The UN office for project services (UNOPS) announced the beginning of cooperation with IOTA Foundation in which you intend to use the company technology to streamline the work processes of the UN. According to the statement on the website of UNOPS, the organization signed a Memorandum of understanding.
In particular, the possibility of improving the effectiveness of UN projects with the help of technology IOTA Tangle. As expected, the distributed registry IOTA can provide a new level of document management and data tracking, and will also help in working with the supply chain and payments in real time, access to which will as the organization and its partners.
As is known, the startup is not using the blockchain as it takes place in the network of bitcoin or Ethereum, and this, according to the special adviser UNOPS on blockchain technology, Yoshiyuki Yamamoto (Yamamoto Yoshiyuki), is one of the reasons that the selection unit of the UN fell on the IOTA Foundation.
He explained that the distributed registry IOTA “can run on battery or using alternative network connections” that can be very useful in areas of “irregular high speed Internet access or even electricity”.
Moreover, a registry IOTA is well compatible with devices of Internet of things concept, which do not have high requirements in computing.
As reported by Yamamoto, in cooperation with startup experts, UNOPS expects to determine the most appropriate uses of technology that will be the key to solving “some problem” faced by all UN agencies. The organization will work closely, including work on “identifying the gaps in the proposed test solution or additional elements that you want to add” and if necessary, involve third-party organizations.
Since cooperation is clearly educational character — seminars and training workshops, it is unknown how long it will take to move from pilot phase to full implementation of technology IOTA.
“It depends entirely on the complexity of the problem you want to solve, and how many components you want to use: hardware, software, user interface and so on. It is difficult to know what are the issues to be addressed,” explained Yamamoto.
Very interested in cooperation and startup IOTA, positioning itself as “the first project, which went on the blockchain”, but it has a mixed reputation. According to co-founder of a startup Dominic Shiner (Dominik Schiener), IOTA Tangle is the technology that can help in the implementation of important humanitarian programs.
“Shared global problems require shared global solutions,” said another co-founder of IOTA, David Senstive (David Sønstebø).
However, it should be noted that IOTA is not the only company that drew attention at the UN. The organization has already started working with the “start-UPS and incubators from the entire spectrum of technologies for distributed registry”, including projects on the creation of the blockchain network to prevent trafficking in children and system identification for Syrian refugees.
Yoshiuchi, Yamamoto noted that the organization believes the technology is promising, and will continue the search for optimal solutions in this area, but only if they see concrete potential benefits from its use in real life.
“We do not bloccano for the blockchain. We have limited resources and staff, because we need to concentrate our efforts on solving real-world problems. Our priorities due to our mission as an organization, not the vagaries of Cryptoprotected,” concluded Yamamoto.
