A new Ethereum-based app that proves whether someone has been vaccinated for COVID-19 has been approved for download on both Apple’s App Store and Google Play.
The Ethereum wallet app has been developed by Civic Technologies, a San Francisco-based startup that raised US$43 million [AU$62 million] in a 2017 initial coin offering (ICO).
A partnership with a well-connected affiliate of San Francisco hospital, UCSF Health, will let employees prove the results of their most recent COVID-19 tests and vaccine status when one is finally rolled out.
According to Forbes, the app also lets users provide further medical information in addition and will support cryptocurrency wallets for Bitcoin, Ethereum, Tether, and Civic’s own token.
After raising $43 million in an ICO, Civic Technologies has finally launched its identity app on Apple and Google’s app stores: https://t.co/m5C0x4Ubhd Use case #1? Letting people prove they’ve been vaccinated. By @DelRayMan pic.twitter.com/8ec8NJ38Js
— Forbes Crypto (@ForbesCrypto) June 17, 2020
Civic employs encrypted blockchain technology to ensure the data is kept private and only for the intended recipients.
Founder and CEO of Civic, Vinny Lingham, used a crowded football stadium as a reference, stating;
“You don’t have to transmit your name, or anything like that. So you can walk into a stadium anonymously like you do today, but just prove that as you walk through the gates that you’d been vaccinated.”
The app went live this week with more than 100,000 people signed up on the waiting list and has already been downloaded more than 12,000 times, according to the media outlet.
There has been no effect on CVC token prices which were down a couple of percent on the day, according to CoinMarketCap.
Featured image courtesy of cottonbro/Pexels