[2017-06-21] ToI: U.N. glimpses into blockchain future with eye scan payments

U.N. glimpses into blockchain future with eye scan payments for refugees

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/business/international-business/u-n-glimpses-into-blockchain-future-with-eye-scan-payments-for-refugees/articleshow/59246766.cms

Thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan's Azraq camp don't pay for their food with cash but by a scan of their eyes.

Purchases are then recorded on a computing platform based on blockchain - the technology behind bitcoin.

Iris recognition devices at the checkouts of the camp's supermarket authenticate customers' identities and deduct what they spend from sums they receive as aid from the World Food Programme (WFP).

The U.N. agency launched the futuristic system in May as a one-month pilot involving 10,000 of Azraq's more than 50,000 inhabitants in a bid to explore blockchain's potential to cut costs and bottlenecks.

It is now looking to scale up the project to reach more than 100,000 refugees in several camps across Jordan by the end of the year.

"We feel this is a starting point," said WFP's director of innovation, Robert Opp. "There are a number of potential uses of blockchain that could dramatically change the way we reach people in terms of our efficiency, effectiveness and security."

Blockchain, which first emerged as the system underpinning the virtual currency bitcoin, is a digital shared record of transactions maintained by a network of computers on the internet, without the need of a centralised authority.