The Bitcoin That Pulled the Double Helix Apart
This is episode 2 of The French Tech Comedy, Season 2
Episode 1 of Season 2: Your DNA Will See (and Mutate) Your Credit Card Now
For Season 1 of The French Tech Comedy (all episodes), see here.
Previously in The French Tech Comedy: In Season 2 of The French Tech Comedy, we follow characters like Japanese oncologist and bioinformatics engineer Takafumi Nagato, who is leading the lab of Bioinformatics for personalised CAR-T-therapies in a Tokyo clinic, and his patient, Chinese giant TenBa’s founder Ken Ba, a zillionaire from Shanghai. Yuki, Taka’s sister, is a French-speaking geisha, meaning “artist” in Japanese, in touch with the French Tech. She just got married to a French engineer who was working in Taka’s lab, Nono, and has secretly donated her healthy T-cells to Taka’s patient who, after his second cancer relapse, decided to try an innovative treatment called “liquid biopsy”. Indeed, Ba is becoming an expert in genomic precision medicine. In his case it is a matter of life or death. Among Yuki’s friends in the French Tech branch is Frederic Mougin, a biologist, founder of the startup Gene-i-us:
“We are developing a patient-centric tool for patients to collect, share & monetize their medical, genomics, lifestyle, IoT data with academics & pharma industry.”
Yuki had promised she would introduce Mougin to people working with Facebook Singapore; among them: Nono.
— — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — —
On a very hot, humid and sunny winter day in December, in a Singapore building called SunTech, Nono was having lunch at the Facebook cafeteria, a place with outstanding food in general, excellent Thai and Indian cuisine in particular, and a breathtaking view.
While having lunch, you can contemplate the entire bay of Singapore. Cuisine with a view. But this was nothing, compared to the dozen of fine restaurants for Facebook employees in California. Nono, as far as he was concerned, was better off in Singapore. In California, everything was huge, with only a few people but a lot of cars. Facebook executives in California seemed to affectionate empty spaces. Mougin neither got to see nor taste any of this. Nono was talking to him over his mobile phone, via Skype. The conversation had been going on for half an hour and Nono was annoyed. Things were not getting anywhere.
“ — It may not be so obvious, but our business model at Facebook is ads. We make money thanks to ads, just like Google.”
“ — But people at Facebook don’t know the value of genomic data,” answered Mougin.
Nono scoffed:
“ — Wait. Didn’t Zuck get married to a physician?”
Mougin was going on and on. Nono interrupted:
“ — OK, here is YOUR business plan. The one you should have come up with. Your platform, Gene-i-us, is working with foundations, federating each a hundred of thousands patients, with an annual budget between three to six million dollars each, right? But you only have two patents, regarding the way we can encrypt genomic data (protect patients’ privacy) and enable patients to store and browse their genomic data à la iTunes, on their mobile phone. You want patients to be able to share their data with their physician, or with a pharmaceutical company, and why not monetize their data if they want to. For us to make a profit, things have to happen via the Facebook platform, even if the biz plan is based on gratuity for patients. That’s what you call a patient-centric health care system, right?”
Mougin interrupted:
“ — Facebook is not even interested in working with pharmaceutical companies, so what you are saying is there will be no business plan, and I…”
Nono was annoyed again.
“ — Let me finish, please. Facebook is not interested in genomic data right now. It is too complicated to handle, the stuff is just plain new and needs to be handled with extra care. We are not interested in the DNA data of the patients, you are correct.”
“ — See?”, answered Mougin.
“ — But we are interested in all the data around their DNA data. The lifestyle and buying habits etc. If you bring to Facebook massive flux of data about how people live, when they eat, what kind of food, etc, it is of interest to us, of course.”
“ — But you are not interested in working with pharmaceutical companies, becoming the hub of DNA testing companies?”
“ — Too soon to tell,” answered Nono.
“ — Right now, we think only testing companies would benefit from Facebook as a hub and pharma paying for the DNA data, as you put it. But just carry on thinking along the lines of all the data about people — all, except their DNA. So?…”
“ — I don’t see what you…”
“ — Really?” Nono was ironic. He was grinning, as usual. To him, the biz model was so obvious. But it seemed that Mougin did not see it.
“ — People will not give their data to Facebook for free. In exchange, they will ask for a service. A huge service.”
“ — Which one?”, asked Mougin.
“ — You will have to take care of their DNA data. They give Facebook the non-DNA data; you help them with their DNA data in exchange. You sponsor BRCA 1-2 testing, you enable them to monetise their data with pharmaceutical companies, etc. You do that, we talk again. What do you think?”
Nono was eating quickly now, pecking a message on a second mobile phone that was on the table at the same time.
Mougin did not know if he was happy or furious. The guy had just told him he sucked at inventing biz plans. Mougin thought of himself as the Thomas Piketty of health care, no less.
“ — Apparently, neither Google nor Facebook have found the biz plan around ads for genomic precision medicine. So I guess you must be some kind of genius, Nono. Will I get to pitch Zuck or will you do it for me?” Now it was Mougin’s turn to be ironic.
Nono was not really listening. He was a problem solver. The guy needed a biz plan, Yuki had told him. He just gave him one. Problem solved. Speaking of Yuki…
“ — Babe, say hi to your friend Mougin, I just gave him a biz plan that should work for us. Now, it’s up to him…”
“ — Really? Bonjour, Frederic, how are you?”
Yuki was taking a seat next to Nono at the cafeteria. She set her tray on the table. Soup, salad, green tea, fruit and yoghurt.
“ — Babe, have you tried the thai fish? It’s delicious.”
“ — — Mmmh?”, asked Yuki. She was listening to Mougin, while Nono was trying to feed her Thai fish, and as usual the French biologist was complaining about how difficult things were here in San Francisco for startups working around health care and genomics.
“ — Facebook is not going to pay for my rent at the end of the month, even if they help the foundations and patient associations I work with to raise funds. Life is so hard for entrepreneurs…”
Nono interrupted:
“ — So babe, you can thank me because I helped with your friend.”
“ — Thank you,” said Yuki.
“ — You don’t sound very convinced,” said Nono, with his usual grin.
“ — I’ve heard that a group of scientists and engineers are developing a new cryptocurrency that will pay people for their DNA test results,” said Mougin. “ — So you see, I wasn’t totally off the charts when thinking about a biz plan that would enable people to monetise their DNA data.”
While Nono and Yuki were eating, Mougin explained:
“ — You’ll soon be able to sell your genetic info for a new cryptocurrency called Luna Coin:
A group of scientists and engineers are developing a new cryptocurrency that will pay people for their DNA test results. Luna Coin is aiming to raise money through a token sale in the first quarter of 2018. The company claims the Luna Coin will be a utility token.
Millions of people are testing their DNA with kits that tell them their family history and let them examine certain health risks, all by spitting in a tube at home.
Each of those samples contains data that could be tremendously valuable to scientific researchers looking to understand diseases and discover new treatments. But many consumers are opting out of sharing their health information with the research community.
A group of scientists and engineers think they’ve found the trick to get people to opt-in: cryptocurrency.
Starting in the first quarter of 2018, users of DNA tests will be able to share their information in exchange for a virtual currency called Luna Coin. The idea is that contributors of personal data should be financially rewarded, especially if what they provide is being used to help pharmaceutical companies find and develop new drug targets.
(…)
That’s a dramatic shift away from models spearheaded by companies like 23andMe, which offer users the opportunity to share their DNA for research but do not pay them for it. Instead, 23andMe makes money by selling access to that data to pharmaceutical makers like Genentech.
To flip the model, Luna Coin is playing into the emerging craze around cryptocurrencies. Following the surging popularity of bitcoin, hundreds of digital currencies have been created for all sorts of niche economies, from gaming and digital entertainment to buying and selling legal cannabis.
They all use blockchain technology, a way to securely and transparently track transactions without relying on a fiat currency.(…)
There are plenty of potential stumbling blocks on the way to making Luna Coin a success. For one, the project is planning a token sale in the first quarter of next year and will have to contend with an unclear set of regulations. (…)
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has started looking into so-called initial coin offerings, or ICOs, a type of fundraising that’s attracted more than $3.6 billion in capital this year, according to Autonomous Next. ICOs were virtually unheard of before 2017.
(…) the Luna Coin will be a utility coin, meaning that it’s designed for a specific purpose and not as an investment or security.
However, (…) when it comes to utility tokens, many of these assertions appear to elevate form over substance. In other words, the SEC will be looking for characteristics of securities in future offerings.
Merely calling a token a ‘utility’ token or structuring it to provide some utility does not prevent the token from being a security (…).
Luna DNA isn’t the first project in the market to encourage data sharing by offering financial rewards to consumers. The so-called “biorights” movement has emerged in the past few years to offer cash payments to consumers in exchange for their DNA.
But crypto is a new twist.
Another challenge for Luna and other companies that are building health databases is a lack of diversity. Researchers are hungry for genetic information from people of African and Latin American descent as well as those with native or indigenous ancestry. In total, those groups represent only about 4 percent of all genomic samples, according to an analysis in Nature.”
Nono had been paying attention, while finishing his caffe latte. At the same time, he was searching through WeChat and Taobao.
“ — Wait Babe, your brother wants to talk to me. He says it is urgent.”
Nono told Mougin he would be back for another Skype session later, as he needed to go back to work now. Taka couldn’t wait to get in touch with Nono. He just got a message from Ba. And Ba was furious. His genetic data had just been introduced to the stock market. Taka had found out about this early this morning, and had informed Ba immediately. In theory, there was no way the DNA mutation data that just got introduced on the stock market by a pharmaceutical company could be traced back to the owner of the data. In theory. But the patient was Ba. If journalists ever learned about this, and about Ba’s cancer…
Nono was still in the cafeteria, talking to Taka. Yuki’s brother was panicking, but the French engineer was his usual: calm and factual. He said to Yuki:
“ — Can you arrange for Mougin to talk to your brother?”
“ — Nono, I’m not your secretary.”
“ — You need to get in touch with Mougin, Babe. Taka needs his IPs now. We don’t want a Ba gate, and TenBa losing market value.”
“ — But why?”
“ — What do you mean, why?”
“ — Why do you want Mougin to talk to Taka?”
“ — He just said that Gene-i-us has tools for additional protection of genetic data, thanks to their second IP. We need to boost Mougin’s technology, now. Singapore is the Mecca of patents and IP. This can be done here.”
“ — But what does this have to do with that Luna cryptocurrency story you guys were talking about — the Bitcoin that is trying to pull apart the double helix? I’m confused.”
“ — Why are you confused, babe?”
“ — Isn’t Bitcoin supposed to disrupt the stock exchange? I mean, does it need to disrupt the stock exchange to pull apart the double helix?”
“ — She’s got a point,” answered Taka.
“ — Or maybe I’m just being paranoid,” said Yuki.
There was silence.
Catherine Coste
MITx 7.00x, 7.QBWx, 7.28x1–2 certified
Member of the Walking Gallery of Health Care, founded by US activist Regina Holliday
