LifeCoin-A blockchain based Healthcare Appreciation Network

Inspiration

Imagine a patient who has just recovered from a heart attack. Throughout their recovery and possibly for the rest of their lives, they will often reflect on the numerous people involved in their survival. Many of these individuals are volunteers or underappreciated professionals, such as those who performed CPR or called the ambulance. This network of lifesavers is known as "The Chain of Survival." However, patients may not know everyone who helped or how to properly thank them. We provide a platform to thank them in both a creative and practical way.

What it does

LifeCoin is a platform designed to allow patients to express profound gratitude by sending tokens of appreciation, known as LifeCoins, to individuals who played pivotal roles in saving their lives. Utilizing the blockchain technology platform Ganache, LifeCoin facilitates the seamless sending and receiving of these tokens.

We provide a decentralized LifeCoin Wallet using a secure login using MetaMask for Ethereum account management and real-time display of ETH and LifeCoin balances. Built on Ganache, a local blockchain environment for Ethereum development. Blockchain technology guarantees that each LifeCoin transaction is recorded immutably on the blockchain, providing a verifiable and traceable record of appreciation.

Patients can send LifeCoins as a token of gratitude to everyone involved in the “Chain of Survival.” We provide a LifeCoin Transfer where you can select recipients from a predefined list of only those verified by the hospital as authentic helpers for the patient.

Users can view their recent transaction history, including recipient name, amount transferred, and timestamp, and also access their user profile with account details, including ETH and LifeCoin balances. This project gives scope for LifeCoins to have market value or be redeemable for goods and services at participating organizations (e.g., hospital pharmacies, sponsors).

Challenges we ran into

Without having any knowledge about digital currency or blockchain, our first challenge was to conquer the steep learning curve in this domain in a short duration. (learnt about verbwire a little too late unfortunately)

While implementing the project we also had difficulty in linking our ReactJS frontend with our blockchain smart contracts, which we solved by referring to many internet resources.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

Successfully creating a fully functional platform that bridges healthcare and blockchain technology, enabling patients to show appreciation to their lifesavers in a unique way. We are particularly proud of learning a lot and achieving so much in such a short period of time. Integrating MetaMask for secure Ethereum account management and deploying a decentralized application on Ganache and integrating it with an interactive and clean UI are things we are proud of.

What we learned

We learned a great deal about blockchain technology, smart contract development, and how to integrate these with a frontend application using ReactJS. Our team gained insights into Ethereum, MetaMask, and Ganache, which were crucial for our project's success. We also developed a deeper appreciation for the complexities of ensuring secure and verifiable transactions on the blockchain.

What's next for LifeCoin-A blockchain based Healthcare Appreciation Network

We mainly want to implement Meta transactions that allow users to interact with the blockchain without needing to hold ETH for gas fees. Instead, a third-party service (relayer) pays the gas fees and processes the transaction on behalf of the user. This can enhance the user experience by removing the need for users to acquire and manage ETH.

Improve the frontend design to enhance the interface's intuitiveness and user-friendliness.

Make a similar platform for hospitals where they can maintain records for each patient along with the details and account addresses of their helpers. It can verify that only those who played a part in the rescue are in their database.

Enable users to send personalized messages along with the LifeCoin to personalize their expressions of gratitude further.