• Current digital interactions are flawed because they do not safeguard the interests of young people.
• Blockchain creates an immutable digital footprint of athletes’ interactions.
• Lack of data makes combating human sports trafficking inefficient.

Blockchain can solve most of our current societal and technological issues as its technology unlocks the inconsistencies in supply chain management and the medical sector. While experts in the public space negotiate the give and take between its benefits and drawbacks, blockchain continues to develop as a dependable digital solution adapted to the needs of the new generations.

Trust plays a universal role in the building of social structures within any society by establishing a framework to decrease interaction uncertainty. Thus, it has infiltrated every digital and physical activity performed by people. Our lives are founded on values of honesty and trust; however, as National Geographic underlines, to “lie is human,” even though our ideals reside on the opposite side of the spectrum. This paradox is reflected in every aspect of our existence, ultimately translating into the digital space.

Blockchain, the Ultimate Solution

Digital behavior mirrors society’s mishaps and is being reinforced as the prevailing norm because it resonates with our physical, day-to-day interactions. Trust and deception have thus become hallmarks of humanity because they oppose each other, yet we are not immune to their influence. In “Lie prevalence, lie characteristics and strategies of self-reported good liars” the author argues that not everyone is capable of lying; the motive behind a lie determines the likelihood that someone is willing to deceive.

Within any industry, people tell petty lies to boost their credibility or win in negotiations. However, when lying is done to maximize one’s wealth by hurting another person, that crosses into a different territory altogether.

In the exclusive interview with DailyCoin, Lerina Bright, founder of Mission 89, the Swiss educational and research NGO, focused on raising awareness of the risks of human sports trafficking, highlighted that young players are at a disadvantage in the digital age because there are no safeguards that guarantee the credibility of the person on the other side of the screen.

"The technology we aspire to create with Tuum Technologies will ensure that these safeguards are in place. Just ensuring that they are the right people and children can feel safe and protected."

On The Flipside

• Enforcing the use of blockchain can be hard because industry specialists can easily combat its implementation through the sway their decisions hold.
• Multiple data inputs are required to create reliable and trusting research with data.
• Research dating from 2010 has emphasized the need for data to combat human sport trafficking, especially on the African continent.

Tuum Technologies is striving to create an auditable, tamper-proof, and censorship-resistant blockchain infrastructure linked to a digital identity whose credentials reside with the user. Lerina Bright noted that there is a big problem combatting human trafficking in general because of the lack of data as NGOs are working with “hidden populations” and people that are trafficked without having a clue it’s happening to them.

Therefore, according to Bright, blockchain can help solve part of the human trafficking issue by creating an immutable digital footprint, much like how blockchain is integrated into supply chain management. Only this time, it revolves around human lives.

"Create a footprint, so that when they arrive, from the moment they leave their countries of origin to the moment they arrive at their destination, there's a footprint of where they've been, who they've been in contact with and the organizations that they're affiliated with"

Lerina Bright truly believes that blockchain can facilitate better access to data because, as she states, “everybody is looking for data,” and the scarce data nature of the operational field cannot be molded or improved without data. Implementing blockchain will support an environment in which researchers and educators can boost efforts to combat human sports trafficking.

"Education is key, and the approach we have taken is that we need to educate different stakeholder groups because this is a multi-stakeholder issue, right? So yes, educating youth, raising awareness - that's important."

"We also need to educate sports organizations because, for many well-intended regulations and policies, their core work is not child safeguarding. Yes, they have to protect, obviously their athletes, but their focus is on developing athletes, buying, selling."

In short, the interview draws close connections between raising awareness about a subsector of human trafficking, which is not as widely considered a threat, and the role blockchain has, through Web 3.0, in resolving real-world societal issues. 

Furthermore, it is necessary to educate sports organizations about the dangers of human sport trafficking because organizations are often blinded by their mission to win and succeed at all costs.

Why You Should Care?

The sports organizations we follow and support could be engaged in human trafficking activities, albeit unknowingly. Supporting them and not helping to raise awareness would only perpetuate the problem.

Watch the full interview here: