Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

might feel more comfortable contributing

their personal health data to a public

data commons like the blockchain, first

because it is private (data is encrypted

and pseudonymous), and second for

remuneration in the form of Healthcoin

or some other sort of digital token.

Blockchain Health Notary

Notary-type proof-of-existence services

are a common need in the health

industry. Proof of insurance, test results,

prescriptions, status, condition,

treatment, and physician referrals are

just a few examples of health document–

related services often required. The

“notary function” as a standard

blockchain application is equally well

deployed in the context of blockchain

health. Health documents can be

encoded to the blockchain as digital

assets, which could then be verified and

confirmed in seconds with encryption

technology as opposed to hours or days

with traditional technology. The private-

key functionality of the blockchain could

also make certain health services and

results delivery, such as STD screening,

more efficient and secure.

Doctor Vendor RFP Services

and Assurance Contracts

Blockchain health could create more of a

two-way market for all health services.

Doctors and health practices could bid

to supply medical services needed by

patient-consumers. Just as Uber drivers

bid for driver assignments with

customers, doctor practices could bid

for hip replacements and other needed

health services—for example, in

Healthcoin—at minimum bringing some

degree of price transparency and

improved efficiency to the health sector.

This bidding could be automated via

tradenets for another level of autonomy,

efficiency, and equality.

Virus Bank, Seed Vault Backup

The third step of blockchain health as a

standardized repository and a data

research commons is backup and

archival, not just in the operational sense

based on practitioner needs, but as a

historical human data record. This is the

use case of the blockchain as a public

good. Blockchain backup could provide

another security layer to the physical-

world practices of virus banks, gene

banks, and seed vaults. The blockchain

could be the digital instantiation of

physical-world storage centers like the

Svalbard Global Seed Vault (a secure

seedbank containing duplicate samples

of worldwide plant seeds), and World

Health Organization–designated

repositories like the CDC for pathogen

storage such as the smallpox virus. A

clear benefit is that in the case of

disease outbreaks, response time can be

hastened as worldwide researchers are

private key–permissioned into the

genetic sequencing files of pathogens of

interest.

Blockchain Learning: Bitcoin

MOOCs and Smart Contract

Literacy

Blockchain-based smart contracts could

have myriad uses. One possibility is

smart literacy contracts. Bitcoin MOOCs

(massive open online courses) and smart

literacy contracts encompass the idea of

opening up emerging-market smart-

contract learning to all individuals

worldwide the same way that traditional

MOOCs opened up educational courses

to all individuals worldwide. Just as

Bitcoin is reinventing the remittances

market and bringing about financial

inclusion, so too the foreign aid market

can be reinvented with blockchain-

based, peer-to-peer smart contracts. The

concept is like Kiva, Grameen

microlending, or Heifer International

2.0, which could include peer-to-peer

financial aid, but more importantly

allows the configuration of peer-to-peer

aid that is not currency-based but

personal development-based.

Blockchain Learning is decentralized

learning contracts.

One way to improve literacy in emerging

markets (perhaps the key metric for

poverty eradication) could be via

decentralized smart contracts for literacy

written between a donor/sponsor peer

and a learning peer. Much in the way that

Bitcoin is the decentralized (very low

fee charging, no intermediary) means of

exchanging currencies between

countries, a decentralized contract

system could be helpful for setting up

learning contracts directly with

students/student groups in a similar

peer-to-peer manner, conceptually

similar to a personalized Khan Academy

curriculum program. Learners would

receive Bitcoin, Learncoin, or the local

token directly into their digital wallets—

like 37Coins, Coinapolt, or Kipochi

(used as Bitcoin or converted into local

fiat currency)—from worldwide peer

donors, and use this to fund their

education expenses at school or

separately on their own. A key part of

the value chain is having a reporting

mechanism (enabled and automated by

Ethereum smart contracts, for example)

to attest to learner progress. Rules

embedded in learning smart contracts

could automatically confirm the

completion of learning modules through

standardized online tests (including

confirming the learner’s digital identity,

such as with short-handle names for

Bitcoin addresses provided with

services like OneName, BitID, and

Bithandle). Satisfying the learning

contract could then automatically trigger

the disbursement of subsequent funds for

the next learning modules. Blockchain

learning contracts can be coordinated

completely on a peer-to-peer basis