How Blockchain Could Improve Healthcare in Africa| Bankless Africa Newsletter
This is Bankless Africa Newsletter, a newsletter that helps you stay up to date with well-curated news about crypto and Web3 around Africa.
Hey Bankless fam!
We are excited to bring you the 14th issue of the Bankless Africa newsletter.
We are all aware of the current market condition, and despite the escalating market decline, the adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies has become unstoppable. Things we love to see!
It's even more impressive that Africa is also at the forefront of this global adoption with or without regulation. Economies and prominent startups in Africa have benefited in this regard from increased funding from top venture capital firms and investors.
We believe this is just the beginning for Africa.
In our newest podcast episode, we featured Pillow Fund. We discussed the benefits of crypto savings for Africa and how Pillow Fund has made crypto investing easy.
The Defi Degen section is back after a long hiatus! This week's how-to-guide is on liquid staking using Stader and Beefy Finance, there is a potential 34.66% APY. #NFA
Finally, ever heard of Soulbound tokens? What they are used for and how they work in Web3? Our learning centre section, covers all of these. There is so much to learn from this issue. Explore!
Contributors: Cinnamon, Ap0ll0, Chameleon, anointingthompson1.eth, Paulito Spirited f, WinVerse, Oge, Miss Purple, Yofi
📰 News & Opinion In and Around Africa
Crypto Adoption Plan in Africa
Author: Ritika Sharma
The unquenchable adoption of blockchain and cryptocurrency is on the rise daily despite the increased market fall. Major economies and startups in Africa are affected positively in this regard with increased funding from angel investors and top venture capital firms.
A lot of African startups have been able to raise over $304 million in the year 2022 first and second quarters, which is three times higher than the total of $127 million raised by startups in the entire year of 2021, With the Central African Republic (CAR) adopting Bitcoin as its legal tender.
Top African startup Jelurida plans to organise a pan-African hackathon to collaborate with other top startups in the space. The plan is to launch large solutions designed particularly for Africans before the end of the fourth quarter of 2022.
BitDAO Votes to Fund AfricaDAO with $20 Million to Accelerate Web3 Adoption in Africa
Author: CryptoGuru
BitDAO, one of the leading global DAOs, sets to fund and bootstrap the AfricaDAO Initiative after their unanimous vote in which over 38 wallet addresses participated to contribute 181 million BIT tokens to support the proposal.
The AfricaDAO’s focus on Web3 in Africa is totally based on several increasing metrics about African growth and migration to technology development connoted in the snapshots proposal, which was made public.
Asides from the $20 million funding, AfricaDAO has also come into the limelight after receiving the support of up to $105 million from different partners, including Sythentix and Polygon.
Central African Republic President Says Successful Launch of Sango Coin a Key Milestone
Author: Terence Zimwara
Faustin-Archange Toudéra, the president of the Central African Republic (CAR), has asserted that the introduction of the sango coin and the demand for creating a shared digital currency by a regional central bank are two crucial turning points for his nation and Africa as a whole.
Touadéra gave the following justification for his nation's continued pursuit of the sango coin project: Sango is not just any regular cryptocurrency; it is the first attempt at a National Digital Currency that is Sovereign. The future of our nation lies with Sango. Our vision. Our past. Our future. We favour widespread national use of bitcoin and blockchain technology.
In a response seemingly aimed at experts and other naysayers, Touadéra spoke of the motivation behind his government's insistence on seeing this through. He said: Our vision is ambitious. We are ambitious. Our connection with Bitcoin helps us enable worldwide financial inclusion. Digital currencies are the solution for Africa.
Watr in partnership with Parity Technologies seeks to build African blockchain for ethically sourced commodities
Author: Guardian Nigeria
The blockchain startup Watr, in partnership with Parity Technologies, is looking to create a decentralized solution for tracking ethical commodities. The provenance of goods remains an issue of concern to many in the western world, whose major suppliers are African countries. As a result, Watr looks to create a more open internet which can provide transparency and confidence in the quality of goods delivered. Omar Elassar of Parity Technologies sees this as a first step on the path towards greater adoption of Web3. The system has been titled 'Digital Commons for Ethical Commodities'. The tools developed by both parties will rely heavily on blockchain based tokens and decentralized identities.
How Blockchain Could Improve Healthcare in Africa
Author : Cinnamon
Blockchain is an emerging technology that can be applied to the building of solutions across various sectors, including the healthcare sector and its widespread use cases which tend to differ from sector to sector.
There are uncertainties on how blockchain could be applied into healthcare and exactly how it will allow for transformation, since it was created to solve the centralisations problem.
Let’s start with a quick definition of the blockchain is; as it relates to the healthcare industry, blockchain technology is the decentralized ledger technology that could enable the secure transfer of patient medical records, help healthcare researchers unlock genetic codes and manage the medicine supply chain. With this definition, it becomes clear that blockchain technology, used correctly, holds the potential to completely alter the way we view healthcare & perhaps even improve the overall experience.
Major healthcare problems faced in Africa.
The poor management of patient records has been a major challenge in the healthcare sector of African countries. Cases are plentiful where crucial patient records are not readily accessible due to the fact that crucial information is often scattered across different systems, departments, physical files that could be misplaced and do not come in handy when the need for them arises. This can be likened to a labyrinth of different pieces of information at different entry points; the information is often held primarily by the care doctor, several others held by every specialist that has ever seen the patient, and a set of information is sometimes collected on different health tracking devices. In the sake of improper record keeping, medical logs kept in analog form may be lost in cases of natural disasters like fires, flooding or earthquakes.
Comparing the African situation of the lack of hospital infrastructure and medical staff to that recommended by the WHO as a standard gives us a better understanding of the deficit regarding these factors. According to the statistics, you count 2 doctors per 10,000 people in Africa on average whereas the standard calls for 1 per 1,000 people; there are also 11 nurses and midwives per 10,000 people where the standard says 25 to 10,000 people. Regarding the infrastructure, Africa has 21% of the hospital bed density per 1,000 people, compared to Europe.
A study published in the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene records that more than 122,000 African children under the age of 5 die from the use of these counterfeit anti-malarial drugs. This issue of patients dying from using the wrong and/or fake medication has been a major concern to the Pharmaceutical industry that continues to plague the continent.
Ways in which Blockchain could improve Healthcare
Basic but fundamental aspects such as the recording and securing of patient data, keeping medical data safe and secure are some of the ways in which blockchain technology can improve the healthcare sector. This can be done by launching a smart contract which then creates a smart health ecosystem for unlimited access to a patient’s electronic health records (EHR), the safety of this will of course have to be countered by possibly using gating mechanisms. Electronic Health Records are simply electronic versions of patients' healthcare records; they provide the most accurate, complete and on-hand details of patients’ medical histories, current medications, and prior imaging studies. Due to its decentralized nature, blockchain can be able to keep an incorruptible, transparent yet private set of data by protecting the sensitive medical data with secure and complex lines of codes.
The blockchain can bring forth an entirely improved performance of the sector; with doctors able to write down notes, enter scan and test results while still being able to remotely review the cases and give advice or second opinions on specific health situations; this can also assist health insurers to monitor the patient fitness, progress of patient, the medication they were administered - when medication is dispensed the pharmacy records the transaction - with limited viewer access, this would reduce the amount of mismanagement cases as it relates to insurance not correctly paid out. This ecosystem can further improve the quality of life for patients when developers incorporate this kind of technology into smart apps analyzing health data, which could mean personalized care plans and expert recommended nutrition and fitness plans.
Medical Supply Management
Healthcare has a wide supply chain from the laboratory down to the marketplace, the process of moving from one rung of the ladder to the next tends to be inefficient, under-utilized and ill-equipped for the influx of products. Blockchain technology could serve as the solution to several issues from combating the counterfeiting issues to the regulation of the supply chain by tracking prices, labor and waste that incurs non profitable expenses to the pharmacies & health facilities. The technology will help in ensuring that drugs are from legitimate supply sources, that they are not tampered with by people or natural causes like temperature change that may impair the quality. Goods in bulk can be traced more thoroughly on blockchain, which will once again ensure that fake drugs do not enter the supply chain.
The Genomic Market
To enable the safe and secure transfer of genomic data between people, blockchain networks can be created; blockchain could be a perfect fit for the new emerging market in genomics because it could safely store billions of genetic data points at all times, with minimal storage required. Africa houses a wide array of unique plant and animal life, individuals can place the encrypted genetic information they have on the blockchain to create a wider, more diverse database, thus affording scientists access to more information, which could reduce the amount of time required on isolated research, improving overall efficiency. Africans can also use this technology to learn about their own genome structures, the history and the interaction with other organisms’ while contributing to the database. This may serve as a way to prevent and/or give us a better understanding on how to deal with terminal illnesses in the future.
Blockchain Healthcare Startups in Africa
Quite a few people have already begun to embrace the potential of blockchain & its impact on the healthcare sector, so much so that some are already taking the initiative to innovate in the space with this technology.
Afyarekod is a Kenyan based health technology that was built to serve as a tool that helps individuals store their health information, interact with certified doctors and other tools that could play a part in improving the quality of their lives. It is a secure, decentralized tool that allows patients to create a portal that includes all their health data, most importantly, it gives patients principal rights of ownership of their own data.
As discussed earlier, timely access to the correct medical records of patient can prevent misdiagnosis and speed up the treatment process; Afyarekod offers an electronic health management system that has several functionalities like management of patient & hospital records, an AI-based reporting tool that allows data-driven decisions & predictions to be made and detect diseases early enough and transparency on how the information is being used.
MedPing, which is powered by its own native token $MPG, is a decentralized healthcare ecosystem that could enhance and redefine the global healthcare system by building a blockchain-based infrastructure for caregivers and recipients to seamlessly exchange value & information.
Conclusion
The potential of blockchain technology to improve the future of the healthcare sector is worth taking an indepth look at, what was once a dream, could be our reality in Africa. Healthcare is a significant sector, as such, it must evolve and improve, not deteriorate. Since blockchain in healthcare is only just emerging, there can be a focus towards selective improvement of specific aspects instead of a complete overhaul. We must find a way to embrace this technology, as it has the potential ability to completely transform our lives.
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💹 DeFi Degen Corner
Liquid Staking
Author: Ap0ll0
Introduction
Decentralized Finance (DeFi) allows anyone to engage with smart contracts and put their assets to use. Not only is it a way to earn passive income, it's also a way to earn a greater return on your capital than you would typically earn in Traditional Finance (TradFi). There are many ways to engage with DeFi. Today, we will specifically explore liquidity staking with MATIC and other opportunities.
Liquidity Staking
Liquidity staking is a relatively new concept in the world of DeFi. It adds another layer of DeFi on top of traditional staking methods. Historically, when a person deposited crypto into a staking contract, they would only earn a rate of return on their deposit but not be able to withdraw your earnings. In those cases, one has no access to their deposited funds. However, with liquidity staking, that is no longer the case; unlike regular staking, liquidity staking allows you to leverage your deposits and increase the yield on your assets.
Introducing Stader
Stader is built for DeFi, it is a non-custodial platform that uses smart contracts in a trustless, decentralized manner. There are many networks supported on the Stader platform, you can stake MATIC, BNB, FTM, HBAR, and FTM. Soon, you will also be able to stake ETH, SOL, and AVAX.
MATIC & MATICX
When you stake a token on Stader, you will receive a derivative in exchange. A derivative is a financial asset whose value is derived from another asset. MATICX is the derivative you receive in exchange for depositing MATIC on the platform. It is a token, or derivative, that represents your share of the total MATIC deposited in the staking contract. Once you deposit MATIC in the staking contract, you will receive newly minted MATICX, based on the exchange rate at the time of staking. The exchange rate represents the total value of MATIC in the Stake Pool for every MATICX in circulation. As MATIC rewards accumulate, the exchange rate increases.
At the time of writing this, the exchange rate is 1.0265. This means at this exchange rate, if you deposit 100 MATIC, you will receive 97.4184 MATICX in return. After some time, the exchange rate will increase and instead of redeeming 100 MATIC when you withdraw your deposit, you will be entitled to redeeming more.
From this image we can see that staking MATIC on the Polygon network can earn a yield of 5.76% in APY. If this APY remained consistent for the next year, you could eventually withdraw 105.76 MATIC, however these numbers are not often constant, and may require regular checking to determine whether or not the staking pool is still profitable for your goal.
MATICX & DeFi
5.76% APY is a respectable return in the world of TradFi, but we’re not in TradeFi, so of course, we want to maximize our returns; simply staking MATIC on Stader isn’t the only play that will yield us the most in returns. The DeFi Degen move is to find the possibilities of extending our yield and earning more than the proposed 5.76% on our capital.
Thankfully, Stader allows us to earn MATIC staking rewards and use MATICX to engage in other DeFi protocols, while still accruing the initial staking rewards. This is the value proposition with liquidity staking; you are staking, yet you still have the ability to leverage your liquidity to keep earning!
There are many DeFi opportunities using MATICX; you could deposit into a liquidity pool, a lending pool or even a yield optimizer contract - which is my personal favorite.
We can see that there are ample opportunities to earn as much as 41% APY! By using the derivative MATICX in liquidity pools on Quickswap, Meshswap, and Balancer, we can earn a percentage of the trading fees. If we deposit our MATICX into a lending pool, we can earn interest paid by borrowers. On the other hand, we could also use Beefy Finance to optimize our yield.
Beefy Finance
is a yield optimizer that allows you to compound your earnings. This investment strategy is a technique that automatically maximizes yield from liquidity pools; it uses your liquidity provider (LP) tokens to farm additional DeFi opportunities. The yield from farming is captured regularly and reinvested into the liquidity pool, adding to your position. Additional LP tokens received from reinvesting are then also redeployed in the same farming strategy to increase potential returns.
Beefy Finance offers two farming opportunities using LP tokens from Balancer and Quickswap. With this, you could earn 22.23% APY just by depositing into the Balancer liquidity pool, but Beefy Finance could increase and optimize that yield to approximately 24.34%.
Instead of earning the stipulated 20.6% APY solely by depositing into the liquidity pool on Quickswap, you could earn approximately 28.9% APY using Beefy Finance’s set of smart contracts. That’s an additional 8.3%, on the grander scale of things, that is nothing to sneeze at.
Conclusion
When you are ready to redeem your initial deposit, you will withdraw more MATICX from the Beefy Finance vault, which would return even more MATIC than initially anticipated. It’s important to remember that with this DeFi Degen play, not only are you earning the variable 28.9% with Beefy Finance, you are also still earning 5.76% in MATIC rewards with Stader. That is a potential annual yield of 34.66% overall, which is not a bad amount.
📚 Learning Centre
Credit: Binance Academy
What are Soulbound Tokens? Soulbound tokens (SBTs) are non-transferable tokens representing a person’s identity using blockchain technology. This could include medical records, work history, and any type of information that makes up a person or entity. The wallets that hold or issue these records are called “Souls.”
People could have multiple wallets (or Souls) representing different parts of their lives. For example, someone could have a “Credentials Soul” for their work history and a “Medical Soul” for their health records. Souls and SBTs would allow people to build a verifiable, digital Web3 reputation based on their past actions and experiences.
On the other hand, Souls can represent an entity that allocates SBTs. For example, companies can be Souls, issuing SBTs to each employee. A digital country club could issue SBTs to verify membership status.
The logic behind soulbound originates from the popular online game World of Warcraft.
Players cannot sell or transfer soulbound items. Once picked up, soulbound items are forever “bound” to the player’s “soul.”
How do SBTs work in Web3?
Trust is one of the main challenges affecting the Web3 industry. How can you trust a person’s reputation in a system designed to be trustless? Let’s use the lending of money as an example; similar to traditional bank credit scores, SBTs could track a user’s DeFi borrowing history as well as other metrics that can be used to determine their risk profile.
SBTs are also a proposed alternative for decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) voting. Instead of the current governance model, which is based on how many tokens a member holds, DAOs could issue SBTs that assign voting power based on users’ interactions with the community. This model would prioritize voting power for the most dedicated users with a strong reputation over those who can afford to purchase certain tokens.
Besides creating a reputation-based voting system, SBTs may potentially improve the integrity of DAO voting — namely, defending against Sybil attacks — one of the biggest threats to the current DAO governance model.
Woo Network Crypto Meetup Lagos 🇳🇬
ETH SAFARI 🦓🇰🇪
You're not going to want to miss out on this event!
ETH SAfari is the first Ethereum Conference & Hackathon of its kind in Africa and promises to be an unforgettable experience for anyone who wants to learn more about blockchain technology.Its happening on 18th - 24th September 2022 in Kenya!
The conference will have a hackathon, with prizes, and talks by local, regional, and international speakers in web3.
Buy your ticket today—we look forward to seeing you there!
😂 Meme Humour
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