Drink It Up: Coca-Cola Is Using Blockchain to Improve Workers’ Rights

Even with the latest hiccup in cryptocurrency valuations, I don’t think there’s been a faster-appreciating asset on the planet. Since the beginning of 2017, the aggregate cryptocurrency market cap has vaulted from less than $18 billion to more than $300 billion, which is one heck of a return in less than 15 months.

At the heart of this rally is the emergence of blockchain technology. For those unfamiliar with blockchain, it refers to the digital, distributed, and decentralized ledger often underlying digital currencies that’s responsible for logging all transactions without the need for a financial intermediary (i.e., a bank).

Blockchain itself was brought into the spotlight in 2009 when bitcoin debuted. Its evolution is expected to be a game changer for the financial services industry, which has a handful of perceived flaws, including long validation and settlement times for cross-border remittances, and higher transaction fees as a result of banks acting as third parties during transactions. Blockchain aims to correct these issues in three ways.

First, decentralization — storing data on servers and hard drives all over the world, rather than in one location — ensures that no single entity, including hackers and businesses, can gain control of a network. Secondly, it simplifies the transaction to just a sender and receiver of funds. By taking banks out of the loop, it should lower transaction costs. Finally, validation and settlement should occur a whole lot faster, especially in cross-border payments. Whereas transactions under the current system could take up to five business days to settle, they could be virtually instant with blockchain.

Yet what’s often overlooked is what blockchain can do in a noncurrency setting. Blockchain has the potential to reshape how supply chains are managed and monitored. It could be a breakthrough for retailers looking to reward customers with loyalty points. It may even be the cornerstone for decentralized IDs.

Now, blockchain will be at the forefront of protecting the rights of workers who might otherwise be unable to do so.

As announced on March 16, beverage giant Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), which operates in all but one country worldwide (North Korea), is partnering with the U.S. State Department, Bitfury Group, Emercoin, and Blockchain Trust Accelerator to create a decentralized blockchain-based registry for workers in foreign countries to ensure that employers honor the scope of work contracts.

According to the International Labor Organization, nearly 25 million people worldwide – almost half of them being in the Asia-Pacific region – work in forced-labor conditions. Among the industries most of scrutinized for their labor conditions is food and beverage. Knowing this, Coca-Cola agreed to conduct 28 country-level studies on child labor, forced labor, and land rights for its sugar supply chains by 2020, per Reuters.

Here’s how everything looks to shake out. Coca-Cola will provide the data in more than two dozen countries via its labor force. Meanwhile, the U.S.