Non-Profit Radiant Earth Foundation Partners with Consensys to Make Geospatial Data More Accessible with Blockchain

Radiant Earth Foundation, a non-profit which aggregates open Earth imagery and geospatial data to equip global aid organizations with resources to meet the world’s most critical challenges, is partnering with leading blockchain software company ConsenSys to improve licensing processes for that data.

With blockchain technology, information about our Earth can be more accessible to the organizations who need it most. When disaster strikes, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) need access to the most up to date imagery available. For example, geospatial satellite data can provide critical insights for recovery and clean-up efforts after a hurricane.

Read More: Wind River Teams With Renesas to Advance Autonomous Driving Applications

To get this data, large philanthropic organizations and small non-profits alike utilize open Earth observation resources, such as Radiant Earth Foundation, or purchase commercially available geospatial data to support their mission. These commercial purchases come with a use license that typically allows for further distribution and sharing with non-profits and other organizations aligned with the same purpose as the original purchase. However, the complexity of the current licensing system itself often creates a barrier to this process and prevents further distribution of this critical data.

Using blockchain technology to create a transparent, immutable record of how the data is shared, Radiant Earth Foundation and ConsenSys have successfully created a proof-of-concept to better track the licensing and payments of geospatial data, in order to reduce friction and quickly provide geospatial information to the NGOs when they need it. The distributed ledger design and cryptographic mechanisms ensure that both the identity of the transacting parties and the authenticity of any transaction cannot be disputed.

Read More: Virtual Assistant Technology – Empowering the Human Workforce of Tomorrow

“We are pleased to collaborate with ConsenSys on this game-changing technology for the commercial satellite industry. Blockchain will unlock high-resolution commercial data sets to the NGO community, leading to accelerated and improved data sharing between commercial data providers and authorized customers. This is an outcome we are proud to contribute to as we all benefit when data flows securely,” said Anne Hale Miglarese, founder and CEO of Radiant Earth Foundation.

“Ethereum has a unique potential to increase collaboration within a variety of industries,” said Robert Keenan, Product Lead for ConsenSys Solutions. “ConsenSys is excited to be exploring this potential on Earth observation use-cases, especially ones focused on global development.

Read More: The Future of AI: Are Jobs Under Threat?

” The proof-of-concept is built on the Blockchain Business Cloud, a solution provided by ConsenSys’ Kaleido in collaboration with Amazon Web Services to accelerate the process of building and managing an enterprise blockchain network with easy onboarding for future partners.

“This innovative use case is a great example of the kinds of social impact problems that can be solved with blockchain, in ways we might not have foreseen,” said Sophia Lopez, founder of Kaleido. “Kaleido was built to tackle the technology hurdles of implementing a blockchain network, so organizations like Radiant Earth Foundation can focus their energy and resources on fulfilling their mission.” ConsenSys and Radiant Earth Foundation are now in talks to expand the scope and scale of this use-case to include additional organizations and end-users in the coming year.

Read More: Graph Blockchain Secures Contract With Hyundai and IBM