The World Health Organization (WHO) has partnered on March 28 with major blockchain and tech companies to launch a distributed ledger engineering (DLT)-based platform for sharing information apropos the coronavirus pandemic.

The platform, MiPasa, is built on elevation of Hyperledger Textile and seeks to enable "early on detection of COVID-nineteen carriers and infection hotspots.

MiPasa has been launched in partnership with engineering company IBM, figurer firm Oracle, enterprise blockchain platform Hacera and IT corporation Microsoft.

WHO launches blockchain-based platform to fight COVID-19

The platform purports to facilitate "fully individual information sharing between individuals, land authorities and health institutions."

The project cross-references siloed location and health information is "siloed" on the platform to glean global insights while ensuring patient privacy, with MiPasa describing the platform as a "verifiable information highway." MiPasa is slated to presently host an assortment of publicly accessible analytics tools too.

According to the projection'due south website:

"MiPasa tin assistance monitor and foresee local and global epidemiological trends and detect likely asymptomatic carriers by feeding big data on infection routes and occurrences to powerful AI processors around the world."

A number of national health institutions are also contributing to the project — including the U.S., European, and Chinese Centres for Affliction Control and Prevention, the Hong Kong Department of Health, the Regime of Canada and China's National Health Commission.

The fight confronting coronavirus highlights applications for DLT

The coronavirus pandemic has highlighted many of the applications for blockchain engineering science.

On March 25, it was reported that the United Arab Emirates (UAE)'s Ministry of Community Development (MOCD) is adopting DLT-based solutions for identity verification and the distribution of official documents — assuasive customers to securely engage with the MOCD from home.

Blockchain engineering science has also been suggested equally the most efficient means through which the U.s.' stimulus package could exist distributed — with some proponents even proposing that the U.Due south. launch a DLT-based "digital dollar."

Mainland china has deployed blockchain in numerous applications to help its efforts to fight COVID-19, using DLT to track the virus' spread, medical records, and the distribution of medical supplies and charity donations.

A Chinese announcer has also used Ethereum (ETH) to bypass censorship and publish an interview with a Wuhan-based doc on the pandemic.