Vaccine Passports

Since the development of Covid-19 vaccines people have touted the idea of ‘vaccine passports’ - a means by which to identify people who have been vaccinated against the current coronavirus pandemic, either for the purpose of international travel or simply to gain access to public events and spaces without otherwise-necessary tests and isolation periods. Whilst not all countries or areas require vaccine passports for travel, and some have even banned their use, for places that are aiming to use vaccine passports to enable safe and less-restrictive travel options it will save a lot of time and hassle.

Whilst at its core a vaccine passport is a simple idea, simply showing whether (and when) a person has been vaccinated, there are a number of things to take into consideration when designing or implementing one. Though many countries are developing their own vaccine passports, really, a global pandemic needs a global solution. Though organising something on this scale could be difficult to achieve, it would have the benefit of creating a standard accepted format that would be easy to read and verify regardless of the countries involved. Whilst there is the potential for physical vaccine passports, these run into the same issues as all physical documentation with the potential for forgeries, loss, damage etc. Digital versions of vaccine passports could be made more secure, accessible and shareable, though the method used would need to be provably secure, private and simple to use. 

As countries will have their own versions of vaccine passports, it will fall to other parties to create interoperability between these versions - something Blockpass is perfectly positioned to facilitate given its work with verifying identities and passports from around the world in one app. The Blockpass app has been running for more than three years at the time of writing, with privacy, security and ease of use all core tenets of the Blockpass design process. With Blockpass, certificates - such as positive vaccination certificates - can be issued and ratified by various countries or organisations, making it simple to produce an obvious and verifiable check for vaccinated individuals that they could share regardless of where they are from or who they are trying to prove their vaccination status to. As a user-centric solution, Blockpass also ensures that the user is in control of their own data and chooses who they share it with.    

Healthcare data management and verifying personal medical information has been one of the areas that Blockpass has been aiming to facilitate since its inception as the unique properties of Blockpass are perfectly suited to enabling the sharing of private data in a secure and discreet manner, and in many countries healthcare records are still not easily accessible or transferable for the patient. Indeed, many of the solutions that the Blockpass Identity Lab at Edinburgh Napier University is looking into are related to the field of healthcare. By incorporating a ‘Covid-19 Vaccine’ certificate on the Blockpass app, any country or organisation that issues such certification would have a fast, secure and simple way to show it, and would provide a common platform for multiple countries and organisations to use. 

Blockpass has grown significantly in size and use since its inception, both in the number and range of users and organizations it has partnered with, and the scope of its work. Blockpass continues to develop its digital identity protocol with updates and additions to improve the compliance experience. The existential need for DeFi projects to be regulatory compliant and the recent integrations have led to a surge in interest for Blockpass’ On-Chain KYC®™ solution which promises to change the way blockchains enable compliance. Its recent integration with TrustSwap expands Blockpass’ services to a whole new raft of businesses and solutions.