We slowed down a bit, but there was no stopping during the American Thanksgiving week. 

Solution Development. 

Our lead developer Dominic has made big strides and is optimistic about being able to finish the program for the miners this week. Its essence is to shift the storing of the genome files to “miners,” which are programs run by external computers that pull the data, process them (i.e. doing a comparison against a reference genome data set), and then store them using IPFS. The miners then get a small reward in the form of HealCoin.

The refactored code is accessible on Github, although still as a private project. We are now able (and willing) to grant access to a larger group of people, starting the process toward a genuine open source project. 

DAF Smart Contract Design.

I have managed to generically outline the logic and design for the DAF smart contract. The biggest portion is in the introduction of another (sub-) smart contract in the form of a “Proposal.” When one thinks through everything, than this is the main additional aspect to the more generic smart contract that we have in place. Heal-ID owners can register by committing coins they own, thus indicating their willingness to become members of the DAF. Once their commitment reaches the specified number of HealCoin, which is verifiable on the Blockchain, then formal member status is reached. 

The main task of the DAF is to make decisions, usually based on overwhelming consensus, about matters of technical, financial, or philosophical nature. Each member can create decision proposals. Once created, all members can pull them from the Blockchain, similar to how a wallet synchronizes, and vote on the proposals. This will be done on the Healid App. 

In general strokes, it is almost as simple as that. It does then of course get a bit more complex. For example, there will be: 

• Stages and time limits for the Proposals. 
• Types of Proposals with different majorities. 
• Proposal documentation linked through IPFS. 
• An automated process for the movement of code into production. 
• Panels and Boards with special authorizations (like for bug fixes or execution of financial decisions), and
• Timing considerations to verify membership (committed votes) at the time when the decision threshold is crossed.  

Africa Trip.

In a couple of days I will start my trip to East Africa. I am excited about getting to know the four countries I am going to visit, and to connect with a wide variety of people. It’s a first step in reaching out and starting a dialogue. So far I have a handful of meetings set up in Kigali and Kampala. 

In Nairobi I am also planning to check out possible sites for the InclusiCon event. The recent appreciation of Bitcoin to close to $10,000 and Ethereum to close to $500 has also doubled the value of the funds raised by many of the big ICOs. This should make it easier for them to participate in the reaching out to the “next billion,” and to expand their global footprint. Of course this remains to be proven. First steps first, and that is to experience East Africa and engage with people there.