Startup Choice 2017 > Submission

Minespider - tracking conflict free minerals using blockchain http://www.minespider.com

by Minespider

Conflict minerals fund armed groups in conflict areas, and contribute to human rights abuses. Companies have a regulatory requirement to eliminate them from their supply chain, but this is difficult because these minerals are metals that are not uniquely identifiable.

Our solution is to track production volumes of responsible sources, and create blockchain certification tokens based on this data. These tokens are passed up the supply chain along with minerals to act as an audit trail showing that a company's money is traceable to a responsible source.

To illustrate, if a refiner purchases 1kg of gold from a certified source, and another from an undocumented source, they will have 2kg of metal but only 1kg of tokens. To sell 2kg of certified metal, they need to rchase more supply from the certified source, as that is the only way to get more tokens. It does not matter which bars of physical metal get delivered, because the system ensures that the money goes back to the certified suppliers.

This effectively treats conflict free minerals similarly to green energy on the grid. Buying green energy means you still get coal power coming in your house, but can trace your money to the green energy producers, applying financial pressure on the industry.