- Cheesman's Study
- Implementation Issues
- Conclusions and Findings
The study reveals that using blockchain in humanitarian projects does not bring significant benefits and sometimes even creates additional problems.
Cheesman's Study
Margie Cheesman, a digital anthropologist, in her study published on August 13 in the journal Geopolitics, argues that blockchain mostly fails to improve humanitarian projects and is used to raise funds. In her work, she examined the 'Cash4Work' project from May 2018 to December 2019 and found that blockchain did not provide significant benefits to the project while adding some costs.
Implementation Issues
The project was carried out in the Al-Za'atari and Al-Azraq refugee camps in Jordan, aiming to provide cash assistance to individuals in need of basic necessities in exchange for work done for partner organizations. 'Cash4Work' relied on 'The Blockchain Pilot' for data storage and processing. Despite claims about blockchain's benefits, the study revealed that blockchain created additional challenges for program participants, such as difficulties in accessing cash and misinformation from cashiers.
Conclusions and Findings
Cheesman concludes that blockchain is primarily used to raise funds and support existing power structures. The technology perpetuates 'key forms of ignorance,' including confusion, illusion, disappearance, and misdirection. However, despite the criticism, the study acknowledges that blockchain may have reduced transaction fees in humanitarian projects.
The study emphasizes the need for a critical assessment of blockchain usage in humanitarian projects and a thorough analysis of the technology's real advantages and disadvantages.
