San Marino has established a green pass based on blockchain.
The green pass is a certificate valid in the territory of the European Union attesting to recovery from Covid, or negativity to Covid after a swab, or protection from disease following vaccination. The green certificate will allow citizens to travel freely within the European Union and the Schengen area. It officially came into force yesterday, 1 July. However, the alarm has already gone off about the circulation of fake green passes. Here’s why blockchain can be useful.
The blockchain for the veracity of the green pass
As stated in an article in La Repubblica, since the green pass was approved, there have been offers on some Telegram chats to buy a fake certification. The price is low: 150 dollars to be paid in cryptocurrency.
The problem is that these certificates turn out to be real when checked, as they probably exploit flaws in data collection. In some cases, however, they are produced with names other than the person who requested them. Since these activities take place on the dark web, the only thing left for those who have tried to be clever is to find that they have wasted their money.
It is precisely these Telegram groups that are created and then disappear in a matter of days so that they cannot be traced and are resurrected under other names.
The use of blockchain would help prevent such cases by making Europe a safer place. Thanks to the authenticity and immutability of the data provided on the blockchain, it would be easy to check whether the green pass holder has been vaccinated, has been cured of Covid, or has had a negative swab.
There will be an increasing need for this as the green pass will most likely become a pass for many other activities, from work to going to the disco.
However, the number of so-called ‘no vax’ people, who do not want to be vaccinated and are therefore not entitled to a green pass, is still very high.
This is where blockchain comes in. The case of San Marino is destined to set an example
The San Marino case
San Marino has decided to strengthen this pass. The San Marino digital Covid certificate (this is its full name) is in fact based on the blockchain, and specifically, on the VeChain blockchain.
Once again, the small republic located on Italian territory is at the forefront of blockchain.
The certification will have two QR codes to scan.
- One QR code will show data compliant with the provisions of the EU green pass,
- A second QR code will demonstrate the validity of the certificate as it is associated with a unique and non-replicable NFT.
The choice of using NFTs and the VeChain blockchain will ensure that the certificate is easily verifiable even outside the European Union.
The San Marino digital covid certificate (SM-dcc) national infrastructure has been set up to implement this, which is responsible for issuing and validating certificates and ensuring their integrity.
It also issues public and private keys for digital signatures.
This project was carried out by the independent body DNV, San Marino Innovation S.p.A., the Institute for Social Security, the coordination of the State Secretariat for Health and Social Security, in collaboration of course with VeChain.
Renato Grottola, global director of growth and innovation of DNV explained:
“The San Marino digital covid certificate is a highly portable digital certificate. Anyone can potentially perform the certificate verification operation, without the need to download a specific app. The use of VeChain’s blockchain technology and, in particular, of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), make it possible to increase confidence in the veracity of the information, while reducing the risk of counterfeiting”.
The President of San Marino Innovation, Lorenzo Spadoni, added:
“The San Marino digital covid certificate is an important tool which aligns the Republic with the technological standards used by the European Union, guaranteeing full interoperability, while also adding a further ‘universal’ method of certification based on blockchain.”
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Security of the Republic of San Marino says that the project required close cooperation between the bodies involved, but in a few weeks, it was possible to create the certificates, which will now have to be made available to citizens.
The meetings were virtual since the team members are divided between San Marino, Milan, Bologna and Catania. In addition, the body adds, the project has been appreciated by both the WHO Europe Region and the Russian Rdif fund for its double QR, the guarantee offered by the blockchain and the fact that there is no need for a dedicated app.
This suggests that this type of green pass on blockchain could also be adopted outside San Marino.
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