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Healthcare productivity has not increased with the rest of the economy. As we live longer, with more chronic disease, this is wreaking havoc on family, and even national, budgets worldwide.
DNA-based medicine allows for more targeted spending on health according to each individual’s risk assessment or treatment, while improving benefits, which is much more efficient.
Unfortunately, the open sharing of our personal data is unsafe, for example, leading to discrimination for insurance or employment. Even for very ill patients willing to forego privacy concerns, data is close to impossible to use because it is fragmented and out of our hands with doctors, researchers, and personal DNA companies.
Until now...
Two software companies that are currently defining the new field of Cryptogenomics, Encrypgen and DNAVID, share a vision of an efficient health economy centered around each one of us, safely and fairly.
DNAVID is developing a social network that the user owns and benefits from. The network issues its own money — DNACoin — to reward those that help improve it. For example, users are paid DNACoin to enter their DNA and medical information for anonymous use. Then, they decide how their data can be used and how to spend their DNACoin. For example, anyone can sponsor research with their DNACoin, or they can earn DNACoin by allowing the use of their info by drug companies. A set amount will be sold to drug companies wishing to use the network for their research with consenting individuals. Eventually, DNACoin can be sold in exchange for money.
“Because we all are genetically connected, we all benefit from the information in each other’s genome. So it is in the interest of every one of us to have a universal pooled DNA resource, the bigger the (much) better. With user-friendly software that is trusted and safe, we will start to see the parabolic network effects as more people start joining and sharing. This then will translate into higher value of the network which will cause the appreciation of DNACoin. This in turn generates a virtuous economic cycle contrary to the current downward spiral in healthcare.”
said David Weiss, Founder of DNA\/ID, the EU-based startup that develops the open source DNA social network
https://dnavid.com and mints the DNACoin cryptocurrency that is the basis of its economy. A former PhD bioinformatician, bioengineer by training, big data scientist and programmer, Weiss founded InSilico Genomics SA, creator of one of the largest repositories of genetic information for biologists InSilico DB
https://www.insilicodb.com, and the personal DNA service GenePlaza
https://geneplaza.com.
“This partnership affords the opportunity to accelerate the path-to-market for our complementary offerings if we can guarantee the security and the traceability of transactions, and the easy query of our user’s data with Encrypgen’s unique blockchain solutions. We have a shot at helping to solve this big problem rather quickly.” he added.
Encrypgen provides the other half of the solution, which is to keep DNA data safe and private using an un-hackable registry of transactions (a "blockchain"). The technology enforces user’s wishes, by allowing access only according to specific permissions, or to record every access, etc. The software's specialization in DNA results in efficient query and transmission of DNA or chunks of DNA in a compliant manner. Encrypgen has its own economic token Gene-Chain Coin which is the currency for transactions of data over their Gene-Chain. Gene-Chain Coin is currently conducting a successful token sale to help fund expansion of their Gene-Chain network .
“We share a vision of improving the role of genomic data in improving personal health, and in empowering each of us in the curation of our own data. It will be an interesting experiment to see how the DNACoin and Gene-Chain Coin economies interact and we expect that the synergies between these currencies will benefit both individuals and the market for scientific data, as well as help us achieve the promises of personalized medicine.” concludes David Koepsell, Encrypgen’s CEO and Founder.
Together, these technologies promise to provide a safe and productive fresh start for human health.
