Mothilal Loganathan, Pavan Kalyan, and Vishruth Kumar
National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad, India
Facilitators: Praveen Nahar and Sahil Thappa
The blockchain is often viewed as a tech-savvy solution for profit-making businesses. However, it has an immense potential to solve global problems with its core of decentralisation. We wanted to explore a systemic approach to using blockchain as a tool for social, economic and ecological good.
We created a hypothetical company, “Environ,” to address blockchain for Socio-Economic Impact. Financial Inclusion, Doughnut Economy, and technology adaptation were the primary issues we targeted to solve. Participatory workshops, design sprints, expert sessions, and user interviews were conducted to structure the brief. A speculative service is designed as a first pilot project on Environ blockchain platform targeting Indian farmers to benefit India’s agricultural sector following a bottom-up approach (Human Centric Design).
The system comprises two services. The first service is aimed at providing affordable and accessible financial services to farmers through microfinance and micro-credit systems. The second service is aimed at creating a transparent agricultural supply chain to reduce mediators and supply-demand volatility. Thus, we aim to create an inclusive and sustainable economy by solving poverty and climate change in the agricultural sector.
KEYWORDS: financial inclusion, supply chain, agricultural sector, social Impact, blockchain technology, decentralisation, microfinance, micro credits, inclusive economy, human-centric design, accessibility, doughnut economy, service design.
REFLECTION QUESTION: How can we utilise blockchain technology to create a cascading positive Socio-Economic impact?
Sketchnote by Javed Ali