A few months ago, Microsoft founder Bill Gates took part in a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” session, and, not surprisingly, he was asked about crypto-currencies. What was surprising was his answer: The tech entrepreneur-turned-philanthropist said that crypto-currencies have caused deaths.
Really? How so?
"The main feature of crypto-currencies is their anonymity. I don't think this is a good thing. The government's ability to find money laundering and tax evasion and terrorist funding is a good thing.... Right now, crypto-currencies are used for buying fentanyl and other drugs so it is a rare technology that has caused deaths in a fairly direct way."
Amid all his guff about the things he doesn’t think are good and the things he thinks are good, he is totally, absolutely right about one thing. Not about crypto-currencies, of course. You would think Bill Gates, of all people, should know better about how money -digital or conventional- buys you anything you want, even anonymity – maybe being among the world’s five richest people has its own difficulties, who knows?
Anyway, he is right about fentanyl.
Buying fentanyl and other drugs -with digital or conventional currency- is definitely a bad thing.
And what is worse is the risk of buying fentanyl without even knowing what you buy is fentanyl.
LETHAL COCTAIL: FENTANYL + PRESCRIPTION PAINKILLERS
Lately, fentanyl is made into fake prescription pills such as Oxycodone and Xanax, causing overdose deaths in many patients who thought they were on legitimately prescribed medication.
But that is not the half of it when it comes to fake medicines. In fact, the World Health Organization (WHO) has been warning for years that counterfeit drugs are a growing threat. The numbers are shocking: According to WHO, one in 10 medical products in developing countries1 and 50 percent of drugs sold online are fraudulent2 , and counterfeit drugs are responsible for up to one million deaths each year3.
Now, I don’t know about Bill Gates, but if I don’t want to lose my life while trying to gain back my health, I should really be aware and alert to the risks of counterfeit drugs because I live in a developing country.
So, let’s slam pharmaceutical sales all together for being opaque and unregulated.
After all, they have caused deaths in a very direct way.
But wait.
When the medicine is genuine, it could provide significant benefits, like, you know, healing and saving lives, so we might prefer to figure out a more transparent way to reach genuine drugs.
Luckily, someone already has.
TRACK AND TRACE
FarmaTrust has figured out a way to track each legitimate packet of drugs.
Once a drug leaves the legitimate manufacturer, FarmaTrust system starts to track it, so no fake drugs can infiltrate the supply chain.
It seems too easy, right? If it is that easy, how come nobody came up with this solution before?
The answer lies in the blockchain – the technology behind the crypto-currencies. In fact, FarmaTrust is one of the perfect use-cases for the blockchain. When you track something -money or in this case, a drug- on the blockchain, since blockchain creates immutable records, you can be sure of genuineness of what you are tracking.
FarmaTrust works on FTT and ZOI tokens (not crypto-currencies). The FTT token is a publicly tradable digital asset, the ZOI tokens, on the other hand, are only available to use on the Zoi platform, and they are used to create Compliant Product tracking token which is specifically designed to digitally track genuine products that have been packed with unique Serialized Product Keys.
So, thanks to the tracking token -and other complicated mechanisms I don’t understand- the system ensures transparency and compliance at each stage of the drug supply chain.
Is there a way for me to check if a pill is genuine before swallowing it?
Indeed, there is. I will be able to check if a medicine is genuine or not via the FarmaTrust App.
Isn’t it amazing?
This may “genuinely” save my life!
AFFORDABLE PRICES
But then, being alive and not being Bill Gates-rich has also its own difficulties.
Drugs are too expensive, especially in developing countries. Most of them are not produced domestically, so we need to import them, and this adds new links to the drug supply chain, causing a significant increase in prices.
In fact, as far as I know, drugs are too expensive even in developed countries. The reasons behind high drug prices in the US are a bit complicated –sorry for you, guys; but the rest is generally suffering from the inefficiencies in the drug supply chains.
At this point, FarmaTrust has again come up with a solution.
By integrating blockchain technology with artificial intelligence and advanced data analytics, FarmaTrust Zoi platform promises to maximize efficiencies in drug supply chain. It will provide services like automated regulatory reporting, automated audit, automated payments… Services that ease the workloads of pharmaceutical companies, manufacturers, logistics and supply, and even governments and regulators I guess.
It is hard for me to understand the technology that enables a fully automated system in such a fragmented supply chain, but it could be read as “cost-effective medicines” and, hopefully, “affordable drug prices”, and this I understand very well indeed.
Bill Gates recently made a guest appearance on “The Big Bang Theory.”
In the show, his foundation was looking to partner with a pharmaceutical company to help develop affordable vaccines.
At one point or another, for one reason or another, it seems like we all may need to look for affordable drugs, and wouldn’t it be fantastic if we could also find genuine ones!
More Information & Resources:
- FarmaTrust Website
- FarmaTrust WhitePaper
- FarmaTrust Telegram
- FarmaTrust Reddit
- FarmaTrust BitcoinTalk
- FarmaTrust Twitter
- FarmaTrust Facebook
- FarmaTrust Linkedin
- FarmaTrust Medium
- FarmaTrust Instagram
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