The World Health Organization (WHO) has teamed up with a couple of giant companies to launch a COVID-19 information highway. The blockchain-based solution is an open-data hub for checking the accuracy of data relating to the coronavirus pandemic.

Dubbed “MiPasa”, the solution is expected to evolve as a range of data analytics tools are added. This will be followed by testing data and other information, to help with the accurate detection of COVID-19 infection hotspots. MiPasa is built by the Hacera company on Hyperledger Fabric.

According to Hacera CEO, Jonathan Levi, the company feels that there isn’t enough information out there to make informed decisions. He said this will make it difficult to help all the people that would like to get access to data, analyze it and provide insights.

Levi added that analytics tools can provide powerful insights only if everyone can be sure and agree that the data on the platform is accurate and consistently versioned. He said several data tool providers are offering their data smarts free of charge to help curb the virus.

Other players that are involved in this initiative include Microsoft, Johns Hopkins University, China’s National Health Commission, IBM, USA CDC, China CDC, European CDC and many more.

IBM Blockchain CTO, Gari Singh stated that all the people he had spoken with agreed that it was critical to launch a consortium as soon as possible. He said the company then started coming up with ideas on how to collect, provide and use verified information about the virus.

According to Singh, this initiative is not a strategy that they are using to force blockchain into this solution. However, he said the data needs to be replicated, have trusted sources and be resistant to alteration, which he believes blockchain best fits the description.