WISeKey and Race for Water Foundation Announce at the Geneva Blockchain Congress an Innovative Identity Blockchain Solution to Reduce Pollution of the Oceans and Offset Plastic Footprint

WISeKey International Holding SA / WISeKey and Race for Water Foundation Announce at the Geneva Blockchain Congress an Innovative Identity Blockchain Solution to Reduce Pollution of the Oceans and Offset Plastic Footprint . Processed and transmitted by West Corporation. The issuer is solely responsible for the content of this announcement.

WISeKey and Race for Water Foundation Announce at the Geneva Blockchain Congress an Innovative Identity Blockchain Solution to Reduce Pollution of the Oceans and Offset Plastic Footprint

Geneva, Switzerland / New York, USA - January 23, 2019 - WISeKey International Holding Ltd ("WISeKey"), (SIX: WIHN) a cybersecurity IoT platform company, today announced that in partnership with the Race for Water Foundation, a charity organization dedicated to water preservation, invites manufacturers and users of plastic products to participate in the "Race for Water Program" to reduce global pollution and offset plastic footprint.

Using its Identity Blockchain technology, WISeKey will generate a digital identity stored in WISeKey's Blockchain for each plastic product manufactured by participating companies and link it with a secure form-factor embedded on the product using QR codes, NFC microchips (using a new U.S. patent. No. 7,898,422 for an anti-counterfeiting NFC device) or UHF RFID technologies.  Upon purchase of a product equipped with an embedded form-factor, the customer, using the Race for Water App installed on their phone, has the ability to scan it and get information about the product and its ecological impact if not properly recycled.

Each product has a unique digital identity, and can generate a certain amount of Plastic Tokens, a cryptocurrency developed by WISeCoin AG, a Special Purpose Vehicle created by WISeKey. The amount of Plastic Tokens will be proportional to and indicative of the recycling efforts made over the life of the scanned plastic product.  Furthermore, Plastic Tokens represent a 'donation promise' to the Race for Water Foundation.

Once a product is equipped with an embedded form-factor, every transaction is digitally signed using WISeKey's Identity Blockchain and PKI technology, giving an accurate and immutable representation of the recycling efforts made by each and every participating company. These companies and their efforts to save/clean the environment will be entered into a master database managed by the Race for Water Foundation and will be ranked according to the volume of Plastic Tokens transactions generated by each one of them.