How is Blockchain helping with Coronavirus?

Coronavirus and Blockchain: how the technology is joining the challenge to counteract this critical situation on a medical, economic and financial perspective?

The pandemic is ongoing since a few weeks and in my humble opinion quarantines and isolation will last for some time seeing what happened in Hong Kong. There, a second wave of infections came after restrictions were removed and the government had to activate again the quarantine mode.

Schools have switched to the remote lesson mode, using platforms such as Zoom and others, while Odem is a good example of what is going on in the instruction field.
Odem is a training institution that creates Blockchain registered certifications for free.

Anyway: keep in mind what do we need the Blockchain for. Credibility (through data immutability) and Timestamp of the inserted data.

How is Blockchain helping with Coronavirus?

So, how can Blockchain help with school and instruction?

Some aspects from the Blockchain may be strategic, such as the attendance register and the creation of a record with test results. With some Smart Contracts we can also think about an automatic correction of tests and the consequent automatic creation of the record with test results. Anyway, correction of tests must be parameterized carefully, with test in the form of multiple choices, true/false, or even short answers. To correct short answer, a check on the keywords can be considered but the accuracy may be debatable.

And what if a correction mistake occur? The data cannot be updated but a new version can be inserted in the Blockchain. A sort of  “data-rev.01” version of the wrong data.

An Oriental maxim says that when the wind of change blows, someone builds walls, others builds windmills. So my questions are:

Are technology and Blockchain applications just suitable for this emergency period?
Could they be extended in the future, using best practices created in this moment also to make some processes work better?

I truly hope that the most part of these windmills will stay integer and operative after the pandemic.

Supply chain traceability is another big application of the Blockchain. Medical instrumentation and other health supplies are now traced using the blockchain to avoid inattention or frauds and steals from intermediaries.

TYMLEZ is a project that exactly aims to do so, and I strongly appreciate how they define themselves: “TYMLEZ will model the medical goods ecosystem through a platform that matches supply & demand, with blockchain as the underlying technology.”

Why I think that traceability of medicals is so important?

We are living an emergency and you know how did the latin say, “homo homini lupus”. That means the men can be predator for other humans. Keep in mind that humankind is the only animal species that build traps and killing machines for other animals of the same kind.
I am sure that the most part of medical staff has a great sense of duty to honour at their best the important position the cover, saving people lives.

Anyway, the worse the scenario the more unpredictable the reactions can be.
Just a few days ago in Biella, north west of Italy, firebombs have been thrown towards an ambulance and a van of a carrier setting them completely on fire.

Another application for the traceability of these medical items can be found in Honduras.

The main reason that led to the creation of this application is the assumed high corruption level of some areas of the country. This mobile application keeps citizen’s data encrypted, so there is no need to check and collect massive GPS data.

Severe restrictions, expensive fines and criminal offence are ongoing in Honduras for people exiting from houses without a proved and approved reason. Even going to the hospital requires a written and approved permission.
This application aims to collect encrypted data from people, allowing public officers to get access only to a part of it: can this citizen hang around or not?
Doctors have the full access to data so they can operate via telemedicine with people, decide who can get out their homes and produce medical reports for infected people.
Avoiding collection of massive GPS data and avoiding full access to public officers guarantee a higher privacy level for Honduras citizens.

Professor Michael del Castillo inspired an article for Forbes thanks to his evangelization of Blockchain to share information, reduce paper documents, make medical equipments more available. The aim of this web application is to find eventual bottlenecks in the supply chain, highlighting where dangerous scarcity may happen. To achieve that, Professor del Castillo has organized the meeting between IEEE Standards Association and IT engineers with Blockchain background to let them know better each other and cooperate.

Instruction and medicine integration with the Blockchain answered “Ready and active” when the emergency asked for responses to transparency. In this moment, many workers act remotely so transparency and trust channels are welcome.

By Michele Zilocchi, who is an Engineer by education, Serial Entrepreneur by skills and passion, Cryptocurrency Book Author
Daily Trader, Business Advisor, +5 Blockchain Startups Advisor

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