On 20 December 2018, Amado Philip de Andres, Regional Representative for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Regional Office for Eastern Africa (ROEA), officially signed and wrote a letter stating that the organization is prepared to form a partnership with doc.com, a blockchain-based firm that offers telemedicine and telepsychology services. Cointelegrah received an e-mail notifying them on the partnership on 26 December 2018.

The main aim of the partnership is to provide free basic healthcare services across Eastern Africa and this is not the first time the United Nations partnered up with a blockchain-based company to support developing countries. The United Nations Development Fund (UNDP) also partnered with crypto exchange Binance to help support those living in poverty and remove the ‘existence’ of poverty.

Doc.com, on the other hand, is a tech company that offers full time blockchain-based telemedicine and telepsychology platforms and allows users to sell their tokenized personal data for exchange of access to the services. The company currently operates in 20 countries, where over 130,000 users have utilised its telemedicine services while 70,000 have used its doc.com “Emotions” telepsychology service.

The platform uses a token called ‘MTC’, which is an ERC20-compatible token traded on platforms like Coinbene and Kucoin which are Singapore-based crypto exchanges. With its recent office opening in the U.S., the firm looks to expand both its platforms to the African market by the second half of 2019 with the UNODC partnership.

The company also has multiple plans set for the year 2019, including spreading the usage of their services across more of U.S. while launching its telemedicine services in the U.K. by March next year. Additionally, the company is looking to replace its original Ethereum-based ERC20 token system with its in-house mainnet and launch “doc Pets”, a blockchain veterinary services system in the U.S. by the second quarter of 2019. By the end of 2019, doc.com wishes to expand its business to the Asian market as well, starting with India.

As mentioned earlier, the United Nations have been exploring how blockchain can be utilised to help those in need. For example, the Ethereum blockchain was used to transfer crypto coupons to refugees in Syria. Other that that, a blockchain-based digital identity system was created to tackle child trafficking happening across the globe.