South Korean NGO Announces Blockchain-Based Healthcare Platform

Published at: July 2, 2020

The Commons Foundation, a South Korean non-governmental organization, revealed its plans to develop a blockchain-based platform that aims to handle health epidemics in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.

According to Digital Today, the NGO will rely on blockchain public services to create an epidemiological research system to suit the coming post-coronavirus era.

The article quotes a statement from Choi Yong-gwan, chairman of the Commons Foundation, who expressed concerns regarding the ongoing violation of personal information due to the pandemic emergency. Such a situation motivated the NGO to develop a solution.

Guaranteeing privacy through the platform

Choi says that the platform will help to prevent future viruses from having such a strong impact in South Korea.

The NGO explained that a public blockchain network, called “MicroBitcoin”, will be the one that the Common Foundation relies on to develop the platform. They have chosen it for its solidity and security, and state the technology is robust enough to prevent the compromisation of hackers.

The platform will encrypt all personal records on a public blockchain network to “increase reliability and make data forgery impossible.”

As the Common Foundation explains, the application will issue a personal encryption key through personal authentication of the mobile phone and records the user’s movement in the city on the blockchain.

Tracking confirmed COVID-19 cases with Blockchain

If person A is found to be a COVID-19 confirmed case, they can directly enter the encryption key value and provide data that cannot be forged to an epidemiologist.

Researchers can schedule a visit with person A, and determine the best was to ensure that a quick investigation can be conducted.

The Commons Foundation’s chairman said:

“It is important to quickly overcome the pandemic, but it will become more important in the post-corona era to protect the individual’s freedom and human rights while wisely overcoming the pandemic.”

Recently, Busan, the second-largest city in South Korea, launched an identification app that uses a public blockchain to verify citizen information.

On May 23, Cointelegraph reported that South Korea’s Suseong University reached a deal with the Korea Artificial Intelligence Association, or KORAIA, to create a blockchain and AI campus in Daegu.

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