Smart Contract Blockchain Attestation for Accessible ESG Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
There is a lack of easily accessible and secure public information for verifying sustainability practices, making it difficult for participants and consumers to identify adherence to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) guidelines, leading to challenges in maintaining accountability and encouraging participation.
Innovation Solution
A blockchain-based system is used to store smart contracts that monitor and verify sustainability practices, allowing participants to agree to guidelines, which are then publicly accessible, with third-party data providers generating metrics that are added to the blockchain, and self-executing smart contracts provide verifiable attestations when guidelines are met.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If third party entities provide services to certify sustainability practices, then certification and verification are achieved, but accessibility and ease of finding certification information deteriorates due to the large number of entities
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple third-party certification entities into a single unified blockchain platform. All certification data from different entities is merged into one distributed ledger, allowing users to access all certification information through a single interface rather than searching across numerous separate entities. This resolves the contradiction by maintaining the reliability of multiple certifiers while improving accessibility through consolidation.
Solution Approach 2:
The blockchain platform serves as a universal system that handles multiple functions: storing certification data, verifying sustainability practices, providing public access to certification information, and enabling search across all entities. This multi-functional platform replaces the need for users to interact with numerous separate certification entities, simultaneously maintaining verification reliability while dramatically improving ease of access.
2Loss of information
If sustainability practice information is made publicly accessible, then transparency and participation are improved, but security and protection from tampering deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain acts as an intermediary between the need for public accessibility and the need for security. It provides a neutral, decentralized platform where sustainability information is made publicly visible while the cryptographic protocols and distributed ledger technology prevent tampering. The blockchain mediates between transparency requirements and security requirements, allowing both to coexist without compromise.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the fundamental parameters of information storage and access by implementing an immutable distributed ledger. Information is stored in a way that is simultaneously publicly accessible and tamper-proof through cryptographic hashing and distributed consensus mechanisms. This parameter change resolves the contradiction by transforming the information system from one that must choose between accessibility and security to one that achieves both simultaneously through blockchain technology.
3Reliability
If multiple third party entities are used for certification, then comprehensive verification is achieved, but system complexity and difficulty of management increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the complex multi-entity certification system into standardized modular components on the blockchain. Each certification entity operates independently but follows standardized protocols for data submission and verification. This segmentation allows comprehensive verification from multiple entities while reducing overall system complexity through standardization and modular architecture, making the system easier to manage and maintain.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for monitoring and verifying sustainability practices via blockchain includes: storing, in a blockchain, a smart contract; receiving a data message including a wallet identifier, one or more sustainability metrics, and authentication data; validating the data message using the authentication data; performing a generation process to generate and add a first new block to the blockchain that includes the wallet identifier and the sustainability metrics, wherein the smart contract self-executes upon detecting the wallet identifier and sustainability metrics added to the blockchain, and self-execution of the smart contract comprises the performing of the generation process by the smart contract to add a second new block to the blockchain that includes a verifiable attestation for an entity associated with the wallet identifier indicative that the entity has satisfied one or more sustainability guidelines based on the one or more sustainability metrics.