The first birth certificates to be recorded by exclusively using blockchain technology were issued in Brazil. As Cointelegraph Brasil reports on Sept. 1, Álvaro de Medeiros Mendonça is one of the first children in the country to have their birth certificate recorded only with blockchain technology, without the need of the registry office. Streamlining registration process The parents were reportedly invited by the hospital to participate in a project developed by tech company Growth Tech in partnership with IBM. The father, Waldyr Mendonça Junior, said that blockchain tech made the process of registering his newborn child much faster, taking less …

The state of Arizona has accepted a blockchain-based, cannabis industry-oriented payments solution into its fintech sandbox. According to a recent press release from the Office of the Attorney General, the company — called Alta — is a cash management solution for licensed medical marijuana providers and vendors. The Arizona-based financial services startup intends to offer a stablecoin that is pegged 1:1 with the United States dollar. During its sandbox testing phase, Alta will trial its member onboarding and remittances platform. The end goal of the platform is to let users pay for goods and services using the stablecoin instead of …

Blockchain healthcare startup Solve.Care has partnered with Uber Health to transport patients, Solve.Care announced in a press release shared with Cointelegraph on July 9. Per the release, Uber Health’s transportation services will be integrated into Solve.Care’s personal healthcare coordination and administration app Care.Wallet. Within the app, patients will reportedly be able to schedule an Uber Health ride, which claims to be compliant with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. Furthermore, patients will also be able to pay for the service with their Care.Wallet and share the costs with family members, employers, insurers, or other relevant people. Uber …

Cardano founder Charles Hoskinson claimed that emerging markets are where cryptocurrencies matter, and that Facebook’s announced virtual currency Libra is not going to find success in this area, according to a report by Finance Magnates on June 26. According to Hoskinson, emerging markets are the future. He says: “Emerging markets are where cryptocurrencies matter [...] When I look at the developed world, I don’t care. It’s highly regulated and, in many cases, a rigged system. If I decide to compete with a tech company they can just push me out via regulation. [...] Then I sit down with the prime …

Contracts are good but can blockchain actually save lives? Maybe. Blockchain is already involved in tests for diagnosing medical conditions. Moreover, it is improving our daily health care routine. Many solutions that could possibly contribute to saving lives in the nearest future combine blockchain and other technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI). For instance, combining blockchain and AI might help build a distributed network of artificial neural networks that will potentially diagnose medical conditions with greater success than human practitioners. Such experiments have already been funded by the government of Austria, where a local startup is building a cancer-screening tool. …

Only a limited number of healthcare firms in Europe are aware of the benefits of blockchain applications, according to a survey by American market research firm International Data Corporation (IDC) released on June 6. As much as 44% of European healthcare organizations had never heard of distributed ledger technology (DLT), while only 12% of those are related to the tech in some sense, blockchain media outlet Ledger Insights reports, citing the IDC’ research titled “IDC Survey Spotlight.” Only 1% out of those 12% have a certain blockchain initiative in production, while 1% have multiple DLT projects, the report notes. Source: …

А leading pharmaceutical firm Boehringer Ingelheim has teamed up with blockchain-based healthcare platform Solve.Care, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on June 6. Germany-based Boehringer, one of the world’s 20 largest pharma companies, and Solve.Care are planning to build a blockchain and digital asset-powered network for trusted sharing of data about patients with diabetes. Based on Solve.Care’s blockchain platform, the new healthcare system is known as the Diabetes Care Administration Network. The network intends to provide assistance in coordinating care for patients, as well as to share information about the risks associated with diabetes, prevention and symptoms, among …

Global retail giant Walmart is expanding its blockchain expertise by joining blockchain-powered pharmaceutical consortium MediLedger, industry media outlet CoinDesk reports on June 3. Walmart is reportedly planning to roll out a pilot project to track pharmaceutical products using MediLedger technology with the United States Food and Drug Administration in early June. By joining the consortium, Walmart has followed four major American pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer Inc., which joined MediLedger in early May, to collaborate on the development of a blockchain network for the health and pharmaceutical industry. Pfizer, along with McKesson Corporation, AmerisourceBergen Corporation and Premier Inc. officially announced that …

The World Economic Forum (WEF) announced the formation of six separate “fourth industrial revolution councils” to work on new technology policy guidance, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on May 29. Per the release, the councils intend to help regulators regulate artificial intelligence, autonomous mobility, blockchain, drones, internet of things and precision medicine. The boards — allegedly composed by over 200 leaders from the public and private sectors, civil society and academia — will also gather regularly to address the absence of clearly defined rules. The announcement notes that the councils met for the first time today at …

The ALS Association has partnered with the TRON Foundation to launch a blockchain-enabled charity campaign, according to a press release shared with Cointelegraph on Feb. 11. The campaign, called #VoiceYourLove, aims to build awareness around amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), commonly known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and raise donations for research into treatments and finding a cure. According to the press release, TRON’s (TRX) participation in the campaign will include using blockchain technology to track donation distribution. The ALS Association plans to release data tracked by TRON to the public at the end of the campaign, the press release notes. TRON …

The Commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has suggested the use of blockchain for an open pilot scheme for the pharmaceuticals industry. The pilot focuses on improving supply chains and was announced in a notice published Feb. 8. The Pilot Project Program Under the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA Pilot Project Program), which aims to ingratiate industry players with emerging innovative technologies, will accept applications through March 11. The move is an initial step in the development of a digital supply chain platform specifically geared to tracking drugs and preventing counterfeiting, set to operate from …

Data storage in healthcare industries is of critical importance. Security breaches in this sector will not only have an impact financially — in terms of health insurance — but could also compromise patient safety. The new platform Timicoin aims to enhance patient data safety through blockchain technology. Describing themselves as the “Tokenized Healthcare Ecosystem,” Timicoin claims to offer a solution to the current fragmented and isolated nature of patient health data, which results in inefficient and ineffective use of the information. For example, medical institutions transferring information on patients is currently more complex than it should be, because of isolated …