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I am not referring to CoinMD so much but this paragraph... "Imagine a future where renegade doctors shun licensing laws and practice medicine over the internet

I am not referring to CoinMD so much but this paragraph... "Imagine a future where renegade doctors shun licensing laws and practice medicine over the internet. They build up a reputation around an anonymous identity. Use public key cryptography to sign their diagnosis, reassuring the patient that it really came from them. It’s not hard to imagine this would create a demand for anonymous accreditation agencies. These agencies could issue exams and then use their digital signature to sign the credentials of doctors who pass the exam. Patients pay for these services in anonymous currency ― Bitcoin ― and pay fraction of the price they would pay to the government enforced monopoly."

eli5 13y ago
I think it's a great paragraph, actually. This described future is not that different from what we have now. You would still have licences and doctors checked and examined. However, it would be done not by one monopoly (state), but rather by various organizations. Don't you think this would actually increase professionalism? So imagine doctors would actually have to comply with various rigorous standards different accreditation agencies demand, since they want to be able to treat more patients (that is, have more customers). Isn't such a system better? And wouldn't it be more flexible since those accreditation agencies would be able to quickly adjust their standards according to what market demands? On the other hand, there are plenty of medical professionals that don't really need some standardized kind of training that state currently requires them to have. Thus, it's a waste of time and resources for them (and higher prices for consumers). In a free system, they could simply skip to what they believe best suits their specialty. CoinMD may be at its infancy now, but I can totally see it becoming one of such agencies in the future. It's not gonna be like Amazon reviews of course, more like professional accreditation, audit and licencing - but on the free market.

eli5 13y ago

I think it's a great paragraph, actually. This described future is not that different from what we have now. You would still have licences and doctors checked and examined. However, it would be done not by one monopoly (state), but rather by various organizations. Don't you think this would actually increase professionalism? So imagine doctors would actually have to comply with various rigorous standards different accreditation agencies demand, since they want to be able to treat more patients (that is, have more customers). Isn't such a system better? And wouldn't it be more flexible since those accreditation agencies would be able to quickly adjust their standards according to what market demands? On the other hand, there are plenty of medical professionals that don't really need some standardized kind of training that state currently requires them to have. Thus, it's a waste of time and resources for them (and higher prices for consumers). In a free system, they could simply skip to what they believe best suits their specialty. CoinMD may be at its infancy now, but I can totally see it becoming one of such agencies in the future. It's not gonna be like Amazon reviews of course, more like professional accreditation, audit and licencing - but on the free market.