Sciences Po's Meditect Wins Transatlantic Blockchain Innovation Challenge

The Alliance Program—an innovative transatlantic partnership between Columbia University and France—and Startup Columbia jointly hosted the first Blockchain Innovation Challenge (BIC) in April. 

The competition was open to students and recent graduates from Columbia and its French partner universities École Polytechnique, Sciences Po, and Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University as part of the Startup Columbia 6th Annual Entrepreneurship Festival. They were invited to submit proposals for new or existing ventures using blockchain technology to create innovative solutions in a range of areas, including: crypto protocols, finance, asset management, investment, insurance, supply chain, property, healthcare, online publishing, journalism, entertainment, the Internet of Things, voting and elections.

The winner of the competition Meditect from Sciences Po has been awarded the 2019 Blockchain Innovation Challenge Prize of $30,000 to support the development of their project. Each runner up team has been awarded a prize of $5,000.

First place ($30,000):

Meditect (Sciences Po)

Each year, more than 1 million people in the world die because of counterfeit medicines. With Meditect, patients and health professionals can scan their box of medicine to verify its authenticity and benefit from several information such as posology in different languages. Using Blockchain technology, Meditect and pharmaceutical companies empower patients and health professionals and strengthen public health in developing regions. The Meditect app is designed for pharmaceutical companies, pharmacists and patients and is currently deployed in West Africa. Team members: Romain Renard, Arnaud Pourredon, Charles Cotillon, Verlaine Artus, Maylis Denis, Matthieu Bagory, Sacha Servan Schreiber, Maxime Petit

Runners-up ($5,000):

“Unchain My Art” (Paris 1 Panthéon Sorbonne)

Unchain my Art has the ambition to enhance art exhibitions globally. Nowadays, numerous art pieces are in the hands of private collectors all around the world, while more exhibitions encounter large-scale public success. The need to connect both is pressing and would benefit all, but as collectors want to stay anonymous, museums can hardly connect with them. To solve this problem and enable exchange in a trustworthy environment we imagined a collective blockchain-based platform that can certify ownership while ensuring anonymity. Our project will help museums in their mission and make culture accessible to all. Team members: Maxime Michel, Raphaël Grenier

“Ash” (Ecole Polytechnique)

Ash is a platform on which each actor is able to sell its digital creations without any intermediary. For instance, it is possible to directly publish an ebook and send it to readers, raise funds for a new episode of a web series or share the development costs of a software plug-in between interested customers. In practice, encrypted offers transit freely without any entity to control or influence the user. The peer-to-peer encryption protocol used by Ash ensures the privacy of personal data thanks to cutting-edge technology. Team members: Abel Adary, Louis Raison, Paul Roussel, Pierre Tholoniat, Enlin Zhu

“Moon” (Columbia University)

Moon is a browser extension that allows you to shop with cryptocurrency anywhere online instantly, securely and without fees. Link your Coinbase account or use the wallet of your choice to make purchases using Bitcoin, Litecoin, Ether, and others. Unlike other cryptocurrency payment products, our solution does not require a direct integration with merchants. For example, users in the US can shop directly on Amazon.com with their crypto. Just install Moon and you can shop on Amazon.com with Bitcoin. Team: Ken Kruger

The Alliance Program provides a platform to explore the future of global education and encourages the exchange of people, knowledge practices and resources. The 2019 Blockchain Innovation Challenge judges are:

• Emeline Foster, Executive Director, French-American Foundation
• Frédéric Montagnon, Co-Founder and CEO at LGO Group
• Anne-Claire Legendre, Consul General of France in New York
• Yann Coatanlem, Managing Director and Global Head of Citi’s Multi-Asset Quantitative Analysis Group
• Erik Laurence, Founder of Polarian Partners
• Thomas Klocanas, Director of Strategy at ConsenSys
• Jacob Shepherd, Founder and Chief Strategist of Trackter Systems
• Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet, Vice-President of Cybersecurity, Capgemini
• Noreen Weiss, Partner of McDonald Weiss