3 ms·

so...why are you still the CEO of a medical blockchain startup? Surely you escorted yourself off the premises by now? ;) But seriously, isn't this putting the

so...why are you still the CEO of a medical blockchain startup? Surely you escorted yourself off the premises by now? ;) But seriously, isn't this putting the cart before the horse? The usual order is "find a problem, build a solution", not "find a technology, build a solution, work out who has a problem it can solve". How's that working out for you?

pryelluw 8y ago
There might be potential uses for distributed ledgers in an industry that is required by law to share your care history. This specific company not having arrived at a concrete product does not negate the potential upside. All it takes for them to do is develop a technology that can be of interest to an industry giant and become acquired. Im not saying this is the case here, but it is a real option.
- marcus_holmes 8y ago
  ahh, I see... so more like speculative R&D, developing a technology to the point where it's saleable to a larger organisation. So there's no need for a customer problem to solve, it's just about building enough capability with the tech to become acqui-hirable, is that right?
  - pryelluw 8y ago
    To a point. I cant comment on regards to this being the goal of the company above. We should consider the following: A startup can have a product offering and also be the product itself.
    - marcus_holmes 8y ago
      not sure that works in many places outside Silicon Valley. I've been working in the startup scene in Perth, Western Australia, for years now, and the opportunities for getting bought areslim. A startup there needs to have a global customer base to stand a chance of making revenue, let alone equity growth.
- acdha 8y ago
  Why is that not done at a tiny fraction of the cost using PKI? None of the parties are secret and there’s a clear line of ownership for every bit of information. What does a blockchain add other than scaling challenges and the opportunity to create an irrecoverable HIPAA violation?
- noelsusman 8y ago
  We're only required to share the history of care you have with us, which is easily achieved with a standard database. We communicate with other providers using standard protocols that are implemented by every EHR system. I struggle to think of a use case for this in healthcare.
duskwuff 8y ago
> "find a technology, build a solution, work out who has a problem it can solve" Sadly, I feel like this could be used to describe most applications of "blockchain technology".
kbenson 8y ago
> The usual order is "find a problem, build a solution", not "find a technology, build a solution, work out who has a problem it can solve". Well, there is a whole industry of universities of finding a technology and then licensing it out or spinning a company off to do something with it. It may be that it's very hard to do if you don't have all the things a university does going for it, but it does work in some cases. Another way to look at it is to consider that if a technology excels at offering capabilities in a certain domain, and a certain industry is known to require capabilities in a certain domain, if there is a good fit for it, it will probably eventually be deployed there. But if you can be first, there's likely money to be made. In that respect, I imagine a "CEO of a medical blockchain startup which is trying to find actual meaningful use cases" is really just someone (or a small group of people) doing intensive research to try to locate the match if it exists and be the first to provide it. A gamble, but one okay odds given the potential payoff.
- JohnFen 8y ago
  > there is a whole industry of universities of finding a technology and then licensing it out or spinning a company off to do something with it. Kinda sorta, but that's a difference in kind. Most university research tends to be "basic research", meaning that it tends to be focused on understanding how things work rather than developing anything that is immediately useful. In the course of doing that, sometimes something immediately useful is developed -- but that's not the most common case. This sort of research is not "finding a solution, then looking for a problem to solve". It's simply trying to figure out how our world works.
  - kbenson 8y ago
    If you look at all their research, sure, but then you might as well include all their education too, which muddies it more. They definitely seem to also go for directed advances in specific areas. For example, battery technology. Usually, what's developed isn't something to replace the current best choice for most applications, but sometimes it does have features that make it extremely useful for specific applications (such as a very quick charge or discharge time). Was the university research intended to increase the understanding of the topic overall? Likely. Were they also hoping to develop something they could make some revenue from? Surely.
drcode 8y ago
> How's that working out for you? It's a slow process, for exactly the reasons you describe- in fact, I've quoted that exact same line of reasoning many times myself. The reason to work in this area regardless is because there are definitely large opportunities long term.
- marcus_holmes 8y ago
  That's interesting, and refreshing honesty :) thanks If you don't mind me being more nosy, are the long-term opportunities in this exact line of business? (i.e. do you think that one day medical records will be routinely stored on a blockchain?) or is it more than developing skills and capability with both blockchain and health tech will be valuable in the future?
  - drcode 8y ago
    Tracking employee identities in The medical space should be done in a much more rigorous fashion, there are significant benefits in doing this on a public blockchain. Medical records MAY someday end up on a blockchain, but the benefits of this are more hazy and may never outweigh the switching costs.
    - binarnosp 8y ago
      Maybe it could be used to track the certification process for pharmaceuticals or medical software?

pryelluw 8y ago

There might be potential uses for distributed ledgers in an industry that is required by law to share your care history. This specific company not having arrived at a concrete product does not negate the potential upside. All it takes for them to do is develop a technology that can be of interest to an industry giant and become acquired. Im not saying this is the case here, but it is a real option.

marcus_holmes 8y ago
ahh, I see... so more like speculative R&D, developing a technology to the point where it's saleable to a larger organisation. So there's no need for a customer problem to solve, it's just about building enough capability with the tech to become acqui-hirable, is that right?
- pryelluw 8y ago
  To a point. I cant comment on regards to this being the goal of the company above. We should consider the following: A startup can have a product offering and also be the product itself.
  - marcus_holmes 8y ago
    not sure that works in many places outside Silicon Valley. I've been working in the startup scene in Perth, Western Australia, for years now, and the opportunities for getting bought areslim. A startup there needs to have a global customer base to stand a chance of making revenue, let alone equity growth.
acdha 8y ago
Why is that not done at a tiny fraction of the cost using PKI? None of the parties are secret and there’s a clear line of ownership for every bit of information. What does a blockchain add other than scaling challenges and the opportunity to create an irrecoverable HIPAA violation?
noelsusman 8y ago
We're only required to share the history of care you have with us, which is easily achieved with a standard database. We communicate with other providers using standard protocols that are implemented by every EHR system. I struggle to think of a use case for this in healthcare.

duskwuff 8y ago

> "find a technology, build a solution, work out who has a problem it can solve" Sadly, I feel like this could be used to describe most applications of "blockchain technology".

kbenson 8y ago

> The usual order is "find a problem, build a solution", not "find a technology, build a solution, work out who has a problem it can solve". Well, there is a whole industry of universities of finding a technology and then licensing it out or spinning a company off to do something with it. It may be that it's very hard to do if you don't have all the things a university does going for it, but it does work in some cases. Another way to look at it is to consider that if a technology excels at offering capabilities in a certain domain, and a certain industry is known to require capabilities in a certain domain, if there is a good fit for it, it will probably eventually be deployed there. But if you can be first, there's likely money to be made. In that respect, I imagine a "CEO of a medical blockchain startup which is trying to find actual meaningful use cases" is really just someone (or a small group of people) doing intensive research to try to locate the match if it exists and be the first to provide it. A gamble, but one okay odds given the potential payoff.

JohnFen 8y ago
> there is a whole industry of universities of finding a technology and then licensing it out or spinning a company off to do something with it. Kinda sorta, but that's a difference in kind. Most university research tends to be "basic research", meaning that it tends to be focused on understanding how things work rather than developing anything that is immediately useful. In the course of doing that, sometimes something immediately useful is developed -- but that's not the most common case. This sort of research is not "finding a solution, then looking for a problem to solve". It's simply trying to figure out how our world works.
- kbenson 8y ago
  If you look at all their research, sure, but then you might as well include all their education too, which muddies it more. They definitely seem to also go for directed advances in specific areas. For example, battery technology. Usually, what's developed isn't something to replace the current best choice for most applications, but sometimes it does have features that make it extremely useful for specific applications (such as a very quick charge or discharge time). Was the university research intended to increase the understanding of the topic overall? Likely. Were they also hoping to develop something they could make some revenue from? Surely.

drcode 8y ago

> How's that working out for you? It's a slow process, for exactly the reasons you describe- in fact, I've quoted that exact same line of reasoning many times myself. The reason to work in this area regardless is because there are definitely large opportunities long term.

marcus_holmes 8y ago
That's interesting, and refreshing honesty :) thanks If you don't mind me being more nosy, are the long-term opportunities in this exact line of business? (i.e. do you think that one day medical records will be routinely stored on a blockchain?) or is it more than developing skills and capability with both blockchain and health tech will be valuable in the future?
- drcode 8y ago
  Tracking employee identities in The medical space should be done in a much more rigorous fashion, there are significant benefits in doing this on a public blockchain. Medical records MAY someday end up on a blockchain, but the benefits of this are more hazy and may never outweigh the switching costs.
  - binarnosp 8y ago
    Maybe it could be used to track the certification process for pharmaceuticals or medical software?