In April 2023, I took part in the 12 hours Unicorns in Tech Hackaton. Surrounded by people with the same aim of making the LGBTQ+ community safer, we gathered in groups to find digital solutions to help raise awarness and safety. The violence against LGBTQ+ is on the rise, but this is based on numbers that aren’t complete: only a fraction of crimes or discriminations are reported (to the police or NGO’s).
![](http://delphinepezivin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/VeriQR-articles-headlines.png)
Our team wanted to bring more safety to the community. We thought that one way would be to target one thing that is used to commit crimes: dating apps. We have seen crimes happened to gay people going on a date, that ended up being a trap. As it can be read on the headlines, apps aren’t safe and is still one tool often used by the LGBT community to meet new people.
![](http://delphinepezivin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/goals-1024x677.jpg)
We came up with a feature that would be available accross all platforms via a single email. The system would be secured as any security issue could be a matter of life or death for some users.
The feature is a « verified » smybol next to the user name. The innovative part is that you don’t pay to have it, but you are endorsed by other peer(s). If the user appears to be a threat, there is the possibility to withdraw your endorsement.
![](http://delphinepezivin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/VeriQR-mockup-1024x664.png)
For example, the person goes to a date or a LGBT+ event or NGO and gets the invitation from one registered and verified user. The more you are « verified », the safer it is for all. You first get a gray icon to show that you are queer. You need 2 more people to endorse you to make this icon turn lilac. We thought about a higher number but we were thinking that it might be difficult for LGBT people living in more remote areas. The question will also be: how do we start the process. Well, we would start with the people in our team and entourage and over time, the « network » will expend.
Our project got won the 2nd position during the UITHackaton:
![](http://delphinepezivin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/UITHACK-veriqr.jpg)
![](http://delphinepezivin.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/2ndplaceUIT2.jpg)
We are planning now to work more on this project in the near future.