By: Bill Quam

Bill Quam — Tue, 05 Feb 2019 18:53:03 +0000

After attending IBM public meetings on this effort and reviewing more of the actual details of this Ford effort it is obvious it is just another in a long like of iTSCi “bag and tag” smoke and mirrors certification efforts designed by companies with no or very limited experience in the DRC.
This effort will reprocess a cobalt tailing hill of ore. They will then enter into the Blockchain cobalt they will verify and certify by algorithm as free of child labor, environmental destruction, violence, human right violations. They will not trace the origin of the original ore for place of origin.
This is just another scheme by western most developed countries and corporations to transfer even more of the mineral wealth out of the DRC without adding any equal share local value or benefit to the mineral ore being exported.
Ford and IBM should know better however their profits Blockchain/Cloud and automobiles come at the expense of the children pictured. This will do little for them or the 10’s of thousands of other children.

By: john S. metzger

john S. metzger — Tue, 22 Jan 2019 12:59:51 +0000

I do not know of one of these efforts that takes the “blockchain” down to the actual mine and starts with the material leaving the site in nothing more than the paper chit or ledger system… and that is rife with … “issues”.

Comments on: Ford to lead blockchain pilot that traces cobalt mined in Congo

By: Bill Quam

By: john S. metzger