Medicalchain at the European Commission
It was a great honour for Medicalchain to be invited to the European Commission in Brussels for the second time in two months.
At the end of January 2018, Ms Eva Kaili a Member of the European Parliament, and a leading voice for implementing blockchain technology, invited us to share our thoughts and experiences of Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) to a working group being hosted at the European Commission. The European Commission had begun the process of submitting a resolution to be voted on in Parliament and were seeking experiences and perspectives from a broad range of domains. I addressed the Committee of Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) after being recommended to the committee as a leader in the application of health blockchain technology by the Joint Research Centre (JRC) of the European Parliament.
The aims of this resolution are to help set new legislation that will support blockchain initiatives and remove outdated legal barriers that were not designed for the paradigm shift blockchain technology brings. Moreover, it also provides a framework for resource planning, inter-institutional activity, international affairs and outreach activities that will benefit companies using blockchain. Medicalchain feels that these initiatives are critical for the blockchain industry, and are actively involved in trying to help shape and further these efforts by promoting the benefits of blockchain to governments and regulators, so that they can help propel these ideas forwards. Today, the European Union’s (EU) stance is positive regarding blockchain companies but this should be seen as distinct from their views on cryptocurrencies and Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).
One of the messages we delivered to the Committee meeting was the importance of the EU to engage with reputable ICOs, the cryptocurrency market and cryptocurrency exchanges. Blockchain companies are using ICOs as a way to raise funds, and it would be wrong to ignore this aspect of the current climate; instead regulators should seek to engage stakeholders and issue sensible regulations that don’t stifle innovation, while still upholding strong retail consumer protections.
Medicalchain is already listed on five exchanges; Huobi, KuCoin, Qryptos, Coinbene and Gate.io, and is engaging in ongoing discussions with other renowned exchanges. We feel that cryptocurrency exchanges need to be scrutinised to the same degree as ICOs, if not more, due to the sheer volume of cryptocurrency and fiat that they manage. As a result of the lax regulatory environment, exchanges should not be above reproach, demonstrate transparency and hold themselves to higher standards in their actions. There have been well-documented controversies with exchanges in the past with an attempted hacking of Binance, the world’s largest exchange in March and a successful attack on the Japanese exchange Coincheck, where over $500 million was stolen.
Medicalchain sees itself as an advocate of blockchain technology and wants to support blockchain infrastructure as it matures by helping to eliminate any negativity associated with blockchain companies, such as rogue ICOs and exchanges that engage in unethical practices.
After participating in these exciting conversations, we were again invited to the European Commision at the beginning of March 2018, as a headline to the prestigious event titled ‘Towards a Health Research and Innovation Cloud’ in Brussels. Researchers and scientists from around the world gathered at this event to focus on the challenges in sharing health data and performing analytics on cloud solutions.
My presentation gave a brief overview of what Medicalchain is, our objectives and our long-term goals. I covered the challenges to implementation and ongoing resistance to adopting blockchain technology, largely fuelled by negative associations. The audience was made up of professors and world-leading researchers, and they had a great array of questions following our presentation . In particular, they were intrigued about the use of smart contracts in the context of healthcare.
Visiting Brussels has become a real joy for myself, as it is at these times that I feel that Medicalchain has already started to make a difference. Our voice and thoughts are being heard both in the EU and internationally. It is a privilege to be invited to help shape European legislation, as well as to share and debate opinions with some of our continent’s leading healthcare minds. It has been a humbling experience and one I will never take for granted.
My ambition is that as Medicalchain begins to grow in stature and deliver on our ambitions, we will be included in more high profile events with government officials, not just in Europe, but in the Far East, Northern America and the rest of the world.
