可口可乐公司（Coca-Cola）想认真调查一下蔗糖的情况。2016年，一个名叫“了解供应链”（Know The Chain）的劳工权利团体发布了一份有关“十大”食品及饮料公司的报告，而可口可乐公司是其中最大的公司之一。报告发现这些公司中没有一个在供应链方面达到了国际劳工标准，而且蔗糖是接受调查的商品中监管最差的商品之一。

为此，可口可乐公司同美国国务院结成合作伙伴，将区块链技术试用于其蔗糖供应链，以期提高供应商的透明度及问责度。

一个名叫 FRDM 的软件公司利用数据来评估供应链践踏劳工权益的风险，并从可口可乐公司和美国国务院宣布合作之初就开始关注这一伙伴关系。该公司的负责人阿德琳·兰伯特（Adeline Lambert）认为这看起来非常有前途。

兰伯特说：“在我们生活的世界中，购买者能同一个供应商订立合同，但他们所知的有关供应链的情况仅此而已。”供应链底层的劳工就算有合同，也往往看不到这些合同。而供应链监管人员常常在这方面发现最恶劣的侵犯劳工权益的行径。

她认为，如果公司企业有一个系统，能让购买者不仅知道供应商是谁，而且知道供应商的供应商以及他们与之合作的其他第三方是谁，那么供应链就会变得更加透明。

美国国务院正在将可口可乐公司的蔗糖供应链作为应用区块链的一个“试验场”，而且有一天可能扩大其应用范围，以增强其他劳工社区的权益。

全球伙伴关系代理特别代表（Acting Special Representative for Global Partnerships）托马斯·迪巴斯（Thomas Debass）在听了BanQu 的创始人及首席执行官艾希斯·盖德尼斯（Ashish Gadnis）介绍区块链如何帮助“小农户、妇女[以及]难民”加入现代经济后，感到深受鼓舞。

BanQu 就如何在区块链上建立数据库为金融机构、非赢利组织及政府机构提供咨询。盖德尼斯介绍说，当一家公司企业开始在区块链上记录交易时，劳工的情况也同时被记录在供应链中。

他说：“如果你看一看一个传统的蔗糖供应链，就会发现作物八次易手。损失最大的人是……权益遭受侵犯的劳工。”但有了区块链，“那些劳工现在拥有能摆脱掠夺性的奴役劳工行径的经济护照（economic passports），因为他们可以带走他们的数据”。

这有可能改变流动人口的生活，其中包括移民工、无家可归者以及丢失了重要的身份证件的难民。

盖德尼斯将于8月27日在美国驻约旦大使馆的一次网络座谈中介绍将叙利亚妇女难民纳入区块链，以使她们能够合法地工作并获得信贷。

他说：“每个人都试图使其复杂化，但如果你是那名劳工，你想要做的不过是让你的子女吃饱。这与数据权息息相关。”

What is blockchain and why should workers care?

Coca-Cola wants to get a better look at sugar. In 2016, a labor rights group called Know The Chain released a report on the “Big 10” food and beverage companies, of which Coca-Cola is among the biggest. It found that none met international labor standards in their supply chains, and sugarcane was one of the worst-regulated commodities measured.

In response, Coca-Cola has partnered with the U.S. Department of State to test blockchain technology on its sugarcane supply chain to improve supplier transparency and accountability.

FRDM, a software company that uses data to assess labor-abuse risks in supply chains, has followed the partnership between Coca-Cola and the State Department since it was announced. The company’s director, Adeline Lambert, thinks it looks very promising.

“Right now we live in world where a buyer is able to contract with a supplier, but that’s all they know about their supply chain,” Lambert said. Workers at the bottom of the supply chain often don’t have access to their contracts, if they exist. This is where supply chain regulators often find the worst labor-rights abuse.

She thinks if companies had a system that lets buyers know not just who their supplier is, but that supplier’s suppliers and other third parties they’re working with, then supply chains will become more transparent.

The State Department is using Coca-Cola’s sugarcane supply chain as a “test site” for this application of blockchain, and may one day expand its uses to empower other communities of workers.

Acting Special Representative for Global Partnerships Thomas Debass was inspired to see how blockchain could help “smallholder farmers, women [and] refugees” join the modern economy after hearing a presentation by Ashish Gadnis, the founder and CEO of BanQu.

BanQu counsels financial institutions, nonprofits and government agencies on how to set up their databases on blockchain. When a business starts recording transactions on blockchain, Gadnis explained, it writes a workers’ existence into the supply chain.

“If you look into a traditional sugar supply chain, the crop changes hands eight times. The person that loses most is … that laborer who is being abused,” he said. But with blockchain, “those workers now have economic passports to get out of predatory slave-labor practices because they can take their data with them.”

This could be life-changing for transient populations like migrant workers, the homeless and refugees who may have lost important identifying records.

On August 27, Gadnis will speak through a webcast at the U.S. Embassy in Jordan about establishing Syrian refugee women in a blockchain so they can legally work and access credit.

“Everybody tries to make it complicated, but if you’re that worker, all you’re trying to do is feed your kids,” he said. “It’s all about data rights.”