Plugin & Inclusive Growth Chain: Leveraging Smart Contracts to Check Air Pollution in Real-Time
Today, poor ambient air quality is one of the most crucial public health concerns around the globe. Exposure to polluted air causes more than 6.6 million premature deaths each year and makes up close to 8% of the global burden of disease. What’s more, exposure to air pollutants reaches far beyond respiratory illnesses. Research shows that there are links between air pollution and non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cancer, and more recently COVID-19 health outcomes.
While air quality is a global sustainability issue with varying severity and effects across nations, there’s a need to adopt novel approaches to manage the issue. One approach to the problem is technology. Leveraging tech will help overcome factors that put pressure on ambient air quality.
On that note: blockchain technology and its novel use cases holds a lead position in helping track air pollution in real-time using data feeds from authoritative off-chain sources.
In this context, let’s look into the Plugin and Inclusive Growth Chain partnership and how the resulting blockchain-based solutions will help boost real-time air-pollution monitoring and ease the development of unique blockchain solutions.
Plugin & Inclusive Growth Chain: Who they are and what they offer
Plugin is a decentralized oracle platform providing cost-efficient solutions to smart contracts that run on the XDC Network Ecosystem. The novel solution focuses on providing cost-efficient solutions to users that need reliable data on their smart contracts. And being a fork of Chainlink open-source technology built to benefit the XDC Network Blockchain Ecosystem, Plugin enables smart contracts to communicate seamlessly with the outside world and store data gathered from reliable partners. Plugin guarantees dedicated support, reliable data feeds, thoroughly tested platform for quality, and enterprise-grade service level agreements.
On the other hand, Inclusive Growth Chain (IGC) is an integrated blockchain, artificial intelligence, and machine learning platform that seeks to address social and environmental problems. Recently, the organization won the top prize for creating a blockchain-enabled platform that aggregates air pollution data with high accuracy and at minimal costs. The platform also works with Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) in India, helping redistribute value chain gains to farmers.
Plugin—Inclusive Growth Chain Partnership
Through the Plugin—IGC partnership, the entities will work towards implementing the “Project Pollution Check”. Given the benefits to be accrued upon launching the project, it has been touted as a more impactful decentralized application on the XDC network, which leverages PLI.
So, what’s “Project Pollution Check”?
Pollution check is a blockchain-enabled use case that allows air pollution tracking and tracing in real-time. Conceptualized by IGC, the project purposes to collect real-time data on air pollution, helping users with air pollution-related health issues or allergies make appropriate decisions. Worth noting, the solution will be available to users across the globe.
In this project, the Plugin will act as an oracle service to bridge the data (Air pollutants) from the external world into a decentralized application. What’s more, the air pollution tracking and tracing application will target end-users like real estate properties provider and developers, real estate buyers, air purifier companies, and government agencies tasked with protecting the environment.
For real estate property providers and developers, Pollution check will help them decide where to construct housing that meets their client’s air quality index (AQI) requirements. As well, this may help with pricing real estate properties—that is, areas with lower AQIs can fetch a premium as compared to those with significantly higher AQIs.
On the other hand, Pollution-check will help real-estate buyers determine—in real-time— the pollutant levels in an area prior to making purchase decisions. To illustrate, Pollution-check will help families with kids and elderly members to avoid buying or renting homes in areas whose air has high levels of carbon monoxide.
Air purifier companies will also leverage the solution. With accurate data on pollution in different locations, air purifier companies may tailor their services and offer models that are most effective for specific regions. This will help reduce air pollution-related issues for clients in different locations.
Government agencies tasked with safeguarding the environment can leverage Pollution-check to pass laws on appropriate mechanisms to reduce air pollution. For instance, government agencies may introduce policies favoring the increase of electronic vehicles. This will help reduce air pollution resulting from diesel and petrol-powered engines.
That said, what other areas will the Plugin and IGC partnership touch on?
Well, in addition to “project pollution-check”, IGC and Plugin also plan to collaborate on other solutions in the Private & Public Blockchain space. IGC will also avail Big data, Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence expertise on a demand basis, helping strengthen Plugin’s technology landscape.
As well, plugin seeks to onboard IGC as a masternode operator following the MOU. This will happen after consultations with respective network community members.
Bottom Line
While air pollution remains a major concern around the globe, the inception of novel technologies through the PLI-IGC partnership holds the potential to reduce and reverse some resulting effects. For example, the inception of “Pollution check” holds significant potential in mitigating air pollution-related issues. By allowing real-time checking of air pollution levels in different locations, the solution will enable end-users like real estate property providers and developers, real estate buyers, air purifier companies, and government agencies to make appropriate decisions.
As well, the PLI-IGC partnership helps leverage each firm’s capabilities to boost their respective abilities.
