DeBio: The Anonymous-First Appchain for Medical and Bioinformatic Data
Octopus Network Showcase Day 2021
Octopus Network has recently launched a series of introductory videos to the Octopus Network and projects building on it. This week we will take a look the presentation CEO of Decentralised Bio Network Pandu Sastrowardoyo gave on DeBio, a platform that allows to anonymously control and monetise one’s genetic and biomedical data.
“Here’s our big idea: We’d like to allow you to control and monetise your biomedical data anonymously and do this on a Web3 permissionless platform. For some people, their DNA might be their most valuable data, so why not own it?” — Pandu Sastrowardoyo
The Problem that DeBio Solves
The idea of creating a platform to anonymously control and monetise genetic and biomedical data comes from the desire to give back people ownership over their assets and enhance their agency. As Pandu explains:
“Currently companies own biomedical data that as centralised entities gain more and more control and create more risk. Singapore’s electronic medical record for example got hacked in 2018 and even their prime minister’s data was taken”. — Pandu Sastrowardoyo
Data is a highly valuable resource that is sought after by a variety of players, for this reason, it is a big source of income for companies that own it.
“47% of people are highly concerned about protecting their DNA privacy, and a platform that addresses this concern will turn challenges into opportunities. We are trying to democratise direct-to-consumer genetics and biomedical testing, we want to empower labs of all sizes to directly access consumers through our digital platform. We would like to provide anonymous first at home biomedical testing, and finally, we would like to create a data marketplace based on privacy computing”. — Pandu Sastrowardoyo
How Does DeBio Work?
The way DeBio works is very straightforward. By interacting with a dApp users are able to access the testing service and control through it all the stages of their swab test as shown in the picture below.
There are various actions that users can perform on DeBio. They can record all their medical records, book services such as Covid-19 tests, and tests for heredity, rare conditions, population genetics, or pharmacogenetics, all while maintaining their privacy. On top of that, it allows users to monetize their unique genetics in a still-anonymous, sovereign way.
“Here’s the key: We offset the expensive cost of the testing by allowing users to stake their data into a privacy preserving data record place which aggregates the data and sells it and users get DeBio tokens in return. So, they pay with stablecoin, and get DeBio in return.” — Pandu Sastrowardoyo
DeBio Roadmap
DeBio’s development is advancing fast, and in February of this year the project won the ETH Denver Hackathon with their Ethereum prototype. In May they launched on Octopus and received $250K of funds, and the next months will be see an extensive expansion and onboarding of doctors that will culminate in the Octopus Mainnet launch this October.
LaDevochka is a writer for 4NTS Guild. You can check out their Medium for more content or follow them on Twitter.
