ConsenSys Health, Hyperledger, Launch Stop COVID-19 DLT Virtual Hackathon

ConsenSys Health, a health-focused distributed ledger technology (DLT) project that recently spinned-off from ConsenSys, Hyperledger, OpenMined, Gitcoin, Kaleido and others, are launching the Stop COVID-19 blockchain-based Virtual Hackathon. The project aims to bring together healthcare and life sciences experts to formulate secure, privacy-protecting solutions for public health, according to a blog post on April 7, 2020.

Tackling Coronavirus with Blockchain

Having successfully spinned-off from its parent firm – ConsenSys – to become an independent project earlier in February 2020, ConsenSys Health has now hit the ground running with its first significant health initiative.

Specifically, ConsenSys Health has announced that the Stop COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon will officially go live on April 13 and run through May 11, 2020.

Powered by blockchain technology, the sponsors of the Stop COVID-19 Virtual Hackathon include Hyperledger, Gitcoin, OpenMined, Million Developers, Kaleido, Infura, Encrypgen and Pepperdine Graziadio.

Empowering Researchers

The team says the project aims to bring together healthcare and life sciences experts and next-generation tech experts to create solutions that will prioritize and promote public health, while also maintaining security and privacy of users.

What’s more, the project also seeks to empower researchers, scientists and healthcare professionals to understand and stop the coronavirus-19 pandemic.

Also, the group plans to facilitate clinical trials for COVID-19 vaccines, foster transparency in ventilators supply chain with blockchain technology and more.

The winner of the hackathon will receive $10,000 while second and third place participants will get $7,000 and $3,000 respectively.

Since the coronavirus broke out in Wuhan, China, in December 2019, a good number of forward-thinking firms have integrated blockchain technology into their processes in a bid to reduce the spread of the disease by minimizing face-to-face human contact.

Commenting on the Stop COVID-19 Hackathon, Heather Leigh Flannery, Founder and CEO of ConsenSys Health, hinted that the project looks to tap the power of blockchain, tokenization, machine learning and more to develop highly functional systems for tackling the epidemic.

In his words:

“This interdisciplinary group will develop highly-relevant solutions that will have both immediate- and long-term positive impact. The core of our effort is to take advantage of converging innovations like DLT, zero-knowledge cryptography, and federated machine learning to advance immediate and long-term public health goals while preserving individual privacy.”

So far, 286,664 patients have recovered from COVID-19, with 74,820 deaths out of a total of 1,349,784 infected persons. With the world now coming together to fight the deadly disease, it is expected that more people will recover shortly.

As reported by BTCManager earlier in March 2020, the Italian Red Cross now accepts donations in Bitcoin (BTC).