Uber Does Blockchain in Health Startup

 Another indication that Blockchain is spreading to digital industry.

Uber Subsidiary Grants Ethereum Startup Access To Entire American Fleet

Michael del Castillo and Forbes  Staff
Crypto & Blockchain in Forbes.

Ride-sharing giant Uber has taken another step towards blockchain with news today that its healthcare subsidiary, Uber Health, has granted access of its entire American fleet to Solve.Care, a startup using the ethereum blockchain to connect nearly every aspect of the healthcare ecosystem via a shared ledger of transactions.

When the service goes live later this year, Solve.Care’s clients will not only be able to schedule doctor’s visits and book rides to healthcare care appointments, but they’ll also be able to pay for the services using either of the company’s native tokens, representing the first time any Uber subsidiary has opened up its doors to a company using cryptocurrency.

While Solve.Care patients won’t pay Uber drivers directly in cryptocurrency, they will have the option to pay for the services with either the solve token or the care coin, both issued on the ethereum blockchain, and Solve.Care will periodically settle directly with Uber. Drivers won’t need to wait to be compensated but will continue to have access to their existing payment options.


Following news last month that Uber has joined Facebook and 26 other companies in founding the Libra Association, developing the libra cryptocurrency for global payments, this latest development shows an increased willingness of the $72 billion publicly traded company to dabble in blockchain.

As enterprises around the world are increasingly taking the technology first popularized by bitcoin more seriously, such partnerships, where a well-known publicly traded company gets to learn about blockchain up close and personal but without skin in the game, are likely to be increasingly common. 


“This is just the beginning,” says Uber Health head Dan Trigub, who previously worked as vice president of healthcare partnerships at Lyft, a member of the Libra Association and also a Solve.Care partner. “We’re always going to be looking to expand and grow what we can do with Solve.Care. I think in blockchain in general, it’s still early days.”

Launched in March 2018, Uber Health is a wholly owned subsidiary of Uber, which went public in May with plans to expand its healthcare offerings. The stock is currently trading at $42.95, down 8% over the past five days. Trigub says “dozens” of companies have since tapped directly into Uber Health’s application programming interface (API), giving them direct access to the transportation giant’s fleet of cars. Since the API is designed to comply with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), patients have increased confidence their privacy is being protected. ...  "