Author: Jacob Dunn

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Blockchain Financial Services Healthcare

Q&A with Ahmed Yassin of Avrio Invest

I recently sat down with Ahmed Yassin, founder of Saudi Arabian blockchain investment firm Avrio Invest. Blockchain in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a relatively new phenomenon, but something which Assin believes will help the Gulf state modernize rapidly in the face of a changing global economy. Initially set up as a real estate investment fund, Avrio Invest together with Espeo Software now has ambitious plans to bring the significant cost-cutting aspects to the healthcare and government sectors.

Thanks for taking the time to talk to me today. What sparked your interest in blockchain initially and especially in real estate tokenization?

[There was a] real estate market collapse in Saudi Arabia in 2017 and then that’s when I came up with the idea of tokenizing real estate through the blockchain because of the benefit from creating a real estate fund through the blockchain. First of all, it opens the doors to foreign investment, which means investors don’t have to open a company in Saudi Arabia to own real estate and to develop real estate. We will obviously take that burden as Avrio Invest.

The difference between a blockchain fund versus a banking real estate fund is that there’s a minimum buy-in when you enter a real estate fund through a bank that could be $100,000 and it could be a $1 million to launch. With blockchain it can be as much or as little — it can be $100. So this opens the door to everyone. You know in Saudi Arabia you have to understand it’s a population of 31 million — not everybody can afford real estate. Real estate was really limited to middle and higher-income earners.

This solution opens the door to pretty much every type of income. And that’s how it came. So initially Avrio Invest was purely a blockchain real estate investment firm, but as time went on we started realizing no, it doesn’t necessarily have to just be real estate. It could be the medical sector and supply chain. It could be the governmental sector in regards to governmental services. And now it’s growing into something bigger than what we originally anticipated.

What are some of the key opportunities for the real estate market in Saudi Arabia? I know you mentioned that cryptocurrency allows more people to enter this market what other opportunities are there?

When we first started this, we needed to make sure that any of this was legal. In Saudi Arabia, we have what’s called shariah compliance. You have common law and religious law. I needed to find out if I tokenize real estate would this be legal. We couldn’t find a lawyer who understood blockchain for almost three months with help from Espeo — we had to get legal advice from the UAE. We found out that because the Avrio token would be backed by a real estate asset, it falls under shariah. Bitcoin is illegal because it’s not backed by anything. Avrio coin is legal because it’s backed by a tangible asset that can be liquidated at any time. This was one of our breakthroughs.

Saudi Arabia blockchain
Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

In regards to other opportunities, we’re confronting the Ministry of Health right now to turn it into a law where every hospital, every clinic, every insurance company, every pharmacy is on the blockchain so that the companies can keep track of everything the country can keep track of everything. There’s a huge opioid epidemic and there’s a huge epidemic in loss of records. Basically, hospitals are not communicating with each other. So there’s a long list of issues.

In Saudi Arabia, medical care is by law. If you’re an employee, you need to have it. You have insurance companies that are losing money. We strongly believe that the blockchain will solve the issue that Saudi Arabia has and this also falls in Vision 2030, which is to reorganize the medical sector. There’s a lot of money being lost by the government, by the hospitals, by the industry itself as a whole and we believe that this is a solution to the point where we’ve already started talks with the government in regards to this.

And there is interest in this but one of the biggest issues that we’re facing is that nobody knows what blockchain is. When you go to Dubai or Bahrain and you talk to people and you open the subject of blockchain at least two out of ten people will understand exactly what blockchain is most people will refer to bitcoin. In Saudi Arabia, zero. Nobody knows what it is. So we see that our biggest obstacle right now the worst thing is educating the market. We’re invested in marketing just to educate. If you look at our promotion videos, they’re purely educational, not on the product development level.

There’s bigger awareness for blockchain. When I registered the company in 2017, I didn’t think I was going to invest so much time and money in the project as I have. I thought it was just an idea and i didn’t know if it was going to materialize. It wasn’t until mid-2018 we realized, no this is something that has the potential to change the market. Because it really falls into Vision 2030, which is the most important thing right now. If companies are not in compliance with Vision 2030, they won’t succeed. Every aspect of Avrio fits into the vision of His Royal Highness Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman.

How do you see blockchains changing Saudi Arabia in the next ten years? You’re removing a lot of the middlemen, right?

I believe it will be a huge contributor to both foreign investment and governmental services in regards to the medical, the educational sectors. I believe it will have a huge impact. In regards to the speed, that’s a delicate question. Although Avrio Invest is moving very quickly, you don’t know how the market will respond to it. At the end of the day, you’re speaking Chinese. You’re literally changing the way people do things.

In real estate, you’re going to receive a lot of tension because you’re removing a lot of the middlemen. removing the banks pretty much. Unless the bank gets on board. The problem is that this is a perfect solution for any bank. Yet they’re very slow. If you look at it in the United States or in Europe, banks are moving very slowly for some reason, which I find mind-boggling. Bankers tend to be very pessimistic on the technology and that’s because it risks putting them in an awkward position. The beauty of blockchain is that we validate, everything is transparent. So our biggest obstacle is with the bank. However, we’re very optimistic because one of the banks that we’re in talks with is co-owned by the government.

And we have a huge relationship with them because one of the companies I’m consulting for has the biggest real estate fund which is through a major local bank. But this is still early stages. We see the banks adapting to it really quickly. Our biggest obstacle. I would say for the real estate sector is basically the government approving the coin — the Avrio token.

You also mentioned discussions with the Saudi Ministry of Health, what sort of solutions do you hope to offer?

In regard to the Ministry of Health, it’s still at a very early-stage discussion. I’ll give you one example. When I was living in Canada or in the UK. Let’s say you go to a doctor and he will give you a paper slip. Then you go to to the pharmacy, the pharmacist would take that slip and give you the medicine. In Saudi Arabia, the pharmacies don’t take the prescription slip. So what the person does is he’ll go to several different pharmacies and buy several boxes. And then you have an issue.

Blockchain I believe will solve this issue. If the whole healthcare system is on the blockchain. For example, if a doctor decides to prescribe you a medication, he doesn’t give you a piece of paper, he puts it on the blockchain. All the pharmacies in Saudi Arabia would be connected to it. Once the pharmacies have given you your medication, it will be validated that a certain medication has been given to a specific person. You get the idea.

So people hoard medication? Or turn around and sell it?

Yes. In Saudi Arabia, the hospitals are not in contact with each other. You’ll have a patient go to one hospital and get treatment. A week later, he’ll go to another hospital and get medication again. One treatment contradicts the other and unfortunately, you have a death.

Connecting all of the hospitals, insurance companies, all of the pharmacies This is something the government needs to implement. I believe it will solve this issue when the whole healthcare system is on the blockchain.

What challenges does Saudi Arabia face in leveraging blockchain technology?

Saudi Arabia has to catch up. In a sense, we’re trying to outdo the UAE in blockchain implementation. And I think Saudi Arabia will succeed. We have the economy to do it. When we started Avrio Invest, though we realized that we wouldn’t be able to have anybody to code because there’s nobody inside Saudi Arabia to code. One of our biggest issues is that were not able to find any nationals to write blockchain code. Great programmers will make or break your company. That’s why we decided to partner with Espeo.

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Blockchain Financial Services

What you need to know about ERC token standards

Making sense of the ERC token types and what they do can be a bit confusing. Different token standards enable different features. From representing ownership of an asset to making trading easier, tokens are an integral part of any decentralized application. The utility of the Ethereum protocol is that it allows developers to build dApps on top of the underlying blockchain.

Unlike Bitcoin, which primarily functions as a payment system On the other hand, Ethereum opens up other use cases for blockchain technology. Business cases so far have tended to focus on intangibles such as cryptocurrency, transferring medical records or tokenizing digital assets. However, tokens can also stand in for of physical assets, such as real estate and luxury goods, or power supply chain tracking platforms. Each type of digital token serves a slightly different function and understanding the difference between ERC token standards can help you decide which one is best for your blockchain project.

Tokenizing assets is one of the main value propositions of the Ethereum blockchain. Smart contracts need cryptographic tokens to function. Gas — paid in the form of ETH tokens fuels the transactions on the Ethereum network. While the two most common types are the ERC-20 and ERC-721, others are emerging with new features and improvements. In this post, I’ll look at the main types and examine the use cases as well as the pros and cons of each.

ERC-20

Among the most common and functional ERC token types is the ERC-20. These were very popular in ICO projects because they made it easier to create and distribute tokens directly to user wallets. Additionally, end-users can freely trade and use them within token economies.  Simple functions allow developers to limit the total supply — a key consideration in a tokenomics model and allow users to transfer tokens easily. Smart contracts verify user funds and approve the transactions before finally writing the transaction to the blockchain. Inside the system, the tokens are of equal value and users can exchange them freely for other tokens.

These fungible digital tokens enable platforms to issue tokens users need to access a service. Like a kilo of wheat or a barrel of oil, fungible tokens are worth the same as other tokens in the ecosystem. This equal value encourages token users to earn and spend freely. One example Espeo helped develop is the derivatives trading app CloseCross (pictured above) which issues tokens that allow users to place bets on derivatives contracts.

For a case study of the CloseCross project, read more here.

Users pay in a number of tokens to place a bet and receive tokens back when they win. This, of course, provides an incentive for end-users but also helps power the system as a whole. Because it’s a trading ecosystem, we decided to implement ERC-20 tokens in the tokenomics model. CloseCross wants users to win and spend their tokens to access a service and sustain the dApp, not hoard them away.

ERC-20 Pros:

  • Widely used token standard and supported by a majority of exchange and wallets
  • Supported by most exchanges and wallets
  • Good for trading applications where fungibility is important

ERC-20 Cons:

  • High gas costs
  • UX has led some to send coins to smart contracts instead of crypto wallets.
ERC token standards

ERC-721

One of the other common ERC token standards is the ERC-721. Unlike the ERC-20, ERC-721 tokens are non-fungible. In other words, each token has a different value in the system. While ERC-20 tokens are the same value and act as currency on the platform, ERC-721 tokens are not. The point of these is to create unique, rare or editioned assets. ERC-721 tokens allow developers to tokenize assets of different values. The most famous example is the Ethereum dApp CryptoKitties.

Each cryptographic piece of digital art had unique features which gave them value. Some features are more desirable than others. While CryptoKitties got its fair share of ridicule, it demonstrates some of the usefulness of blockchain and of asset tokenization. Digital artists, for example, can use ERC-721 tokens to protect their original work from unauthorized copies.  

With ERC-721 tokens artists are able to tokenize digital work — creating cryptographic scarcity and protecting its value. Several startups such as Maecenas and Artory are already tokenizing physical art to ease provenance studies and facilitate sales. Outside of the art world, other firms such as Streetwire are tokenizing real estate for similar benefits. Essentially, ERC-721 tokens facilitate the transfer of unique assets. Development in

ERC-721 Pros:

In one of our product design workshops for our client Luxtrack, we developed a tokenomics model incorporating the ERC-721 token on their anti-counterfeit luxury goods platform. The token allows users to seamlessly buy and sell second-hand luxury items and be confident that the items are not knock-offs. Luxtrack tokens provide a scalable way for the company to build trust and expand a market rife with abuse. ERC-721 tokens enable the company to reassure consumers that the products they buy are authentic.

  • Allow artist to edition their work
  • Non-fungible tokens enable platforms that rely on scarcity and value to trade
  • Represent ownership of investments rather than functional tokens

ERC 721 Cons:

  • Slow adoption
  • Tricky to get UI/UX right

ERC-223

While this one is not a fully supported digital token, this token type addresses several of the UX shortcomings of other ERC token standards. Many people have sent coins to the wrong wallet address or worse, to a smart contract, losing those coins forever. Though many crusty developers might say it’s end-users’ fault for sending tokens to the wrong address, it could limit broad adoption among the general public. These unfriendly design features might turn non-technical people away.   

In short, the proposed ERC-223 alerts users who accidentally send tokens to a smart contract address and cancels the transaction. Users still pay the gas cost but save their ETH. Amigocoin is one of the only projects currently using the ERC-223

ERC-223 Pros:

  • Proposes friendly UX features that protect users from loss of funds
  • Backward compatible with ERC-20 token standard
  • Half the gas cost of ERC-20 tokens

ERC-223 Cons:

  • Not widely accepted by the Ethereum community
  •  Incompatible with many wallets

ERC-777

Just as the ERC-227 offers bug fixes for the ERC-20 token standard, the ERC-777 digital token proposes still more ways to improve blockchain usability. This digital token adds several more functions to the popular ERC-20 token standard. One of the most innovative is the option to mint or burn tokens, which may be a necessary feature depending on a project’s tokenomics model.  Of all the ERC token types, this one may also make the transfer of tokens much simpler.

Of course, as with the other more obscure ERC token standards, few projects have actually decided to implement the protocol. However, Ethereum applications could benefit from better design and more user-friendly options.

ERC-777 Pros:

  • Proposes improved usability

ERC-777 Cons:

  • Not widely accepted

Conclusion

As more and more ERC token standards emerge, each one will roll out new features and bug fixes for the existing tokens. Choosing which digital token to use in your blockchain project is essential to ensure your platform delivers the most value to end-users. Whether you’re launching an STO or tokenizing medical records, getting the tokenomics right is a vital step to launch a successful product.

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Healthcare Technology

IoT in healthcare: blockchain use cases and why they matter

Medical IoT devices are great at monitoring patient health and overall fitness. These sleek wearables make it easier to monitor vital signs and help doctors make much faster diagnoses. Connected devices that track pharmaceuticals from reputable sources through the supply chain is also a major opportunity for the healthcare industry. Sounds great right? But with these features, you also need strong guarantees that the data is accurate and untampered with. Blockchain-enabled IoT devices could take advantage of the seamless data exchange IoT offers while also improving healthcare for all.

IoT in healthcare

While IoT devices have been around for a while in many sectors, the rise of wearable — and even ingestible IoT devices are increasingly being put to work in healthcare. As the pace of innovation surges ahead, however, privacy advocates are raising concerns over the data these devices collect. Consumer trust in Big Data is waning as high-profile scandals haunt the big players. Incorporating the trust-building features of blockchain technology may encourage broad adoption of these devices. Blockchain IoT use cases might inject a little more trust into the industry.

Advances in medical technology often mean better tools and more responsive care. In healthcare systems across the world, new tech is helping healthcare professionals deliver better outcomes to their patients. Internet of things devices connect to the internet, collect data, and communicate with each other. In healthcare, these often monitor key health data.

On one hand, IoT medical devices offer patients and doctors new avenues for interaction — and have saved lives. But on the other hand, these devices collect a lot of sensitive data. Security and confidentiality should be top concerns, but many companies have proven incapable of protecting it. Blockchain IoT use cases surrounding robust data protection and integrity can help secure these devices, putting patients in control of who uses this data and for what purpose.

Secure remote patient monitoring

Within the healthcare industry, IoT falls into two categories. These are clinical services and support operations. On the clinical services side, IoT is helping to improve remote patient monitoring, or RPM. RPM features are perhaps the most compelling blockchain IoT use cases in healthcare. Wearable IoT devices also aid clinical trials by tracking vital signs among other indicators such as blood sugar, heart rate or weight.

Swiss medtech startup HIT foundation is already using blockchain technology to facilitate clinical trials, protect medical data, and make sure users know how their data is being used. While it’s not an IoT application per se, one possibility could be to integrate wearable or ingestible IoT devices that continually broadcast patient data during a clinical trial. This would not only provide researchers with verifiable data, but it also gives participants a clear idea of how researchers will use the data and for how long.

With blockchain-enabled IoT devices, end-users can control access to the data the devices collect. By granting and revoking access to sensitive medical data, users can be sure it’s being used appropriately. Blockchain technology in healthcare not only makes medical devices more difficult to hack, but they also can show a detailed record of when another party accesses your data. Consumers concerned with data privacy and companies seeking to better secure their data handling could incorporate blockchain into IoT devices.

Supply chain

Along with more secure remote patient monitoring in medical IoT devices, the drug supply chain is another of several blockchain IoT use cases. Pharma fraud is a major threat to the integrity of the global pharmaceutical industry — and to patient health. Just as you might use a blockchain IoT system to track food provenance, tracking pharmaceuticals through the supply chain would be one possibility for blockchain IoT.

Devices that constantly communicate the location, origin and temperature conditions of pharmaceuticals could have profound impacts on the industry. This would not only reduce waste but would also give regulators and consumers a trustworthy safety guarantee.

In 2018 Swiss Post launched a program using blockchain and IoT that tracks the temperature stability of pharmaceuticals shipped in the mail. The carrier ensures temperature-sensitive drugs such as insulin remain within an acceptable temperature range on its journey to patients. Blockchain technology allows Swiss Post to track the data and also share it with insurers and customers.

iot in healtcare

Establishing trust

Since blockchains keep a tamper-proof record of transactions, it’s much easier to see where your data is going and for how long. Blockchains IoT use cases have clear applications in the medical sector. Blockchain tools can help automate processes in the healthcare sphere. Introducing some transparency between all the stakeholders will improve the industry. More trustworthy sharing of medical data and pharmaceutical supply chains will improve the way patients, doctors, and other stakeholders interact with each other.

As new IoT device manufacturers continue to roll out IoT devices, the need for better data handling is increasingly important. Consumers and privacy watchdogs want to ensure sensitive medical data is properly secured. Blockchain IoT use cases in medtech will do just that.

Conclusion

IoT devices are proliferating in the medtech industry. These devices help medical professionals and patients track their health and monitor vital signs in real-time. IoT devices can also help track pharmaceuticals through the supply chain and verify authenticity. But among the most important blockchain IoT use cases is blockchain’s ability to establish trust in the healthcare industry.

Blockchain’s promise is in its built-in trust mechanism. For IoT devices, this means patients can grant or limit access to their sensitive data, even revoke it if they wish. For ll the complexities of the healthcare market, IoT and blockchain can work together to come up with new ways to make the industry more efficient and responsive to patient needs. It’s up to us to find the best ways to implement it.

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Blockchain Software

Swiss medtech startup HIT Foundation puts users in control of health data

Switzerland is a hotbed of medical technology. As Europe’s leading Medtech hub, the Alpine nation hits well above its weight in the sector. Favorable business conditions and a deep talent pool set Switzerland apart as an economic hotspot in the region. Blockchain is sparking intense interest in Medtech. Many blockchain healthcare startups are developing new uses for the technology.

New blockchain use cases in healthcare are emerging in Crypto Valley. One startup working on this is the HIT foundation based in Zug, Switzerland. The company aims to connect clinical researchers with individuals willing to share their medical data. I spoke to CTO Vega Paithankar about the project.


blockchain healthcare startups

Crypto Valley

A 2018 report from Switzerland Global Enterprise cited a serious commitment to R&D as well as proximity to financial centers and VCs as major factors contributing to Switzerland’s outsized influence. From this favorable Swiss ecosystem, blockchain healthcare startups have a place to try new things and develop into global businesses. From pharmaceutical supply chain management to better patient privacy, blockchain healthcare startups are poised to drive innovation in an industry in need of change.

Espeo’s Blockchain Business Development Manager Paweł Sobotkowski agrees and cited precision in medical research as one factor behind the booming Medtech industry in Switzerland.

“Investor interest in medical technology is growing as multinational companies — and the experts they attract flock here,” said Sobotkowski. “Medicine is often overshadowed by the much bigger finance and fintech sector. However, many projects such as HIT Foundation are implementing blockchain in healthcare and resolving complex problems that impact wider society.”


Medtech in Switzerland

As a center of the pharmaceutical industry, research is a top priority for the major players. However, clinical trials increasingly lack a diverse sample group due to a lack of trust over data handling. Medical data researchers collect meanwhile, is difficult to access and not uniform. Siloed data holds medical research back and makes it more expensive to conduct clinical trials. A blockchain platform that rewards users for sharing anonymized medical data promises to change that.


As medical data becomes increasingly digital, the risk of leaked or mishandled sensitive medical data only increases. Swiss blockchain healthcare startup, HIT Foundation has launched an app that connects researchers seeking medical data with people willing to share. In addition to making clinical studies easier to organize, users will realize the value of their medical data and empower them to take back control of it.


Those seeking data can send out a request for medical information and users can control who uses it. HIT foundation uses the NEM blockchain platform to create a space to tokenize and share medical data. The HIT platform also creates a token ecosystem that rewards people who share their data.

I spoke to HIT Foundation CTO Vega Paithankar to get a glimpse inside the startup’s blockchain use cases in healthcare:

What inspired you to get into crypto and the blockchain industry?

I first learned about bitcoin in 2011 while working as a software engineer in California, and I got quite interested in the technology and how it bypasses the problems of digital payment systems — especially when it comes to censorship and cross-border payments.


The idea of decentralized money that’s independent of governments and the banking industry is empowering and has the potential to solve many problems in the world.


Unfortunately, I wasn’t interested enough to actually go and buy any bitcoin at the time. But I still stayed interested in this topic and the more I researched it, the more I realized that was definitely the type of project that I want to be involved in.


What does HIT use blockchain to do?

HIT Foundation is a decentralized marketplace for health information. We use the blockchain as a platform for researchers to say, ‘we’re looking for patients who fit a certain profile.’ We let the user decide whether they agree with the purpose of the request and whether they trust the organization that’s asking for it.

For example, if it’s a university hospital you might be more inclined to contribute your data than if it’s a health insurance or a marketing company. Blockchain is the broadcast medium to send out these requests.

Health information is extremely valuable and privacy-sensitive. As an individual, your health data ought to belong to you, and you should have the right to decide who you share it with, for what purpose, and on what terms. The entire healthcare industry benefits from your data except you, and HIT Foundation aims to change that.

By using the blockchain as a global decentralized platform for posting queries for data, we allow health researchers to reach individuals that fit their desired profile and then reward those individuals who agree to provide their health data.

Which markets are you most active?

Our users come from all parts of the world. We’re working on forming partnerships with healthcare organizations in Switzerland, Vietnam, the US, and are also in talks with NGOs in Western Africa and Central America to use our platform to deliver better healthcare in communities in difficult geographies.

We don’t think health data should be confined to one country if it can benefit you and the state of research. There’s no reason why we should restrict it.

Are there challenges with jurisdiction?

Jurisdiction is an issue for us. Different countries have different regulations surrounding health data protection. However, because we don’t touch the data directly, we don’t even take the risk of mishandling our users’ health data. We don’t take control of it in the first place.

We just connect the seeker and the individual and then at that point, it is the seeker’s responsibility to conform to any regulations on data privacy.

HIT Foundation promises to incentivize patients to share their medical data. How will that work in practice?

We believe that individuals will be motivated to share their data if they are able to exercise their right to consent or not. They’re given complete information about who is requesting the data and for what purpose.

Then it tells you what the incentives are in terms of HIT tokens if you provide answers to all the questions. We don’t actually take control of the data, we don’t put the data anywhere online but instead, we store a cryptographic signature as proof on the blockchain.

If there’s a dispute where the researcher claims that they didn’t get all the answers or the answers were bogus, then both sides can use the cryptographic proof to prove what was sent and what was received. Obviously, if the tokens were sent or not all that proof is on the blockchain.

In the whitepaper, there’s a quote: “tokenizing health data is a revolutionary way to motivate individuals to digitize and share their data.” Could you clarify this?

We’ve found that different people have different reasons and levels of motivation to participate in a system like ours. A lot of people are genuinely excited about blockchain use cases in healthcare.

Many have experienced first hand the power of modern medicine and the need for continuing research to find treatments for terrible diseases. At the same time, people worry about the loss of privacy and of control over their health data, as well as by not seeing the benefits of their contributions.

We are hoping to address these various motivations by paying attention to the control, traceability and even monetary value of health information through tokenization.

What pushback do these types of blockchain use cases in healthcare face? Some may argue that it’s encouraging people to give up valuable data for a small fee.

We have talked to people who have expressed concerns — that we’re asking people to give away their medical data for a few dollars.

And if it were that simple, clearly that’s not something we’d want to do. We see this as more of a token — literally. It’s not supposed to represent the full value of your medical data — at least if you participate in just one study.

One researcher may not pay you what you think your whole medical history is worth. But over time, by tokenizing data, that individual can recognize in real time that researchers value their time, value their privacy, value their right to control and consent to sharing their data.

We expect the monetary part to be one small part of the motivation for individuals. I think the control and the power to decide and actually being able to see and verify where their information is going and for what purpose. That is more likely to motivate people in general.

How will users acquire the HIT tokens? Will they be on exchanges?

Like any other crypto token, it is tradeable peer-to-peer. We expect that at least a few exchanges across the world will list the HIT token. We’ll see whether it will be exchangeable for the official currency or for another cryptocurrency like bitcoin.

However, we don’t expect our users to go in directly and create an account on an exchange. Instead, we hope to build up an ecosystem around this where other players in the health and well-being sector like gyms and health food stores and massage therapists will accept these tokens as full or partial payments for goods and services.

Then those who aggregate these coins will need to have accounts. But that’s actually worth their time because they’d be exchanging potentially thousands of dollars worth of tokens. Or they can turn around and sell them back to other researchers.

Could you elaborate on the platform’s token economy and explain how the two tokens help keep it stable?

So just the mechanics of the token — it’s based on top of the NEM blockchain. It is just a pure utility token, there are no smart contracts or executable code around it. But as I mentioned, we will include things like cryptographic commitments of data to resolve conflicts to an arbiter.

There is a fixed supply of tokens. We reserve 20 or 30% for the development of the protocol and of the system and to incentivize partners to join the platform. But we distribute the bulk of the tokens to users who sign on to our platform.

So if you download the app, you will get a small onboarding bonus. This currently doesn’t have any monetary value. We do expect that as the ecosystem matures, given the finite token supply that it will naturally find a value.

Researchers have to acquire these tokens on the open market based on supply and demand if they want to use our system — which could be hundreds of thousands of users. We hope that it will naturally find a value.

Why did you decide on the NEM platform? What advantages does it offer over other blockchain platforms?

Early on when we started building out our platform, Ethereum was the biggest platform for tokens. The problem was that it had a lot of scalability problems where the transaction fees were very high. Bitcoin was even worse in terms of backlogs and fees.

The whole system was creaky. There was no guarantee that your transaction would go through in a short amount of time. NEM had very aggressive scaling plans. They have very low transaction fees.

It’s more like a proof-of-stake model that could, in theory, lead to centralization. But it’s still an open-source public blockchain. Given their scaling plans, we felt comfortable that we wouldn’t run into the same issues.

Conclusion

Blockchain use cases in healthcare continue to emerge as entrepreneurs come up with ways to use the technology.

HIT foundation not only creates a platform that connects data seekers and data providers, but it also introduces an incentive for people to participate in clinical trials and contribute to medical research.

This blockchain use case will not only make clinical trials easier and cheaper but it will also benefit platform users directly. Switzerland continues to be a hub for blockchain healthcare startups.

The Swiss Medtech sector is among the most advanced in the world and will continue to be a center of new blockchain use cases in healthcare.

Vega will be a panel speaker at an upcoming blockchain meetup on digital health organized by the Swiss-Polish Blockchain Association (of which Espeo is part) on April 11th in Zug. Be sure to join!

Special thanks to Blockchain Business Development Manager for Switzerland and the UK, Paweł Sobotkowski for setting up the interview and for editorial support.