The United Nations embraced blockchain technology to revamp its pension system. A study of this process determined that blockchain is the “ultimate technology for digital identity verification,” prompting the UN to extend the system and share it with other international organizations.
The UN has investigated various blockchain applications over the years and implemented it within their United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund (UNJSPF). The recent white paper indicated that using blockchain for identity verification enhances security, efficiency, and transparency. In collaboration with the Hyperledger Foundation, the UN aimed to enhance and secure the global pension process by creating a blockchain-supported digital identification framework.
The UN pension fund transitioned from a 70-year-old system that identified beneficiaries in 190 countries, which relied on a paper-based method to verify more than 70,000 beneficiaries. This outdated approach was subject to errors and fraud, leading to approximately 1,400 payment suspensions each year. Consequently, the UN adopted blockchain-powered digital certification, commencing with a pilot program in 2020 and a full implementation in 2021.
“The shift from physical documentation has significantly reduced the processing times previously needed for receiving, opening, scanning, and archiving paper documents,” the paper observed.
According to the findings, blockchain mitigated the single-point-of-failure issues associated with a centrally managed system. The authors suggested that this success could be replicated in other contexts. The open access and usability of the system by multiple entities lessens the repetitive requirement for identity verification.
The UN is considering expanding similar technology across its operations and sharing it as a “digital public good,” with plans to broaden the Digital Certificate of Entitlement approach to other international organizations.
“The project has not only provided a technical prototype but also a functional model for collaboration among organizations within the UN family to design secure, scalable, and inclusive digital public infrastructure,” stated Sameer Chauhan, the director of the United Nations International Computing Centre, in his concluding remarks.
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