different languages to accommodate travellers from all around the world.

How we built it

The design/prototype was done in Figma. The front-end was built using HTML, CSS (SASS), Javascript, and ReactJS. Back-end, authentication, and data processes are managed via Firebase.

Challenges we ran into

To create an authentic digital identity, we had to consider multitudes of challenges such as inclusivity, accessibility, and functionality. As vaccination passports are not yet a reality, we had to make assumptions regrading process and access to different countries' databases. These included:

  • Assuming governments will accept data from Vaxport to cross-reference their vaccination records database
  • Government vaccination registry and records are both accurate and legitimate
  • Government database and proper verification of vaccination records takes a certain amount of time, of which the app will indicate These assumptions, among others allowed us to focus on our application which the primary focus was to act as a platform between international government and a traveler.

From a coding standpoint, our team had minimal experience in backend development. With two designers and one front end developer, it took us a while to figure out how to do something as simple as tying an uploaded image to a specific user's data. Merging authentication data, image uploads, and additional profile data has been a challenge, but each step was an amazing learning process in hindsight (even through all the hair-pulling!!).

Accomplishments that we're proud of

We're proud of creating something that supports a realistic use-case. We've come a long way since the pandemic hit, but there are still measures to be taken to make sure countries internationally are on the path to recovery together. We're also very proud of our team! Between the designers and the dev there was a lot of communication which made creating interfaces very easy. It goes to show that teamwork is the dreamwork!!

What we learned

We learned a ton through Vaxport, on how critical digital identity is in the current world. Having automated applications like this make checking health records much faster than what it has been before. Dev here: As a dev, it's been a ride learning how databases connect together. Even something as simple as connecting a Firebase Storage generated URL to Firestore was a learning experience. It was also amazing to learn that you don't necessarily need a mobile development app to program features like cameras, that it can be done through using serviceworkers and React. Lastly, it was my first time working with talented designers, and as much as I enjoy the design aspect of front-end development, it takes up a lot of time and brainpower which is also needed to code the functionality of apps. I had an incredible experience learning how having a solid team could really ramp up the pace of the project :)

What's next for Vaxport

There are still a few things Vaxport can use to become a legitimate application available for public use. A few are listed below: Credential Convenience 60% of consumers according to an Interac survey indicated that they have too many login credentials to keep track of. Vaxport could partner up with different sign-in partners like Google to prevent this. Ideally, we would like to partner up with a governmental portal that would be tied to essentials like driver licenses or health cards. Database Access Vaxport still requires proper authentication from international government vaccination databases. This data verification will have to be done securely to prevent data tampering. Authentication 2-step verification using a phone number would increase the security clearance required to use this app. Validation Data validation for edge cases was not part of the 24 hour scope of the hackathon. We already thought of a few edge-cases where incorrect data entry could cause mis-communication between our database and the government's verification services. Image-to-Text Recognition When passport and record photos are uploaded, it would be incredibly valuable to be able to detect text through an image to text recognition software using ML. Sort of similar to Google Translate's camera to text conversion. This would add another layer of verification for data.

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