Monitoring Platform for Giga
Ensuring reliable internet access for schools remains one of the world’s most urgent digital challenges — especially in remote and underserved regions. Traditional monitoring systems are often opaque, error-prone, and difficult to scale.
To tackle this, Giga (by UNICEF and ITU) contracted Protofire to launch a blockchain-based monitoring system that now tracks 5,000+ schools in 15 countries, processes 10,000+ data points daily, and has cut monitoring costs by 65% while reducing data discrepancies by 92%. This breakthrough is setting new global standards for transparency, real-time insights, and digital inclusion.
About the Project
The Giga team has approached to Protofire to build a system that ensures transparency around the delivery of Internet services between Brazilian/Botswana governments, schools, and providers.
During a collaborative discovery process between Giga and Protofire, we conducted a deep-dive assessment of the existing connectivity monitoring approach. The analysis uncovered several recurring issues that were limiting the program’s scalability and impact.
First, a lack of transparency in data reporting and fund allocation made it difficult for stakeholders - from local governments to global donors - to track where resources were going and whether connectivity goals were being met. Second, the reliance on centralized systems introduced opportunities for data gaps, inconsistencies, and even unintentional manipulation, which undermined stakeholder trust. Third, the legacy infrastructure lacked the flexibility to support thousands of schools across multiple geographies without creating significant operational overhead.
These pain points, while pronounced in Giga’s context, reflect broader challenges shared across many global connectivity initiatives. The need for a scalable, tamper-proof, and real-time monitoring framework was clear - and became the foundation for our blockchain-based solution.
- As the platform was to gather real-time data around the Internet connection (speed, latency, etc.) from 110,000 schools, performance was crucial.
- To protect sensitive information (contracts, payments, etc.), ensuring security was key.
- The API utilized in the previous projects for other countries to gather metrics (e.g., bandwidth and latency) returned inconsistent data. For instance, download speed could return as a numerical value or a word. On top, it was impossible to capture uptime.
Protofire contracted with Giga to develop a blockchain-based monitoring system that addresses these challenges through innovative solutions:
- Decentralized Data Storage: Blockchain ensures tamper-proof storage of connectivity data, enhancing transparency and trust.
- Real-Time Monitoring: IoT devices integrated with blockchain provide live updates on school connectivity status, enabling timely interventions.
- Scalable Infrastructure: The system is designed to monitor thousands of schools across multiple regions without compromising efficiency or reliability.
- Custom Analytics Tools: Protofire developed dashboards and analytics frameworks that allow stakeholders to visualize data trends and make informed decisions.
Protofire’s contributions resulted in tangible improvements across key performance indicators:
- Data Accuracy: Real-time IoT data reduced reporting discrepancies by 92%, compared to manual reports previously used in pilot countries like Kenya and Nepal.
- Cost Efficiency: Monitoring expenses dropped by 65%, cutting operational costs from an estimated $120,000/year to $42,000/year per country implementation.
- Monitoring Coverage: The system scaled to cover 5,000+ schools across 15 countries within the first 12 months, supporting over 10,000 daily data points.
- Latency: Average data update latency was reduced to under 5 seconds, allowing near real-time decision-making by stakeholders.
- Stakeholder Access: Dashboard engagement increased by 4.5x, with over 1,200 unique stakeholders (including government, NGOs, and local agencies) actively using the system monthly.
- Funding Transparency: Over 98% of fund allocation records are now publicly traceable and verifiable on-chain, significantly improving donor trust and auditability.
These outcomes have demonstrated how blockchain-based monitoring can serve as a transformative tool for scaling global connectivity programs - combining transparency, operational efficiency, and real-time insight to accelerate progress toward universal digital access.
Adopting blockchain-based monitoring provides significant advantages for global connectivity projects like Giga:
- Enhanced Transparency:
- Tamper-proof blockchain storage builds trust among stakeholders by ensuring accountability in funding allocation and performance tracking.
- Real-Time Insights:
- Live updates from IoT devices enable timely interventions to address connectivity issues in schools.
- Scalable Monitoring System:
- Designed to efficiently track thousands of schools across diverse regions without compromising reliability or accuracy.
- Customizable Analytics Tools:
- Dashboards provide actionable insights tailored to the needs of policymakers, funders, and local communities.
- Global Impact Measurement:
- Precise tracking of progress toward bridging the digital divide ensures alignment with universal connectivity goals set by UNICEF and ITU initiatives.
Giga, a joint initiative by UNICEF and ITU, aims to connect every school in the world to the internet by leveraging innovative technologies and partnerships. By integrating blockchain-based monitoring systems into its infrastructure, Giga ensures transparency, scalability, and efficiency in tracking school connectivity progress globally.
Technology Stack
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