Can Blockchain Help Us Fight Diseases?
In the time of the coronavirus, the blockchain tech community is making efforts to shift focus to helping the world with fighting the global pandemic. We’ve witnessed blockchain projects making ambitious statements before and too many of them failed.
Will it be different this time?
Blockchain for Tough Times
The war with the virus has locked all of us inside and people have started rethinking their way of life. Traditional models of working, studying, consuming, and relaxing are no longer relevant. Everything has gone digital. We work, study, shop, and rest online. And when all of your data that you share online depends on a piece of code, one can only hope this code is secure.
First, blockchain could help us with data security issues and, by the way, proper data management has never been the healthcare industry ‘s strongest side. Blockchain technology has the potential to arrange and secure medical data for research purposes. Also, it could help researchers and patients communicate with each other in a more efficient manner and provide necessary feedback.
Secondly, blockchain could bring trust to the areas where trust is an important missing component. Take, for example, the supply chain. China has only started to recover from the pandemic, but countries all over the world are in the middle of the fight and the future of their economies is uncertain. Producing and supplying medical equipment in a timely manner is essential to kill the virus faster. But buyers and sellers need to have trust to seal the big deals. Blockchain could solve the issue of trust and transparency in the supply chain industry.
Those are just a few obvious examples. But what has already been done? Currently, two new types of apps have flooded app stores: coronavirus trackers that collect and show virus-related statistics and various apps to control people’s movements and make sure most of us stay at home. And blockchain has already managed to pitch in.
Blockchain for Healthcare
CoronaTracker is a beta-stage blockchain-powered web application that helps you stay healthy, or at least, be aware of your current situation wherever you are. Created by the open-source community, the app allows users to record their COVID-19 symptoms, monitor their condition, and also maintain a health log. Additionally, the application helps you learn more about the virus and how to deal with it in the somewhat playful form of puzzles and quizzes.
But what does blockchain have to do with that?
Coronatracker secures all the information that the user inputs by recording it on the Blockstack blockchain. This way, the user can be sure that their private data will always remain private unless they want to share it with somebody else.
And how does that help?
Well, for once installing an app like that may help relieve the hospitals from the rising number of visitors. Instead of rushing to the doctor, users with mild cases or those who are healthy can handle the situation with peace of mind. Besides, there have been way too many cases of medical data leaks — and the last thing you want to do is have your private health data compromised.
Speaking of compromised data, have you noticed how some governments got overly excited about the possibility to literally spy on their citizens under the excuse of keeping us safe?
Blockchain, Corona, and Big Brother
From hand-written notes to digital passes and QR-codes that allow their holders to go to work or grocery shopping, some countries are getting more enthusiastic about keeping an eye on their wayward citizens than others.
When we talk about blockchain, freedom is the first thing that comes to mind. In reality, that’s not always the case.
How about a blockchain app that tracks your data and sends it to the government so that they know what you’ve been up to? A group of Spanish researchers is currently working on an app that combines AI and blockchain tech in order to help governments and healthcare professionals get a handle on the pandemic.
The key feature of the app is to create digital identities for users. The app will generate private keys, just like your crypto wallet does, so people can use the app to run errands in accordance with the current situation inside their country. Basically, the app will act as a personal digital pass and, at the same time, a controlling mechanism.
The whole idea of such an application cannot help but raise lots of concerns. How will your digital ID be stored? Who else will have access to it? What will the state do with it once the pandemic is over? Data breaches and misuse of authority are common things and using modern tech to give “third-parties” more power is strange, to say the least.
The Bottom Line
Hypothetically, when it comes to helping fight the coronavirus, blockchain has great potential. The main areas of use include storing and managing medical data and bringing trust and transparency to the various business processes essential to finishing the pandemic faster. However, it would be naive to think of blockchain as a magic pill. As long as the people in charge are not using blockchain for their own interests, it may serve as a solid bridging technology that may help us recover sooner.
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Originally published at https://blog.lumiwallet.com on April 27, 2020.
