The Lure of the Quick Technological Fix: Blockchain and the Case of Cobalt

Field: Social Sciences (Social Sciences)

We live in a time where new technologies seem to promise new solutions to old problems. One example of digitalisation that is very in fashion right now is blockchain technology. Blockchains are the subject of a lot of media hype: promising everything from the protection of privacy to its final destruction, from a new intrusion of artificially intelligent machines to the salvation of humanity. As discussed in Industriall’s research paper, The Challenge of Industry 4.0 and the Demand for New Answers, mining falls into the ‘low’ immediate impact category of Industry 4.0. However blockchain technology ranks high among pathways proposed to address and tackle labour abuses and other unsustainable practices in mineral supply chains. What is a Blockchain? Fundamentally, blockchain is an information security strategy. It provides a different level of security than, say, defending a database at the perimeter of the computer it resides on. Blockchain security is at the level of specific records or blocks of data, structured in what are called ‘linked lists’. Each item on each list has identifying data and a pointer to the previous item and/or the next item. Each new block of data must authenticate itself at particular nodes by some kind of proof, for example performing a mathematical operation on the current block, in order to be added to the chain. This proof must be difficult to falsify but easy to verify, to discourage spammers and hackers. This creates a data chain where one can be reasonably certain that each item was added in chronological order and not manipulated. It works fairly well with Bitcoin, for example. It is this property that makes blockchain seem attractive for the task of verifying the cobalt supply chain. Cobalt mining and the DRC New technologies such as smartphones and electric vehicles require batteries, and have greatly increased global demand for cobalt, a rare metal. It is estimated that over 60 percent of the world’s cobalt resources are to be found in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Industriall general secretary Valter Sanches recently described the working conditions at some multinational mining companies’ operations in the DRC as ‘appalling and disturbing’. In a letter to DRC President Kabila after a fact-finding mission to Glencore’s DRC mines, Sanches wrote that the global union was ‘saddened and outraged’ to discover ‘the daily experience of abuse and violation of fundamental labour rights of Congolese mine workers at these operations are in total disregard of the laws of the country and collective bargaining arrangements. The testimonies of around 80 workers represented by the union, offer clear proof of the abuse and violation of their labour rights and human rights, extending beyond the mine operations into their homes, families, communities and the surrounding environment’. A traceable and verifiable digital record of cobalt from its origin in mines in the DRC through to its installation in the battery of a Tesla would, proponents argue, enable anyone to know exactly when and in which mine – and potentially even by which miners – the particular cobalt in a particular battery was produced. This could provide assurance that environmental and social abuses, such as child labour, or abuse of trade union rights – were not used in the production of the cobalt, or if they were, enable tracing and tackling the abuses for remedy or punishment. Access to remedy is fundamental, and represents the litmus test for blockchain technology’s utility in bridging the divide between abuse and remedy. Technological Limitations It is worth remembering that even though we use terms like ‘blockchain’, in reality there is no abstract entity called a blockchain, it is just a network of physical computers, owned by a variety of people, using an agreed-upon authentication protocol. Where are these physical computers, and what are their characteristics? Are they vulnerable to failure or compromise? The application of blockchain to the cobalt supply chain raises the problem of capacity. It can be assumed that most small-scale producers, particularly so-called artisanal miners, will not have the resources or capacity to participate as a node in the chain. Artisanal mining, even though it is legal in the DRC and forms a large part of the...