Can Bug Bounties Help Fix (Real) Supply Chains?
What we are building at iseevalue
What is the easiest way of building trust? For companies, this question becomes ever more relevant as people and regulators increasingly focus on environmental and social effects along value chains. Well, one way of building trust is by letting yourself and your claims be challenged. But what could this even look like? But providing evidence of compliance and impact is both challenging and costly and so, opportunities are lost to a lack of trust. Consumers are lost in a maze of certifications and claims. In our minds, we need to turn this whole thing on its head. Bug bounties might just be the right tool for it.
What are Bug Bounties?
Bug Bounties are a well-established concept from the world of software development. The idea is simple: If developers find a vulnerability or a bug in software, they can responsibly disclose it and be rewarded as an alternative to more illicit ways of monetizing their finding. This works so well that virtually any large software company uses it and in fact, everyone’s security in the digital world is greatly improved through bug bounties. So the question is, why do we not use the same principle when it comes to bugs in physical supply chains? In contrast to physical supply chains both the product and with it also the gravity of bugs can more easily be determined. Plus, there is a whole plethora of concerns about privacy and security when sharing information on real-world supply chains. Nobody wants their competitor to be able to profit or toy with such valuable data. Luckily, recent innovations provide new avenues to increase transparency without compromising on privacy and security. And our mission at iseevalue.io is making those tools available for impact and CSR.
Leveling the Playing Field for Impact Verification
From the internet of things, to satellite constellations and human observations, more data than ever is available to optimize impact and mitigate environmental and social risks along value chains. We have enough information, it is just unevenly distributed. Our vision is to create the infrastructure to make data flow where it is most valuable to society. With more qualified eyes scrutinizing the data based on a single, tamper-proof source of truth, bug bounties are making it easier to trust a company’s claims or discover risks before they materialize. Bug bounties for impact attract attention to mission-critical impact data or can help find the right data and tools to verify and quantify impact more accurately and timely while reducing overheads. Ultimately, this is our vision, leveling the playing field and thus facilitating positive impact.
What do you think? An idea worth exploring or bonkers? Interested in shaping the future of supply chain transparency? As we are moving closer to the release of our first demonstrator, we are looking for people, companies and organizations that want to test and refine the concept together with us. iseevalue.io/contact
