Block.one is partnering with the LACChain Global Alliance, an enterprise blockchain consortium building a public permissioned network targeting Latin America and the Caribbean.
Backed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), LACChain seeks to maximize the social impact potential blockchain can offer. Meanwhile, Block.one is known as the initiator of the EOS public blockchain and the EOS technology will now be added to LACChain network. To date, the blockchain network used Ethereum-based Hyperledger Besu. So far, there are 40 partners in the alliance and major corporates such as NTT Data’s Everis, IDB and Grupo Sabra operated the nodes on the network.
Targeting the whole of Latin America and the Caribbean, LACChain aims to create a cost-effective, easy-to-use and accessible network with multiple technologies. The infrastructure incorporates both self-sovereign identity and tokenized money.
LACChain has some similarities with other regional blockchains. For example, Spain’s Alastria has more than 500 member organizations and operates enterprise blockchain implementations of Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric. The European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (EBSI) is a pan-European initiative from the European Commission. And China’s Blockchain-based Service Network (BSN) offers low-cost access to multiple blockchains with two networks, one in China and the other global.
Meanwhile, the IDB launched the LACChain project in 2018 with the ambition of providing for the underserved and unbanked populations excluded from the formal system. As the primary source of development financing in Latin America and the Caribbean, the IDB currently runs 623 social welfare projects across the regions and values blockchain technologies for their transparency and immutability, suiting the technology to market transformation and social impact projects.
“LACChain is a techno-legal framework enabling enterprise use of blockchain with transformative impact, not a mere new protocol,” said Alejandro Pardo, leader of LACChain and the IDB Lab principal specialist. “We care about performance, usability and building the technology infrastructure to support further development of applications with impact on inclusion by our communities.”
LACChain highlighted three use cases on its network. There’s a stablecoin application that enables the IDB to distribute emergency funds in Latin America. CADENA enables several Latin American countries to share customs data. And in the Caribbean, Blockcerts Caribe is verifying academic qualifications and establishing a self-sovereign identity system.
The IDB has also participated in a blockchain project to enable land titling in Bolivia, Peru and Uruguay. And it collaborated with the World Economic Forum to use blockchain to tackle government procurement corruption.
