Kickstarter idea: something called “Social Distance Please”. The idea is to use iBeacons, blockchain and smartphone technology to encourage social distancing while anonymously tracking COVID-19 infected persons and those who may be exposed.

First design and develop iBeacon medallions which broadcast a UUID that is unique to Social Distance Please devices. The major and minor numbers are random and are secretly produced by a person’s Social Distance Please (SDP) smartphone app, which can associate with and manage a medallion. Major and minor numbers support a maximum of 4,294,836,225 users. Medallions could be designed as necklaces, key fobs, bracelets, etc.

Each medallion also has a receiver that can detect other medallions by Bluetooth low energy proximity sensing. If two medallions come within 2 meters of each other they vibrate or produce some type of indication to alert the people to move further apart. Each medallion also records these proximity violations and periodically synchronizes this data with the SDP smartphone app.

The SDP smartphone app is the interface to an SDP blockchain. Each proximity violation is a blockchain transaction. Transactions are completed when both medallion users synchronize their proximity violations, perhaps at the end of each day. The information is anonymous, because it uses only iBeacon major and minor number pairs with the time of day. Payment to miners could be obtained from COVID-19 Relief funds. Another feature of the SDP smartphone app would be to associate family member medallions so the proximity alerts are muted.

When a person tests positive for COVID-19, the testing agency posts another type of blockchain transaction with the person’s medallion information. This transaction would be used to notify the other persons who experienced a proximity violation with the person testing positive. The testing agency would also have an approximate number of people exposed to the person testing positive. 

The Social Distance Please idea would encourage social distancing while helping to track and notify persons exposed to COVID-19 in a secure and anonymous way.