Solving Real-World Problems Using Blockchain
Emerging tech companies tackling privacy, healthcare, and other urgent issues with blockchain-backed fresh thinking
Applications of blockchain technology are moving from concepts and ideas to real-world solutions that can transform the way we live, work, play, and learn.
The Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio (OEBVS), a partnership between R/GA Ventures, Moda, Umpqua Bank, Business Oregon, Consensys, Portland State University, OHSU, and Smith + Crown, has brought together strategic partners and emerging technology companies. The goal: to nurture a blockchain-based ecosystem to develop solutions to serve local and national US, along with global markets.
The participating companies — Brave, Chronicled, Concord, Everest, Patientory, and qiibee — elevate the program’s key interests including community initiatives, digital health records, supply chain, ad and media technology, identity management, back-office processes, and HR tools.
We sat down with the founders leading the Studio’s emerging tech companies to get their takes on the opportunity, and hurdles, to blockchain’s growth and the potential to impact people’s lives, businesses, and industries.
Since many industries lack shared systems to communicate, transact, and enforce cross-business interaction seamlessly, Susan Somerville, CEO of Chronicled, is leveraging blockchain technology to improve the way global supply chains operate.
Cryptocurrencies are inspiring new blockchain applications. What enterprise use cases is Chronicled exploring?
We are focused on solving problems in the Pharmaceutical and Life Science industries. Our current work enables companies involved in the prescription medicine supply chain to verify the products are authentic. We are also working on the complicated management of the financial transactions associated with the movement of medicine, to enable all the parties involved to work from the same data. We have prototypes of solutions required to meet US regulations in the near future that will track and trace medicines in the event of suspect products. We think blockchain can eliminate counterfeit and diversion of, so we are pretty excited about what the future holds.
Patientory’s blockchain-based token is a digital currency that uses advanced encryption techniques to securely store and manage health information in real-time. Chrissa McFarlane, CEO of Patientory, wants to spur the adoption of emerging technologies specifically for the healthcare industry.
How does using blockchain align with your brand purpose?
For those who may be unfamiliar with blockchain technology, we emphasize that with Patientory, patients are people first. Treating them holistically requires using insights from clinical and non-clinical data.
To achieve this, Patientory utilizes blockchain technology that is managed by distributing nodes, each of which contains a copy of the file and requires users to agree to changes. The more nodes there are in the chain, the stronger the base. This setup makes blockchain less susceptible to hacking. Since the entire care team can view a patient’s health history, providers are much less likely to rerun tests. This approach also keeps costs to go down and gives the patients having more control over their healthcare data.
Luke Mulks, Director of Business Development of Brave Software, sees blockchain technology as the perfect gateway to push the advertising industry forward. New token-based economic models can help make advertising a more transparent experience for users, such as blocking trackers and issuing blockchain-based tokens to reward content creators.
What’s the key to educating enterprises about blockchain technology?
Help make them aware that blockchain technology is a better database that provides much more value. The amount of report reconciliation and time spent having multiple vendors chase the same metric (while collecting data) creates a monthly headache for all sides of operations and sales. Having a verifiable source of truth for everyone involved will free up resources from reconciliation, allowing them to focus on more productive work.
The second challenge with enterprises depends on their comfort level around blockchain-based assets and cryptocurrency. Depending on where the company is located and the regulatory bodies involved, some companies may be more cautious. It’s all a matter of education and having more working product in the real world.
Educating consumers can prove difficult. There aren’t a ton of great resources out there (that aren’t biased), the space moves quickly, and the solutions are technically sophisticated. That said, an emphasis on how these models provide rewards and people being somewhat familiar with tokens helps with communication. The message has to be simple, and easy to understand. The value is there.
qiibee aims to boost customer retention by setting the global standard for loyalty on the blockchain. Gabriele Giancola, CEO of qiibee, argues that blockchain is the best solution for data privacy, access, and management.
How is your company leveraging blockchain technology to innovate in data security and management?
As it creates an unchanging information ledger, blockchain will replace things like usernames and passwords with personalized, encrypted digital identities that we can use to handle everything from internet data to our private medical records.
In theory, this might look like the protection of private privacy with blockchain. The issue is, are we really prepared to build our own digital watermark for blockchain? And can we trust it to maintain our private data secure?
As for qiibee, we don’t take any user data at all. If a user downloads our app and creates a wallet, with a four-to-six digit pin, he or she can instantly start to collect tokens. Using blockchain means we do not need to verify that the user with this password and this email is the rightful owner of these tokens, but whoever has the private key to the wallet is also automatically the owner of the tokens.
In an alternative point of view, Susan Somerville of Chronicled says blockchain as a transparency solution doesn’t apply to corporate businesses interested in strategically concealing their data.
“Blockchain has been touted as the solution to transparency — but in actual business, data has value, and no one is interested in sharing their trade secrets. We believe that company data belongs to them, and so are designing solutions that enable cross-company rule enforcement while allowing companies to only share data with the companies they choose to.”
Brad Witteman, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer of Everest, recognized that there are 1.1B people without verification of identity, 2.6B people without a bank account, and 5B people without a smartphone. Everest’s platform creates verifiable identity, secure value exchange, and transparent accounting by giving IDs to people who do not have one.
What are some misconceptions in the blockchain space?
There are a few, including:
- “If you use blockchain, you are using cryptocurrency.” There is no direct association between using a blockchain or a token and being a cryptocurrency. That is only one implementation of the technology.
- “If you use blockchain you are using Bitcoin.” There are many different blockchains now with varying abilities. Bitcoin was merely the first one to gain mass-market coverage.
- “Blockchains aren’t secure.” As a foundation for a trust platform, the blockchain, and its immutability is ideal.
- “Blockchains are wasteful.” Proof of Work (PoW) blockchains are the most energy intensive, and Proof of Authority (PoA) is the least. Everest uses PoA consensus on the two private Ethereum chains in use in our platform.
Concord’s mission is to restore trust in the broken data-driven ecosystem. Dashiell Lavine, its CEO, helps businesses adapt to a privacy-oriented data economy through technological and economic incentives built in its platform.
A number of large brands are betting on Blockchain this year. How are you going to help Studio Partners in the Oregon Enterprise Blockchain Venture Studio realize the full potential of blockchain tech?
Transparency, control, and equitable exchange of data are key to a true privacy-friendly future. Our focus when it comes to bringing value to the Studio Partners is helping them along that journey. As we are building an economy of exchanging consent, that creates ongoing incentives for people that grow with the market and encourages continued participation over time. At the same time, companies like the Studio Partners gain access to better engagement, conversions, and retention led by access to better data and regulation ready consent controls. Marketing and personalized experiences will be more effective, not less, and customers will become more engaged as trust increases and that value exchange is enabled.
Join us at Portland State University on October 8th for the OEBVS Demo Day. Learn from industry experts during a panel on “Decentralization & Incentivization: How Blockchain is Changing the Business Landscape” and hear pitches from each of the six participating companies.
