We recently caught up with Dentacoin to have a chat about their ongoing ICO. Here is what they had to say about the global dental industry and the solutions they are bringing to it.
UrbanCrypto: How did you come up with the idea for Dentacoin? Are any of your team actual dentists or dental practice managers?
Dentacoin: When first discussions started, we were a small group of Blockchain enthusiasts and a few ambitious dentists, working effectively with digital systems and actively looking for state-of-the-art solutions in dental health care. There are conflicts of interest between dentists and patients, because the costs of acquiring and nurturing patients are getting higher and higher and this naturally leads to increase in the costs for end customers. Therefore, only a limited audience, with certain economic stability can have access to high quality dental care which is fundamentally unfair. Going back to the Hippocratic Oath and applying it to today’s situation, it is only logical that dentists should be paid to prevent treatment and be encouraged to keep patients healthy, instead of going through extensive, timely and costly payments in future. Due to the interesting topics of discussions, this private circle we had formed, attracted many people within the following months, and we soon came up with the idea of bringing Blockchain efficiencies into the dental industry. This is how Dentacoin was born.
UC: What are your Unique Selling Points?
Dentacoin: Dentacoin is the first integral Blockchain solution for the Global Dentistry, aimed at improving dental care worldwide and making it affordable through creating a network of patients, dentists, suppliers, who trustfully cooperate between each other and act in mutual interest. This one-of-a-kind business model uses the current state of the existing industry and introduces solutions to specific problems. Dentacoin is developing a number of blockchain-based tools, as well as introducing two innovative dental clinic concepts, technologically advanced and highly efficient, developed as future business models for the global dental industry. Among the tools of Dentacoin are a Trusted Review Platform (already up-and-running), Dentacare Mobile App, DentaVox webapp, Dentacoin Assurance, a Trading Platform for dental care products, materials and equipment and a Database for medical records. All tools have blockchain integrated functionalities and are served by a custom ERC20 utility token, also named Dentacoin.The token powers the whole Dentacoin network as it is used for rewarding network participants for their contribution to the Foundation’s mission; it is utilized as united means of payment and ensures access to services provided within and across the network. Within the network, network effects are expected where the value of the whole network increases with every new participant added to it.
UC: What differentiates you from other community social-good ICO platforms?
Dentacoin: Apart from providing an industry-specific solution and establishing a unified, commonly agreed upon currency within a certain industry, Dentacoin stands out with its unique value-generating distribution model. The Dentacoin token serves as the chain and the base layer for all the above mentioned and further-developed tools. Through these numerous blockchain-based tools patients and dentists will be rewarded with Dentacoin (DCN) for their willingness to contribute to the Foundation’s mission: to improve dental care and make it affordable worldwide. The essence of this distribution model is that it spreads the currency among the target user group while simultaneously creates co-working communities of patients, dentists and suppliers and generates value for the whole industry. The target group of Dentacoin extends far beyond the closed Blockchain community and consists of more than 600 million potential users.
Dentacoin was implemented as means of payment at partner clinics, exchangeable on international exchange platforms and ranked in top100 on Coinmarketcap even prior its ICO which also differentiates Dentacoin from most of the other project in their very early development stage. Moreover, our first tool – the Trusted Review Platform – has been functioning on the main Ethereum network since the beginning of September 2017 and has over 3500 users and 350 dental practices registered for the short time operating. On the top of it all, an entire company was purchased and paid for in Dentacoin (DCN).
UC: Do you see Dentacoin as a model for healthcare provision worldwide? For example, as an economic model that could be applied to health care provision worldwide?
Dentacoin: The basic model of Dentacoin is applicable worldwide. Currently we are not aware of any legal restrictions against the implementation of our platform solution. There are countries in the world where the access to internet e.g. is limited which could be a challenge for the promotion of the Dentacoin tools. There are other countries where certain regulations on Coin Offerings exist but then again, that has nothing in common with the essence of Dentacoin as a platform solution for the dental industry.
From a long-term perspective, we do contemplate the idea of extending the use of the platform to other fields within the Healthcare sector. Since the first introduction of the concept we are constantly being asked “Why not approaching the whole Healthcare Industry?”. The answer is simple: We wanted to start from a field where we have proven knowledge and experience. Plus, the high level of fragmentation makes dentistry the ideal field for the Blockchain technology to be applied. Dental Industry is highly-fragmented; we are talking here about many lone fighters and thus a low degree of industrialization. Right here is the chance of Dentacoin to set a new clear direction of global dentistry through digitization and crowd power. During recent negotiations with a future partner company, they said that they see “Dentacoin is not only the future of the entire dental industry, it is what lies ahead for all connected supplementary industries”. When it comes to parts, materials and supplies, many manufacturers rely heavily on effective tranfer of funds to increase productivity and fit into time frames. Having to deal with supplies from different countries (often continets) leaves the manufacturers of most industries stuck with having to change between currencies to source different materials. A common, agreed upon, form of payment is the ideal solution to this problem.
However, the main pillars of our concept are also applicable to other fields in Healthcare. The Healthcare Database is the first attempt to jump over the Dentistry borders as it will help professionals in all medical fields to provide the most accurate diagnostics. The Assurance model is another tool which could be applicable in different fields as well.
UC: Why should I invest in your ICO now at this stage?
Dentacoin: Except from the Presale which took place in July 2017, the current ICO is offering Dentacoin at the lowest possible price. Right before the ICO the market value of Dentacoin was a few times higher. This can be easily verified by the price chart on Coinmarketcap. Also, keep in mind that the fundamental price of Dentacoin is over 3700% higher than the offered ICO price in October (detailed calculations in the Whitepaper). After the ICO the real-life value of our tools is expected to increase the market price. There are enough prerequisites for this process to be repeated on a larger scale after the ICO. Therefore, we do advise you to take action soon as the ICO ends on November, the 1st.
UC: Is Dentacoin a utility token or a security in your opinion? Why not offer share to dentists and token to users?
Dentacoin: Dentacoin is a custom-made utility token that serves numerous tailored Blockchain-based tools and powers the whole Dentacoin network. The token is used for rewarding network participants for their contribution to the Foundation’s mission; it is utilized as united means of payment and ensures access to services provided within and across the network. It serves as the chain and the base layer for the Dentacoin network and is equally accessible and practically usable by all participants.
UC: Who will manage your community and act as the police on the trusted review platform? Like Facebook would you also plan to have a group of moderators (volunteers or paid) who uphold standards? For example, to keep trolls from disrupting the community or from skewing data results for Dentists?
Dentacoin: Reviews don’t allow too much interaction; they are feedback from one party to another. To make sure that the quality of reviews is kept on a high standard, we prioritize trusted reviews written by real patients over standard ones. This way we make sure that users mainly read reviews from other users, who are proven to be real patients. Besides that, we make sure that each user can only write a certain amount of reviews per dentist and per year. Furthermore, we’ll implement and up-voting mechanism, that will list valuable feedback higher. Moderators could be influenced or corrupted by patients and dentists. They don’t fit into our concept of decentralized stored and thus uneditable and reliable reviews, that stay around forever and can’t be removed nor modified by single entities.
UC: Social community research shows that people are more likely to write a review when they are unhappy; how will you incentivise patients to write reviews in a timely way, even when they are happy with the service they received? Do you think there should be a bonus structure for rewarding patient’s timely review submissions?
Dentacoin: To engage patients writing reviews, no matter how positive or negative their rating is, we incentivize patients with Dentacoin tokens for sharing their opinions and thus – having an impact on the quality improvement. Every reviewer gets DCN but if you write a trusted review, you get way more coins. Trusted reviews are reviews where you, as a patient, have been invited by email to give detailed and unaltered feedback to your dentist, right after the actual treatment. This way, we make sure that reviews are based on actual treatments and of course are incentivized with a significantly larger amount of Dentacoin.
UC: Have you established working relationships with National Health Services in UK and/or Denmark to understand how you could incorporate their data into your health records/insurance platform to encourage frontline service access through Dentacoin?
Dentacoin: Our plan includes approaching different segments of the global Healthcare industry. However, this plan could not be executed successfully without a thorough localized strategies tailored to the specific characteristics, needs, requirements of each region. Establishing teams with the needed skills and cultural understanding to actively communicate with potential partners, institutions and influencers in key regions is one of the major next steps on our Roadmap, after the ICO.
UC: How would your health insurance work in practice and have you explored partnerships with others in the blockchain space to create smart contracts around these type of insurance products?
Dentacoin: The Dentacoin assurance establishes trust between patients and dentists by connecting them directly and aligning their interests. At the moment we’re building a network of interested partner dentists and clinics all over the globe, that would like to join the Dentacoin movement and later implement the assurance model. Thanks to this brand new notion of a “Hippocratic” dental assurance patients will no longer pay for treatments, but for prevention (“I will prevent disease whenever I can, for prevention is preferable to cure”, Hippocrates Oath). This dental health “guarantee” will be concluded in the form of Smart contract between a dentist and a patient. The essence of this concept is that through low monthly rates paid in DCN, patients will be assured to receive lifelong dental care by their dentist. Dentists should therefore provide patients will individual advice on how to take proper care for their teeth and how to form general dental care habits through the Dentacare app. Only if patients adhere to these recommendations and pay their monthly rates, dentists are obliged to keep them healthy by covering all treatment costs. Thus, the responsibility for one’s health is shared and interests are aligned.
See our full Dentacoin ICO profile for more information