A recent US government report claimed that intellectual property theft costs the average company over $100 million in revenues and a further $1.4 million when it comes to identification and enforcement of intellectual property rights.

The digital era has long been lauded as a catalyst for progress in many aspects of our lives, and it’s hard to argue with that, but there are some negative characteristics to take into account.

Advances in digital products and content have brought with them advances in the technology used to replicate and digitally alter such products.

This poses enormous problems for companies and even entire industries who are looking to use digital means to further their business model.

There could be a solution to many of these issues though. The blockchain.

A more detailed look at how blockchain technology works can be found here, but in brief terms blockchain technology allows for time-stamped immutable records, providing possibly the most significant breakthrough against violation of ownership rights and intellectual property rights ever seen.

One example of this groundbreaking technology at work can be found at the University of Nicosia, where students receive a standard PDF-format certificate of qualification along with their grades being recorded on the blockchain.

This means that any prospective employers can check the authenticity of the student’s qualification beyond just taking it as gospel that their PDF or paper copy is legitimate.

This type of approach could be the answer to fraudulent educational qualifications, which we’ve seen become more of an issue as the global workforce grows.

It’s not always easy for a hiring company based in Belgium, for example, to know or even find out if a certificate of qualification from somewhere like India, Poland, New Zealand or so on is legitimate. In many cases, the place of learning may not even exist!

Blockchain technology helps make answering those questions a lot easier, and the technology is disrupting the way in which educational authorities are providing certification.

What if we applied the same technology to leak detection survey certificates?

Being able to prove with any real degree of certainty that the certificates provided by leak detection companies are legitimate has been as difficult as it has in other industries that rely on similar documentation.

Here at ELIS Technologies, we’ve taken the step to certify every single square meter we survey on the blockchain. Not only will our technology reach areas that are inaccessible to human monitoring, but it will allow authorities to verify that the survey has been performed and results are to a satisfactory level.

Miroslav Murgas