#zero code platform for pharma

[ristesh]

Accelerating Pharma Solutions with Easy-to-Use Zero-Code Platforms

At WhizAI, we are accelerating pharma solutions with easy-to-use zero-code platforms. Our zero-code platform for pharma enables teams to quickly build and deploy powerful AI-driven solutions without the need for technical expertise. By simplifying the process of data analysis and decision-making, we help pharma organizations streamline operations, improve efficiency, and drive faster, more informed outcomes, all while reducing the complexity and costs associated with traditional development processes.

[rkumar955]

Unlocking Efficiency in Pharma with a Zero-Code Platform

A zero-code platform for pharma enables organizations to streamline workflows and automate processes without the need for complex coding. This intuitive solution empowers teams to quickly build, deploy, and scale applications, improving efficiency and reducing operational costs. By unlocking faster decision-making and enhancing collaboration, a zero-code platform helps pharma companies innovate, accelerate drug development, and optimize business operations.

[appitsoftware]

Elevate Your E-Commerce with Appit’s Custom Adobe Commerce Development Services

In today’s fast-evolving digital economy, e-commerce is not just a convenience—it’s the cornerstone of business growth. For ambitious brands looking to deliver superior customer experiences, scale globally, and dominate their niche, Adobe Commerce (powered by Magento) stands as the most robust, flexible, and future-proof platform.

At Appit Software, we offer bespoke Adobe Commerce development services designed to elevate your e-commerce business with customized features, seamless integrations, powerful performance, and unmatched scalability. Whether you're launching a new store, migrating from another platform, or enhancing your current Adobe Commerce setup, Appit helps you transform digital commerce into a competitive advantage.

Why Choose Adobe Commerce for Your Online Business

Adobe Commerce combines the flexibility of open-source Magento with enterprise-grade features from Adobe Experience Cloud, making it one of the most powerful e-commerce platforms on the market. Key benefits include:

Omnichannel Selling Capabilities

Customizable Product Catalogs

Advanced Marketing & Promotions

Integrated B2B and B2C Functionality

Multi-Store and Multi-Currency Support

AI-Driven Product Recommendations

Robust Security and PCI Compliance

With Adobe Commerce, you gain endless flexibility and deep customization, empowering your business to stand out in an increasingly crowded digital landscape.

Appit’s Adobe Commerce Development Services: Key Offerings

Appit delivers full-lifecycle Adobe Commerce development, tailored to your unique goals and industry requirements. Our solutions are built to scale and optimized for performance, speed, and security.

1. Custom Adobe Commerce Store Development

We design and build high-performance, visually stunning, and fully responsive Adobe Commerce websites that reflect your brand identity and deliver a flawless user experience.

Custom UI/UX design

Responsive and mobile-first development

Personalized customer journeys

Conversion-optimized product pages

Fast-loading, SEO-friendly architecture

2. Adobe Commerce Migration and Replatforming

If you’re moving from Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, or a legacy platform, Appit ensures a seamless, zero-downtime migration to Adobe Commerce.

Data migration (products, customers, orders)

URL and SEO mapping preservation

Extension and theme compatibility

Training and post-launch support

3. Adobe Commerce Extension Development

Unlock new features and functionalities with custom-built extensions or tailor existing modules to meet your specific needs.

Payment and shipping integration

ERP, CRM, and third-party API connections

Loyalty and referral programs

Subscription management tools

AI personalization modules

4. Performance Optimization and Hosting

Speed and uptime directly impact sales and SEO. Appit delivers lightning-fast e-commerce experiences with advanced performance tuning and secure, scalable hosting.

Caching, indexing, and CDN setup

Code and database optimization

Cloud hosting on AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud

24/7 monitoring and support

5. Adobe Commerce Managed Services

Let Appit handle the technical side while you focus on growth. Our end-to-end managed services include:

Ongoing updates and patching

Bug fixes and security hardening

Feature rollouts and custom enhancements

Analytics integration and reporting

Dedicated support teams

B2B and B2C Commerce Solutions Tailored to Your Industry

Appit’s Adobe Commerce expertise spans both B2B and B2C environments, providing tailored solutions that meet your industry's exact needs:

Retail & Fashion: Personalized shopping experiences, lookbooks, inventory sync

Electronics: Bundled products, warranty management, and real-time support

Healthcare & Pharma: HIPAA-compliant portals and subscription-based ordering

Automotive: Complex product configurations and parts filtering

Industrial & Wholesale: Quoting systems, tiered pricing, and bulk order management

Our industry-aligned approach ensures faster time-to-market, enhanced user engagement, and increased ROI.

Why Choose Appit for Adobe Commerce Development

Appit is not just a development partner—we are e-commerce strategists, combining technical excellence with business insight to fuel your growth.

Adobe Certified Developers and Solution Architects

Agile Development Methodology

UX/UI Experts with E-Commerce Focus

Dedicated Project Management and QA

Proven Track Record Across 50+ Commerce Projects

We provide more than a solution—we provide a scalable e-commerce engine that grows with your business and delights your customers.

Integrated E-Commerce Marketing and Analytics

Success doesn’t stop at development. Appit offers integrated marketing and analytics solutions that help you drive traffic, improve conversions, and gain actionable insights.

Adobe Analytics and Google Analytics integration

SEO optimization and schema markup

Email marketing automation

A/B testing and personalization

Real-time performance dashboards

With the power of Adobe Commerce and the strategy of Appit, you’ll have the tools and visibility needed to dominate your market.

Post-Launch Support and Continuous Improvement

Our engagement doesn’t end at go-live. We offer ongoing support, enhancement, and strategic consulting to help you adapt to market changes and evolving customer expectations.

New feature development

UX refresh and redesigns

Regular platform updates

Performance audits and tuning

Continuous innovation planning

As your e-commerce partner, Appit is with you every step of the way.

Future-Proof Your Digital Commerce with Appit

The digital commerce battlefield is evolving fast. Staying ahead means choosing the right platform—and the right partner. With Appit’s Adobe Commerce Development Services, your business is equipped with a high-performance, scalable, and customer-first e-commerce solution built for today and ready for tomorrow.

Build smarter. Sell faster. Scale further. Appit delivers the tools, expertise, and commitment to help you thrive in the global digital marketplace.

[intvestorrelationadvisor]

Social Media in Investor Relations: How to Turn Followers into Investors

Introduction Let’s talk about investor relations. You know, that thing that used to involve thick reports, jargon-filled calls, and PowerPoint slides that put everyone to sleep? Yeah, that. But here’s the twist: investors today aren’t just reading your annual report they’re scrolling through LinkedIn, retweeting earnings highlights, and maybe even sliding into your DMs.

And if you’re in Mumbai, you’re in the perfect spot to ride this wave. The city’s buzzing with IR advisory partners in Mumbai who’ve cracked the code on blending Mumbai’s hustle with global investor expectations. So, grab a chai, and let’s chat about how social media is turning investor relations from a monologue into a conversation.

Why Social Media? (Spoiler: It’s Not Just for Memes)

1. Investors Are Humans Too (Shocking, Right?) Imagine this: You’re at a Mumbai café, explaining your company’s growth strategy to a friend. You’d use simple words, maybe a joke or two. Social media lets you do the same but for thousands of investors. A fintech startup in Andheri worked with an investor relations advisor in Mumbai to turn their ESG report into a LinkedIn carousel. Result? 500+ shares and a flood of DMs from curious investors.

2. Real-Time Updates = Real Trust Remember when news traveled by post? Neither do we. When a Mumbai logistics company hit a carbon-neutral milestone, their IR advisory partner in Mumbai live-tweeted the event with photos of their electric fleet. Investors saw transparency in action no waiting for the quarterly report.

3. Crisis? Handle It Like a Pro Picture this: A rumor about layoffs starts swirling on Twitter. Instead of panicking, a Mumbai edtech company’s investor relations advisor drafted a candid LinkedIn post from the CEO: “No layoffs. Just doubling down on growth. Here’s how.” Crisis averted, trust intact.

4. ESG Isn’t a Buzzword It’s a Story Investors don’t want to read about your “sustainability framework.” They want to see your solar panels, meet your diverse team, and feel your impact. One Top Investor Relations Advisory Firm in India helped a client post Instagram Reels of their zero-waste factory. Suddenly, ESG wasn’t a section in a report it was a vibe.

Platform Hacks: Where to Post (and How Not to Bomb)

LinkedIn: Your Digital Boardroom

Why it works: CEOs sharing candid thoughts? Check. Deep dives into strategy? Check.

Pro tip: Partner with an investor relations adviser to write posts that sound human, not ChatGPT. Example: Instead of “Q4 EBITDA exceeded projections,” try “How our team crushed Q4 (and what’s next).”

Twitter (X): The Watercooler of Finance

Why it works: Quick updates, earnings call soundbites, and yes, even memes (if they’re on-brand).

Pro tip: Use threads to explain complex decisions. “Why we’re expanding to Tier 2 cities ��” works better than a 10-page PDF.

YouTube: Show, Don’t Tell

Why it works: A 3-minute video of your CFO explaining cash flow beats a 30-minute call.

Mumbai example: A local pharma firm worked with an IR advisory firm in Mumbai to create animated videos breaking down R&D investments. Views tripled—and so did investor questions (the good kind).

Mistakes to Avoid (Unless You Like Cringe)

Don’t Ghost Your Audience Posting once a month? That’s like showing up to a party at midnight when everyone’s left. Consistency matters.

Don’t Be a Robot Investors follow humans, not corporate-speak machines. An investor relations advisor in Mumbai put it best: “Write like you’re explaining it to your grandma.”

Don’t Ignore the Comments Someone asks about your debt ratio? Answer it. Silence screams “we’re hiding something.”

Mumbai Spotlight: How Social Media Got a Startup Funded

Meet “GreenCart,” a Mumbai agritech startup. Great product, zero investor love. Then they teamed up with one of the best Investor Relations Advisory Firms in India. Here’s what changed:

LinkedIn: CEO posts about farmers’ success stories (with real photos from Nashik).

Twitter: Threads explaining their “no-middleman” model in plain English.

YouTube: A 2-minute video of their warehouse robots (spoiler: investors adored the robots).

Six months later? They closed a $5M funding round. Moral of the story? Investors don’t just want data they want to believe.

Why You Need an IR Advisor (Especially in Mumbai)

Let’s be real: You’re busy running a business, not obsessing over LinkedIn algorithms. That’s where Investor Relations Advisory Firms in India come in:

They Know Mumbai’s Pulse A local IR advisory partner in Mumbai gets the city’s mix of traditional investors and tech-savvy VCs. They’ll tell you when to post during lunch breaks (hint: not during vada pav o’clock).

They Turn Numbers into Narratives EBITDA? Yawn. But “How we saved ₹2 crore by going solar”? That’s a story.

They’re Your Crisis BFF When things go sideways, they’ll help you craft a response that’s honest, humble, and human.

Final Thought Social media isn’t about going viral. It’s about building relationships one post, one comment, one DM at a time. And if you’re in Mumbai, you’ve got a secret weapon: IR advisory firms in Mumbai who speak both “investor” and “human.”

So, next time you’re drafting a tweet, ask yourself: Would I send this to a friend? If not, maybe call an investor relations advisor.

[weekinethereum]

June 14, 2018

Ethereum News and Links

Protocol

Counterfactual: generalized state channels. Academic paper. Also Jeff Coleman Reddit comment on the history and progress of state channels. The rest of that Reddit thread is worth reading as well.

Tom Close: Minimal Progamable State Channels

Latest Casper standup call

Drake: Committee-based sharded Casper.

Drake: 1-bit BLS aggregation-friendly custody bonds

More Justin Drake: “we are considering changing the Ethereum 2.0 roadmap to skip Casper FFG with 1500 ETH deposits. Instead Casper and sharding validators would be unified from the get-go in the beacon chain, and deposits would be 32 ETH.” Two less technical Reddit threads worth reading: one and two.

Prysmatic’s geth sharding implementation update

Hsiao-Wei Wang: what you can do for sharding slide deck. Nice sharding overview in there as well.

Latest Plasma implementation calls: this week and two weeks ago

an “alternative light-client concept for plasma chain clients”

Dan Robinson: Plasma Debit. payment channels on Plasma Cash?

Loi Luu video talk on Kyber’s Gormos scalability project: application specific “plasma plus sharding”

Ben Jones, Kelvin Fichter: More Viable Plasma

Alexey Akhunov: latest on Turbo-Geth

Stuff for developers

First Vyper beta release

Truper: compile vyper contracts to truffle compatible artifacts.

Karen Scarbrough: A guide to generalized state channels for developers. And part 2.

Connext on becoming a network for projects to open hubs

Human readable contract ABIs using ethers.js

sol2proto  -  Amis’s first step to Contract as a Service

hevm: an EVM implementation for unit testing from Dapphub

ethQL: a graphQL interface from ConsenSys

Loom SDK out in public beta with long update on their plans

dappeteer: e2e testing with Puppeteer + MetaMask

libSTARK: C++ library for Starks from EliBen-Sasson

Thetta DAO framework v0.1. Github repo

Eth dev with Go online guide book

Cryptographic javascript-functions for Ethereum with web3js tutorials

Ecosystem

Slock.it INCUBED client - a network of server nodes for Slockit’s IoT devices

How Weeve puts an Eth wallet in trusted enclave

Latest Open Block Explorers call

John Wolpert on the future of private and public blockchains

Introducing EthIndia and EthBerlin applications are open

Vitalik’s ELI5 on the difference between full and archive nodes

Tips on applying for ECF grants

Releases

Geth v1.8.11: 28% less disk usage, 23% faster block processing, increased memory stability

Governance and Standards

Casey Detrio on what happened to EIP648 (tldr: disk I/O is bottleneck, not CPU)

ERC721 finished last call and is finalized

Dean Eigenmann: against community governance

Avsa: governance of the .ETH namespace and ENS foundation

PoA Network governance model

Project Updates

Augur bounty program opens tomorrow before full launch on July 9

Bloomberg on the Decentraland land rush

Dharma 3 month roadmap: improve dharma.js API, better documentation, standardize terms on some debt agreements

Maker: a Dai primer

Now much easier to pay in tokens like Dai on Gitcoin

How Golem wants to use SGX for computational integrity and privacy

FunFair to seek platform licenses so casino operators don’t have to get their own license

TrustWallet to sell its tokens on Kyber

Brave at 2.7m MAUs and giving away 500k more in BAT

0x’s vision, mission and core values

Andy Warhol work to be auctioned by Maecenas

Interviews, Podcasts, Videos, Talks

Truebit’s Harley Swick on Hashing It Out

Grigore Rosu talks K framework on Epicenter

Joey Krug with Laura Shin

5 mins of Joey Krug’s story of risktaking leading him to Augur

Meher Roy gets interviewed by Decrypt Asia

Glen Weyl lecture on Radical Markets at Google

Video of Kyber Network’s event last week

Griff Green revisits The DAO on Zero Knowledge

Tokens

SEC’s William Hinman: “current offers and sales of Ether are not securities transactions.”

CFTC Commissioner Rostin Behnam: “Blockchain is more than technology: it is an advance that reaches out into every aspect of life.”

Colony’s Hackathon is an MVP of perpetual inflation to incentivize developers.

Etherisc: democratizing insurance using blockchain

A compendium of NFT links

Ujo: expanding collectibles for artists

Incentivized music curation with curved bonding rewards

What if BitTorrent had a token? More lessons learned from p2p file sharing by John Backus

General

Leigh Cuen reports on Code to Inspire offering Afghan women opportunities to earn Eth for completing tasks

How Polkadot is addressing the big issues in blockchain

Academic paper claiming Bitfinex/Tether manipulated Bitcoin price. I skimmed and did not see reason to update my priors. Still maybe.

Coinbase Index Fund is now open.

VB answers a few technical questions on Marginal Revolution.

Irish newspaper interviews Joe Lubin

Discussion of 20 psychological biases around money that is getting passed around in crypto circles this last week

A year after the sale, Tezos adds KYC/AML

WSJ on big pharma companies tracking supply chains using Ethereum.

Dates of Note

Upcoming dates of note:

June 24 -- Colony online hackathon finishes

June 25 -- Etherisc token sale starts

June 28 -- BuildEth (San Francisco)

June 30 -- Solidity Gas Golfing challenge deadline

June 30-July1 -- Off the chain state channel workshop (Berlin)

July 6-7 -- TechCrunch blockchain and Ethereum events (Zug)

July 9 -- Augur scheduled to launch

July 12-18 -- IC3 Eth Bootcamp (Ithaca, NY)

July 14-15 -- FEM governance meetings in Berlin

July 19-20 -- DappCon (Berlin)

July 24-26 — NIFTY hackathon and NFT conference (Hong Kong)

August 3-4 -- Discon (Boulder, CO)

August 10-12 -- EthIndia hackathon (Bangalore)

September 6 -- Security unconference (Berlin)

September 7-9 -- EthBerlin hackathon

September 7-9 -- WyoHackathon (Wyoming)

Oct 5-7 -- TruffleCon in Portland

Oct 5-7 -- EthSanFrancisco hackathon

Oct 22-24 -- Web3Summit (Berlin)

Oct 30 - Nov 2 -- Devcon4 (Prague)

December -- EthSingapore hackathon

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[pharmaphorumuk]

Digital health round-up: Robot tells MPs that AI could transform elderly care

A House of Commons committee questioned a humanoid robot, Pepper, to see how artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics can be used to help care for older people.

Pepper is currently based at Middlesex University and works with final year students on robotics, psychology, biomedicine and education.

An identical robot with different programming is also part of a three-year international research project called Caresses, which is developing the world’s first culturally aware robots aimed at assisting with care for older people.

Pepper told the education select committee that the service could cut costs for caring for older people, as well as helping with issues such as loneliness.

Pepper said: “Assistive intelligent robots for older people could relieve pressure on hospitals and care homes as well as improve the care delivery at home and promote independent living for elderly people.”

SoftBank Robotics, the firm behind Pepper, claims that the humanoid is capable of ‘understanding and reacting to main human emotions’.

It states: “Pepper is well equipped with features and a high level interface for communicating with those around him. Pepper analyses expressions and voice tones using the latest advances in voice recognition.”

Orbita explores voice tech with Brigham and Women’s Hospital 

Orbita, a firm specialising in voice and chatbot applications in healthcare, has joined forces with Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, to explore how voice-enabled and conversational artificial intelligence (AI) can improve patient care.

The organisations will collaborate on innovation of digital health care applications that use voice assistants, chatbots, and other conversational user interfaces to improve patient engagement, remote care, clinical efficiency and business processes.

Orbita will provide its cloud-based platform, Orbita Voice, to enable Brigham’s Digital Innovation Hub to explore, prototype and test the feasibility of voice and chatbot capabilities across a range of inpatient, outpatient and in-home use cases.

Orbita Voice is an enterprise-grade platform for designing, building and maintaining voice and chatbot health care applications that comply with US health regulations, where data security and integrating with existing systems and processes are critical.

Clients include the American Red Cross, Amgen, and the Mayo Clinic.

Brigham and Women’s Health and Orbita began their collaboration through MassChallenge HealthTech, an accelerator based in Massachusetts that matches digital health companies with industry partners to address massive challenges in health.

MassChallenge is a global network of zero-equity start-up accelerators. Headquartered in the US with locations in Boston, Israel, Mexico, Switzerland, Texas, and the UK, MassChallenge drives global innovation by supporting high-potential start-ups across all industries, from anywhere in the world.

Sophia Genetics launches ‘genome browser’ software

The Swiss medical data firm Sophia Genetics has launched the latest iteration of its “genome browser” software, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help researchers assess whether errors in the DNA code are leading to diseases such as cancer.

The company is among a growing group of companies offering tools that help scientists to perform complex genetic analyses.

Competitors include BlueBee solutions, Genestack and DNAnexus, which aim to help pharma companies and others analyse genetic information to gain insights that could lead to new therapy approaches.

Sophia’s Alamut Genova is the latest evolution of Alamut Visual, which is already used by over 500 healthcare institutions worldwide.

Its decision support technology enables clinical researchers to solve complex genomic interpretation cases more intuitively.

It graphically displays complex genomic information from various sources and prediction algorithms in a single environment.

Other features include pathology classification, 3D protein visualisation, visualisation of DNA analysis, and new predictions for gene splicing.

The tools on offer allow geneticists to identify and explore variants associated with hereditary disorders and cancer, the company said.

Deep Lens unveils AI pathology assistant

Digital pathology start-up Deep Lens has unveiled an artificial intelligence (AI) platform that will enable pathologists to diagnose cancer patients more swiftly and accurately.

The Ohio-based company has secured early funding worth $3.2m for Virtual Imaging for Pathology Education and Research (VIPER).

The platform uses advanced AI to conduct certain monotonous diagnostic tests instantaneously. This allows diagnoses to be made speedily.

VIPER can also help pathologists to match patients with any relevant clinical trials so that they access the latter as soon as possible.

Another aspect of the platform is to enable pathologists to collaborate with one another and to keep patients informed, and connected with, the most advanced clinical research.

Feedback from hundreds of users based in 65 institutions means VIPER will soon include AI-powered image detection, workflow support, telepathology, cloud storage, and built-in application programming interfaces (APIs) for integration by hardware and software vendors and biopharma companies.

App helps women monitor gestational diabetes

Artificial intelligence company Sensyne Health has launched a new app that helps women manage gestational diabetes, and five NHS hospitals have already signed up.

GDm-Health is a tool enabling remote management of gestational diabetes, reducing the need for expectant mothers to attend additional medical appointments and reducing pressure on midwives and NHS services.

The app, an approved device that complies with requirements in the European Medical Directive, allows patients to connect a blood glucose meter to their smartphone so they can monitor and securely submit real-time information via an app.

Doctors can then review the results outside their usual antenatal appointments.

This frees up clinicians’ time to focus on the woman’s care needs rather than collecting and recording data, meaning they are able to prioritise care for women most at need.

Five NHS Trusts have signed contracts to use GDm-Health and the system will be available to their patients and midwives, following a two-year clinical evaluation in the NHS by over 2,000 women in partnership with Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and Royal Berkshire NHS  Foundation Trust.

Three additional NHS Trusts will be implementing GDm-Health in the coming weeks, including Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, Croydon Health Services NHS Trust and Milton Keynes University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust.

Gestational diabetes is a pregnancy-related disease that is increasing in prevalence, driven by demographic and lifestyle changes.

In the UK, the rise is predicted to reach a prevalence of over 16%, from a baseline of around 4% in 2008 and is a condition that without tight blood glucose control can lead to adverse maternal and foetal outcomes.

Results published in March 2018 from a randomised controlled trial for GDm-Health (203 participants), demonstrated its value to both women and the NHS including: statistically significant improvement in patient satisfaction, adherence to glucose monitoring, a reduction in caesarean sections, a trend towards reduction in pre-term births and potential for cost-savings to the NHS through improved patient outcomes.

      The post Digital health round-up: Robot tells MPs that AI could transform elderly care appeared first on Pharmaphorum.

from Pharmaphorum https://pharmaphorum.com/views-and-analysis/digital-health-round-up-robot-tells-mps-that-ai-could-transform-elderly-care/

[ristesh]

How Zero-Code Platforms Are Transforming Life Sciences Operations

The life sciences industry is undergoing a profound transformation, with technological advancements driving major shifts in how research, manufacturing, and operations are conducted. One of the most disruptive technologies making waves in this sector is zero-code platforms. These platforms are revolutionizing the way life sciences organizations develop software applications and automate workflows, enabling them to achieve greater efficiency, reduce costs, and streamline complex processes.

In this blog, we will explore how zero-code platforms for life sciences are reshaping the industry, focusing on their impact in areas like pharma, research, clinical trials, and more.

What Are Zero-Code Platforms?

Zero-code platforms are software solutions that allow users to build applications and automate workflows without writing a single line of code. These platforms offer a drag-and-drop interface and pre-configured modules that make it easy for anyone—regardless of technical expertise—to create and customize applications. This is a major departure from traditional software development, where coding and programming knowledge are essential.

In the context of life sciences, zero-code platforms are particularly valuable. They allow professionals in pharma, research, and healthcare to design, implement, and deploy complex systems quickly and efficiently without relying on specialized IT teams or extensive programming knowledge.

The Role of Zero-Code Platforms in Pharma

The zero-code platform for the pharma sector is seeing rapid adoption due to the high demand for fast, flexible, and efficient solutions. Pharma companies are leveraging zero-code platforms to automate key processes, improve collaboration, and enhance operational efficiency.

Here are some ways zero-code platforms are being used in the pharmaceutical industry:

Clinical Trials Management

Clinical trials are essential for the development of new drugs and therapies, but they are often complex and resource-intensive. Implementing zero-code technology in life sciences allows pharmaceutical companies to streamline trial management. Researchers can build applications to track patient data, manage schedules, and monitor trial progress, all without needing to rely on cumbersome IT systems.

With zero-code platforms, companies can also create real-time dashboards for monitoring trial performance and quickly adjust variables as needed. This leads to faster decision-making and reduced trial timelines.

Regulatory Compliance

Regulatory compliance in pharma is highly stringent, with complex documentation and reporting requirements. Zero-code platforms can help companies ensure compliance by automating regulatory reporting workflows, making it easier to collect, analyze, and submit data to regulatory bodies like the FDA or EMA.

Automated compliance checks, audit trails, and real-time updates ensure that the pharma company is always prepared for inspections and audits.

Supply Chain Optimization

The pharmaceutical industry often faces challenges with inventory management, order fulfillment, and supply chain visibility. Zero-code platforms can help by building custom applications that optimize supply chain operations, track inventory, and streamline procurement processes. These platforms offer real-time visibility into the status of drugs and materials, helping reduce bottlenecks and ensuring that products reach the market faster.

Research & Development (R&D) Acceleration

R&D is the backbone of the pharmaceutical industry, and speeding up the process can lead to significant advantages. Zero-code platforms enable R&D teams to automate data collection, analysis, and reporting. By building custom applications tailored to specific research needs, researchers can focus more on innovation and less on manual administrative tasks.

The ability to automate repetitive tasks also enhances collaboration among R&D teams, making it easier to share data and insights.

Transforming Life Sciences with No-Code Platforms

The life sciences industry encompasses a broad range of sectors, from pharmaceuticals to biotechnology, and each requires highly specialized software applications. Traditionally, building and maintaining these applications required significant resources, including skilled developers and IT teams. However, zero-code platforms for life sciences are changing the game by enabling life sciences professionals to create and manage applications with minimal technical overhead.

Let’s take a look at some of the key benefits of transforming life sciences with no-code platforms:

Speed and Agility

One of the most significant advantages of zero-code platforms is speed. Life sciences organizations can rapidly prototype and launch new applications or workflows, enabling them to quickly adapt to changing regulatory environments, business needs, or research requirements. This agility helps organizations stay competitive and respond to market demands faster than ever before.

Cost Efficiency

Developing custom software traditionally requires a large investment in time and resources. Zero-code technology in life sciences significantly reduces these costs, as the need for external developers and extensive IT infrastructure is minimized. This makes it possible for small and medium-sized life sciences companies to develop solutions that would have otherwise been out of their reach.

Empowering Non-Technical Users

Zero-code platforms empower employees across the organization, including those without technical backgrounds, to design solutions that meet their specific needs. Whether it's a lab technician creating a data collection app or a project manager automating report generation, these platforms democratize the process of building and deploying technology. This leads to greater innovation, as individuals with deep domain expertise can contribute directly to the development of solutions.

Scalability

Life sciences organizations often face the challenge of scaling operations to accommodate growing volumes of data and increasingly complex processes. Zero-code platforms provide the scalability needed to meet these demands. Whether it’s handling the large datasets involved in clinical trials or managing the supply chain for a global pharma company, zero-code platforms can scale quickly and cost-effectively.

Interoperability

The life sciences industry often involves working with various data sources, from electronic health records (EHR) to laboratory information management systems (LIMS). Zero-code platforms can integrate with multiple data sources, ensuring that information flows seamlessly across different systems. This integration is essential for making informed decisions and optimizing processes in real-time.

Implementing Zero-Code Technology in Life Sciences

Adopting zero-code technology in life sciences is not without its challenges, but the benefits are undeniable. To successfully implement a zero-code platform in life sciences, companies should follow a few best practices:

Identify Key Use Cases

Begin by identifying areas of your operations that can benefit the most from automation or custom applications. Clinical trials, regulatory compliance, and supply chain management are just a few examples of processes that can be streamlined with zero-code platforms.

Train Employees

While zero-code platforms are designed for non-technical users, some training is still necessary. Providing employees with the skills to use the platform effectively will ensure the success of your implementation. Encourage teams to explore the platform and experiment with creating their own solutions.

Maintain Data Security and Compliance

Data security is critical in life sciences, particularly when dealing with sensitive patient information or intellectual property. Ensure that your zero-code platform adheres to industry standards for data protection, such as HIPAA for healthcare data or GxP for pharmaceutical applications.

Start Small, Scale Up

It’s best to start with smaller, manageable projects to understand the platform’s capabilities and limitations. Once you’ve gained experience, you can scale up your use of zero-code platforms to tackle more complex workflows across the organization.

Conclusion

Zero-code platforms for life sciences are quickly becoming a transformative force in the industry. By enabling rapid application development, automation, and data integration, these platforms allow life sciences organizations to become more agile, efficient, and cost-effective. Whether it's in pharma, biotech, or healthcare, transforming life sciences with no-code platforms is paving the way for faster innovation, better compliance, and more effective decision-making. As the industry continues to embrace these technologies, the potential for improvement in operational efficiency, patient outcomes, and research breakthroughs is limitless.

[fmm85]

HBR Staff/Yulia Reznikov/Getty Images

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Since the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic, world-class hospitals from New York to Atlanta to San Francisco struggled with shortages of basic safety equipment. Masks, gowns, and face shields have all been in short supply, and the race to get more has meant hospital staff and public officials desperately searching for reliable suppliers. Elsewhere on the front lines, there have been critical shortages in the test kits that experts agree are essential to reopening economies the world over.

Swift escalation in demand meant staff couldn’t rely on long established procurement processes. They needed to source new vendors and find and reallocate supplies quickly — and this pressure brought new visibility to long-festering problems in the medical supply chain. In the U.S., CDC and FDA officials warned that fraudulent respirators are in distribution and fraudulent test kits for Covid-19 are being sold online. The federal government recently placed more than $110 million in N95 mask orders at high prices with unproven vendors.

Further Reading

Problems in the medical supply chain are neither new, nor uncommon, and it’s easy to see why: These products can travel through tangled, global supply chains in which documentation is often manual and paper based, piling up at each handoff and border crossing. As a result, theft and quality control issues are common, and regulators and distributors struggle to locate substandard products that have entered the system. The World Health Organization estimates that one in 10 medical products — including pills, vaccines, and diagnostic kits — are substandard or falsified in low- and middle- income countries. In other regions, theft is the greater problem. BSI Group, the national standards body of the U.K., estimates pharmaceutical cargo theft at over $1 billion a year, with the U.K. and U.S. accounting for nearly half of all theft.

Unfortunately, today’s chaos may prove to be a practice run for even more concentrated pressure on our health care supply chains. When we do produce effective treatments or, eventually, a vaccine, millions — and even billions — of people around the world will simultaneously want the same thing, and it will be in limited supply.

To fix some of these supply chain vulnerabilities, the industry is turning to Blockchain technology. With a Blockchain — which can make it cheaper, easier, and faster to verify what is true when a business process spans organizations with competing interests — companies can safely work together in a shared, permanent ledger. They can do this without giving up control of or even revealing their data, as mathematical proof of data can stand in as a trustworthy proxy for actual data. Instead of being owned and managed by a single company that everyone must trust, the ledger is governed by all members of a network. Because this makes it possible to delegate the work of checks and balances to cryptography and code, blockchains can reduce friction, expose fraud, and assure product authenticity with new speed.

Better Together

The advantage of a Blockchain-based system is that competitors can collaborate on a shared platform to, say, raise drug safety without sharing sensitive information. That’s exactly the idea behind the MediLedger Network, a consortium focused on pharma supply chains that counts leaders including Gilead, Pfizer, Amgen, Genentech, AmerisourceBergen, and McKesson among its members. Chronicled, a startup, provides the underlying technology.

The first solution in production from MediLedger is a product verification system that makes it easier to verify that a returned drug is authentic — a common, but difficult process. According to the Healthcare Distribution Alliance, approximately 60 million units of saleable drugs are returned annually. The work of verifying that these drugs are authentic before they’re resold falls to wholesalers, who must contact manufacturers to track down serial numbers, a process that can take up to 48 hours. Using Blockchain, wholesale distributors can make the same verification in less than a second using a barcode scanner, so product can be quickly put back into commercial distribution, and manufacturers maintain control of their data. This rapid serial number verification can also be used to help hospitals and pharmacies. With no infrastructure beyond a web browser and a barcode scanner, staff can verify that a drug is authentic as it is placed on the shelf. Counterfeiters could still copy barcodes in an attempt to pass drugs off as legitimate — but the ledger will flag and permanently record suspicious activity.

MediLedger is working on a next phase: to apply this technology to “track and trace,” the process of identifying where a specific box of drugs is and where it has been, at any time. With the Blockchain, this process can be done without revealing confidential business intelligence to anyone in the ecosystem. MediLedger recently completed a pilot using a Blockchain for track and trace with 25 participants, including retailers Walgreens and Walmart, transportation provider FedEx, standards organization GS1, wholesale distributors including AmerisourceBergen and Cardinal Health, and manufacturers ranging in size from 100 employees to 125,000.

Ultimately, MediLedger Network participants will be able to enforce business rules in real-time as a box of drugs travels from one handoff point to another across an entire supply chain, even in the outer recesses of an ecosystem, far beyond a manufacturer or distributor’s control. Along the way, auditing is automated and embedded, flagging problems and who has custody as it happens. When drugs reach their final destination, it’s as if they arrive with a black box of data to assure not only authenticity but they have complied with business rules during their entire journey. In an interview, Chronicled CEO Susanne Somerville said, “It’s like placing your own embassy behind a trading partner’s firewall.”

Forging the Links

There is, of course, a catch: Blockchains are an ecosystem technology and only bring benefit when the technology is not only broadly adopted, but when physical systems work with it. More industry standards are needed to make it all truly interoperable. For example, the visibility of any technology is limited by manufacturers’ packaging. In some of the countries with the greatest fraud, serialized numbers are not yet required on a box of drugs; pharmacies move drugs into hoppers before they repackage them; hospitals use dispensing systems. Full track and trace, for example, would need to connect the network to these systems.

However, there are new, strong incentives adding to the pressure for change. New regulation is amplifying pressure for the pharmaceutical industry to work better together on developing standards. In the U.S., the Drug Supply Chain Security Act (DSCSA), which was signed into law in 2013, has a deadline of 2023 for manufacturers to achieve track and trace of all transactions involved in transporting medications from factory to patient. The E.U.’s Falsified Medicines Directive lays out rules to combat fake medicines in the region, and includes anti-tampering security on packaging and tracking requirements.

As both the technology and the industry’s processes for working together matures, blockchains could help us get better and faster at getting medicines and vaccines to where we have the most epidemiological urgency. With more granular visibility, stakeholders could better zero in on clogs in supply chains, more quickly locate and remove expired, damaged, or fraudulent products, see where supplies are low, and efficiently redistribute inventory to where it is needed most.

This will most certainly not be our last global health crisis. Blockchains could not only help us increase agility during extraordinary black swan events, but also help us operate better in day-to-day operations. While this work is focused on the pharmaceutical industry, the underlying protocol can be repurposed and customized to advance any supply chain — from the personal protective equipment that has been in such short supply to products in any industry. As we wake up to the fact that our health and economic welfare is interconnected with those thousands of miles away, it becomes clearer that we need to leverage our global resources to effectively fight large-scale problems. Blockchains could help us do this more safely and efficiently.

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[medicalquack]

Pharmacy Benefit Managers Invade Medical Records and Electronically Connect Cash Patients to RX Discount Cards-OptimizeRX-to SingleCare to OptumRX

This should not really come as a big surprise as what hasn’t the pharmacy benefit managment business touched?  So what is OptimizeRX?  Most have probably not heard of this software but it is a connect to EMRs that will send your prescription right to the pharmacy.  Oh, now you say, well the PBMs do that and they do but what they have been missing is a way to collect data on patients who are not using their PBM prescription card or those who do not have one.  It’s all about getting more data about you to “score” and of course sell those scores to insurers and other interested parties.  Once the pharmacy has the transaction, it does not fall under HIPAA rules as it’s a prescription, linked to an EMR to provide a transaction.  As we all know, your medications in an EHR are protected but again, I’ll repeat this for those who still think HIPAA is covered at the pharmacy, it is not.  It’s been a sore spot for years with privacy.

If your doctor is using one of the medical records systems in the image at the right, they are partners with OptimizerRX.  From the website:

“OptimizeRx® has developed an extensive network of EHR and eRx platform partners*, as well as partnerships with media and creative agencies, making it easy for marketers to achieve excellent reach with their HCP customers. View the partner network information below for details. EHR and eRx partners benefit from the partnership by adding OptimizeRx’s suite of services seamlessly into their platforms, providing relevant patient support, patient education and other services that are welcomed by their HCP customers. Integrating OptimizeRx into an EHR or eRx platform is simple and easy, and can usually be completed in less than eight hours!”

Did you catch this, it’s about marketing and at least they say as much.  When you look at the executive page, you’ll find most of these folks came from the pharmaceutical business.  Here’s another screenshot to “auto send” the prescription along with the RX pricing information direct to a pharmacy.  What this means is the price is locked in and a pharmacist has to honor that as it’s aready in the data base, precluding the availability to offer a cheaper discount.  Certainly it appears to make it easier for the patient, but is it the best price?  We don’t know.  In addition, the providers can print a coupon for those who say “no, don’t do that’. 

This RX discount card also can text and email you.  So there you go, it’s all about the data that drug companies and PBMs want on folks not using their PBM discounts.  If you let the MD do the auto send, you’re stuck with that price and can’t compare.  There’s this little item I wrote about a while back about medication adherence prediction compliance and if you are not aware of this game, read the link below and this has been around for a while and was originally created with Ingenix (OptumRX now) algorithms that goes back to 2010 when Express Scripts put out a press release on how they were going to score you, and they all do that now.  This is some real flawed information too as the 300 metrics used have zero to do with taking meds.  You get a bad nick for example if you are a male seeing a female MD and so on.  This is not science, it’s behavior bullshit that at best may show trending.  So this OptimizerRX is software to use the EMR to drag in the so called “Outliers” who pay cash and are not using a PBM discount.  Part of the job of a pharmacist today is to identify their outliers and fix them, but if the data is flawed and they pay cash, it’s just a bunch of flawed data.

Patients Who Pay “Cash” When Filling Prescriptions Are Now Called “outliers, Pharmacists Required to Fix outliers as They Show Up As Non Medication Adherence Compliant With 5 Star Systems Full of Flawed Data…

Medication Adherence Predictions Enter the World of Quantitated Justifications For Things That Are Just Not True, Members of the Proprietary “Code Hosing” Clubs Out There Destroying Your Privacy

So now we have talked about OptimizeRX (which just happens to sound a lot like OptumRX) let’s move to the next step here and talk about the discount card.  Read the press release below, OptimizeRX has a partner called SingleCare, which actually resembles the HealthAllies company that Andy Slavitt and Senator’s Warren’s daughter sold to United Healthcare, except this one is free.  SingleCare includes other available discounts, a few of them but hey well all know it’s about getting the pharma PBM money to support the entire project, not a 20% discount at a gym or free teeth cleaning.

OptimizeRx Partners Exclusively with SingleCare to Bring Patient Savings and Price Transparency to Healthcare Providers at the Point of Prescribe

SingleCare started out much like Script Relief (another RX discount card that markets under a ton of names run by Loeb Enterprises in New York) to get some users of the discount so they could collect money from the PBM.  All the Script Relief cards make their money back from OptumRX on the fees and other charges and they pay independent sales people $10 a hit for every patient who activates a card.  Script Relief was originally connected with Catatmaran, which was bought by OptumRX (United Healthcare) and played a big role with Cigna getting sanctioned by CMS for a long time from selling Medicare D policies.  Here’s a couple archived links on tha topic and once the OptumRx purchased Catamaran, who was the in-house PBM for Cigna, all insured had a new PBM called United Healthcare (OptumRX) PBM.

United Healthcare Having a Big Bond Sale to Finance Purchase of Catamaran Pharmacy Benefit Management Company, Huge 10.5 Billion

United Healthcare Buys Catamaran Pharmacy Benefit Manager Just As the PBM Gets Hit With A Class Action Lawsuit For Low Balling Pharmacy Reimbursements..And More Patient Data to Sell and Analyze For Profit

So what kind of executives does SingleCare employ?  Well you could probably guess this one easy enough, former United Healthcare and big time former Catamaran executives.  Check it out.  In addition the company also says it will bill patients who use their discounted MD, dental cleaning, etc. services.  Yikes as a patient, I would much rather pay the doctor direct and not have some big corporate conglomerate chasing me who also wants my data to score and sell.  Many MDs have already figured out how these virtual credit cards hit them up for big fees anyway, so they keep part of that money for giving you a discount.

Health Plans and Claim Clearinghouses With Virtual Credit Cards-Racking Up Additional Fees From Doctors

So what PBM do you think is supporting this?  My guess would be OptumRX but you can’t find that stated anywhere, but hey put two and two together.  So if you use the card, you are added to a PBM data base with data to score and sell and again, we think it’s OptumRX.  If you noticed above, Allscripts is one of the partners and is it not a coincidence that all OptumCare MDs are required to use Allscripts?  Here’s more on that topic along with a picture I snapped of one of their OptumCare owned MDs in the OC.  Don’t forget too that all the Surgical Care Affiliate outpatient surgery facilities are now owned and will be run by OptumCare, so I might guess Allscripts will be over there too, or OptimizeRX will sign up more EHRs to bring in the SingleCare discount card over there too. 

OptumCare Doctors to Get allscripts Medical Records EHR–Optum Continues to Buy More Practices and Manage More Doctors Through Independent Physician Associations, Many of Which They Own

We also have this action going on relative to OptumRX and Catamaran with lawsuits being filed over the price of prescriptions when a cash offering is less expensive than what the PBM is offering.

Cigna & United Healthcare Face Class Action Suits-PBM Over Charging Customers for Prescriptions, OptumRX Pharmacy Benefit Management Software-“Front Running” Consumers With Killer Algorithms at the Drug Store

Pharmaceutical Wholesalers Inc. File Legal Complaint Against OptumRx “Aligning Its Interests” with the Big Three Drug Distributors in US, Thus Acting as an Agent of the Government With Accreditation Processes

Bottom line here is to get the algorithms connected to the EHRs now and get that price locked in and get the data from the folks who are not using a PBM price.

Also the MedExpress urgent care locations are also connected to, guess who, OptumRX and you might be seeing those SingleCare RX discount cards used there as well.  United Healthcare also has another service they market where they want to be the EHR integrator for Allscripts and other medical record companies.

Optum (United Healthcare) Buys MedExpress Urgent Care Business- 141 Full Service Clinics In 11 States–Company Advertises They Are In the Market to Buy Your MD Practice, As A “Too Big To Fail Insurer” Moves Forward With More Acquisitions

United Healthcare (Optum Insight Subsidiary) Wants To Be Your Allscripts, Epic And GE Centricity EHR Consulting Service Starting With Implementation And Beyond

How convenient to be an EHR integrator and get that OptimizeRX connected in there to the medical records to promote the SingleCare discounts and collect data on folks who are not using their PBM program or are paying cash.  By the way too, Optum is also now doing the billing for Quest Labs in case you missed that one.  Optum does the billing of course for their very close partner, the Mayo clinic, who’s CEO just took a board seat with Merck Pharmaceutical.  Are you seeing some kind of a pattern yet, maybe?  Of course if you are insured by United, you have been told to go to LabCorp for years for actual tests.

Quants of Optum Carve Out New Outsourced Billing Deal with Quest Labs, Will Also Serve to Enhance The Scoring & Data Selling Business Conducted by Both Companies via Powerful Subsidiaries

The prescription discount game is heating up out there and Express Scripts doesn’t want to be left out as they too now have an RX discount card, called Inside RX which is a partnership with GoodRX, as they too didn’t want to get left out of the lucrative “fee” business here.  Sounds like OptumRX was cutting them out of some of the money mabye, so off to Express Scripts they went. 

Here’s a post I did a while back with some good videos from actual independent pharmacists that tell you the story on how the RX discount cards work and how a lot of time they might still be able to give you a better cash price that doesn’t support all this markeing.

The Truth About Pharmacy Benefit Managers and Prescription Discount Cards–Created With Automated Algorithmic Processes That Enable Huge Profits-Consumers at Risk!

So backon topic here with SingleCare benefits, be aware of what’s going on with the algorithms of the PBMs as they are now invading medical records to get that script and and that data about you.  I would be very careful about wanting to use any of the texting and email services they offer as they collect and monitor everything today and will “score” your behavior with their services to toss some kind of risk in a profile about you!  Recently, VC arm of Optum/United Healthcare invested money in another cesspool Silicon Valley risk assessment company, Mindstrong to monitor people with cell phone behavior and when they get done scoring all that type of data, we’ll all be at risk for mental health issues if we “hesitate” on responding to text messages.

So be aware now as the PBMs have infiltrated medical records and stalking you there, with going beyond just regular PBM plans, they want to get data on everyone who pays cash to “score” and sell a data profile about you and your behavior.  Once you get locked with with your doctor doing an automatic send to the pharmacy, the pharmacist may not be able to offer you a less expensive price if they have one to offer on your medication.  BD  via Blogger http://ift.tt/2stje6J

[1957aidan]

CIRCLE OF CONFUSION

Are you feeling anxious? I am. I am feeling anxious. I’m not exactly sure what it is I’m feeling anxious about…but I do have some anxiety. It may be some sort of uncertainty but it’s not clear what in particular is at the root of my anxiety. I am aware of it as a sort of low level hum in the background of life. At sub-conscious level. Liminal. But I am definitely aware of it. Maybe I have always had it …but I don’t really remember it from when I was younger. Of course there have always been reasons to be anxious…I mean,like nearly everybody, I have never really had enough money. In a First World way. And occasionally we all fret about our health and that of our loved ones. In a NHS way .And I suppose the Cold War was a bit of a worry. In a sort of abstract way. But there was always the pub and the telly to take our minds off things and keep calm and carry on way.

I’m being slightly facetious of course. Anxiety has always been a companion to the human condition. Actually, although some might say that us baby boomers have got off a bit lightly, in the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune stakes…the last century was one of the most fraught and stress inducing ever. Revolution. Wars. The Bomb. Poverty. Famine. Disorder. Disease. etc etc.

However…my feeling is… that we, in this century, may be presently experiencing levels of anxiety on an individual and collective scale…every day…that many, at least in the so called First World, have not had to before. Some people claim that we are all living with Millenial Anxiety. Now,I know that this is a term usually applied to a particular demographic…loosely that generation who followed The Baby Boomers…but perhaps we could also apply it to the years since The Millenium…and I might argue more specifically since September 11th 2001. I think there is a before and after.

There is a contention that the events of that day initiated a profound change in the global psyche. That’s a statement that’s perhaps slightly facile but nevertheless can be defended. However…significantly, it now also looks as if this event occurred at the very point when what we call The Digital Platform was also transforming our existence. And I don’t just mean in Photography.In the future it will be known as the early digital age when we were also switching perhaps from a Newtonian reading of science and technology to a Quantum one. Where a particle may now be in two places at once. No wonder our brains hurt. We are already a long way down the road to a fully digital economy in addition to the rise of digital communication systems…by which I am referring to and include the incredible proliferation of 24 hour digital television channels ,internet, world wide web, 5G phone technologies ,virtual reality and of course, the often hostile and divisive social media platforms. We are all mediated now. Or, as the brilliant Thomas De Zengotita has put it…What Counts Is The Code. We are being saturated by information. Overload. Passwords. We are more connected and less connected simultaneously. We have to rely on technology far more than ever before. And I don’t think we can all cope with this. We aren’t all ready. Perhaps the frontal cortex needs a bit more development (which it will probably get as neoroscience and biogenetics are already aiding and abetting it’s natural evolution). We are all aware of the media stories about how anxiety and mental health issues are sweeping through Generation Y as it is known. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised if we are anxious. I have come up with a list of some of the contemporary lightning conductors for anxiety that I think may be indexical of our new century neurosis in a way that was not so exaggerated in the last one. Airports and travel generally. Security. Surveillance. Global Violence. Terror. Mistrust of established Political Systems and Politicians. Job Insecurity (especially among the middle classes now).Privatisation. Automation. Big Pharma. Human Rights and Personal Identity. Isolation. Alienation. Body Image (especially among the young). Turbo powered advertising and consumerism….or the need to be defined by what you have rather than what you are. That’s quite a list and I think it could go on and on… In May 2002 I travelled to New York as a professional photographer on assignment. I visited Ground Zero and was, like many other people, profoundly moved by what I saw there. I was unable to make a photograph of what I saw there at the time but later felt compelled to make the series of works which now constitute my book Circle of Confusion. This work is not a travelogue but an attempt not only to record my feelings about what I saw at Ground Zero, but also an attempt to reflect or document the new inner and outer anxieties of the modern age. It’s about how we live now.

My book has been published and designed by Sutherl&Editions, a really lovely niche independent publisher who specialise in beautiful high quality productions. .To date, both Foyles and The Photographers Gallery bookshop have Circle of Confusion in stock now, and I am hopeful that some other well known bookshops will follow suit shortly. I will not be selling through Amazon as I would like analogue bookshops to survive in the face of that overwhelming competition. If you would like to either see or purchase a copy please contact me directly on… aidanmccarthy@onetel.com

[weekinethereum]

December 7, 2017

Ethereum News and Links

Protocol

Tradeoffs in account abstraction

Dec 1st core dev call.  Agenda.

This week's Casper standup call

ERC20-K: Formal Executable Specification of ERC20

Alexey Akhunov profiles the Geth client during cryptokitty peak mania.

Vlad Zamfir: Against on-chain governance.

I think everyone already assumed this would be the case, but Vitalik comes out in favor of a carbonvote as a necessary condition to unfreeze Parity multisig Ether.

An ELI5 on Ethereum's scaling projects from Dunning_Krugerrands

Stuff for developers

Solidity v0.4.19 release. Fantastic to see how many contributors there were. It'd be great if more people were working on Solidity fulltime: send your CV to solidity-jobs@ethereum.org

Plus more on the new Solidity ABI Encoder/Decoder and Optimizer

A React HOC for Ethereum

Solidity Eclipse IDE

"countable, iterable and unordered set type for Solidity that stores unique items"

An intro to Ethereum coding from Zeppelin

Beautifying your tests with JavaScript

Aragon and Placeholder are announcing a grants program to build Aragon and Ethereum public goods -- infrastructure and dev tooling

Python + Ethereum email list

uPort hackathon on TopCoder

Zeppelin's Ethernaut game for security in solidity

CryptoKitty mania

How does CryptoKitties work?  And a walk through the codebase.

CryptoKitties isn't as decentralized as you think.  But if there's a conflict, "the community will just hard fork the kitties."

Jeff Wilcke agrees to buy a gen zero cat from Nick Johnson for ~90k to charity if a tweet got to 500 RTs, but someone nabbed it first

Transactions hit 800k in a day.  Metamask grew its user base by 35% in kitty mania week.  Per EthGasStation, the current safe low is 55gwei.  But just raising the gas limit isn't really an option.

Reminder: if your transaction is stuck in limbo, re-send it with the same nonce and a higher gas price based on Eth Gas Station.

Can't vouch for the veracity, but this claims CryptoKitties is almost 70% of total gas usage.

Kitty explorer and kitty sales.  We're currently over 8m USD equivalent transacted, but it seems like Dec 4th was the peak with daily small declines afterward.

Burnable payments to decompile the GeneScience bytecode.

Ecosystem

Etherisc proposes insurable crypto wallet specification

The mechanics of Zug's uPort ID

Cosmos' Ethermint testnet is live

Alex Miller: Building a Usable Multisig Wallet

Chronicled is implementing zk-snarks for pharma provenance

Token Curated Registries 1.1 -- now with slashing

Token curated governance with stake machines

MicroRaiden's main net bug bounty release

Project Updates

Brave is giving away ~$5 in BAT tokens. Free "money" for Brave users to support publishers.

Decentraland's Terraform event starts Dec 15

Status joins the EEA.  We're seeing them step up as leaders in order to achieve their goals.  Status will also come pre-installed on the Finneyblockchain phone.

Etherisc accepted into the UK's FCA regulatory sandbox.  Also: building protocols for decentralized insurance

iExec is giving away 150k in grants to people who build on iExec.

Colony's reputation system

Project Announcements and Whitepapers

Vynos inbrowser payment channel wallet from Spankchain and Machinomy

Earn.com white paper

Zipper blockchain phone

Interviews, Videos and Talks

Joe Lubin's CNBC hit.  All substance, no hype. That's the Ethereum spirit.

Polychain's Olaf predicts the Flippening in 2018.  He gives great media interviews.

I talk to Jack Spallone about what Ujo Music has been up to and where it's going.

Joe Lubin answers questions about ConsenSys on the Bridge BKpodcast.  

Brian Armstrong on Bloomberg TV

Gavin: "The journey to web3" from Melon's M-0 conf

Token Sales

ConsenSys launched the Brooklyn Project to address issues around token sales.

SEC cracked down on another ICO scam from a repeated scammer.

Zenel Batagelj: Towards the next era - ICO 3.0

Messari's transparency goals

Token Sale Projects

The lady doth protest too much: OpenBazaar is now doing an Ethereum token.  Joking aside, welcome. Brian Hoffman is hilarious (how does that video have just 200 views?)

Failed Venezuelan dictatorship thinks it can circumvent sanctions by selling a cryptoasset.  If they sell any, then we are indeed in a bubble.

General

Vitalik Buterin in Bloomberg's 50 Most Influential People of 2017

Mike Bloomberg actually (!) said this: "the Bloomberg system is a blockchain, instead of having the users control it, we control it."

Chris Padovano: Decentralized exchanges aren't above the law

Yahoo Finance integrated 100+ blockchain assets.  Very random selection.

Nathaniel Popper visits Coinbase and writes about it for the New York Times. 

Dates of note

From Token Sale Calendar.

Upcoming token sale start dates:

December 8 – SingularityNet

December 10 – Gazecoin

December 11 – Aurora DAO from IDEX

December 23 – Rocketpool (proportional refund cap, started November 25h)

Ongoing token sales:

Neufund ICBM

Debitum

Nous Platform

Bloom

Relest

CanYa

Realisto

FundRequest

Dopameme

Gizer

Aigang

Hirematch

ScriptDrop

SeedsTokens

WARNING: list may include or even likely includes scams and quasi-scams.  Do your own research and due diligence before putting value at risk

[I aim for a relatively comprehensive list of Ethereum sales, but make no warranty as to even whether they are legit; as such, I thus likewise warrant nothing about whether any will produce a satisfactory return. I have passed the CFA exams, but this is not investment advice. If you're interested in what I do, you can find my somewhat out-of-date investing thesis and token sale appreciation strategies in previous newsletters.]

If you appreciate this newsletter, thank ConsenSys

I'm thankful that ConsenSys has brought me on as an employee and given me time to do this newsletter.

My charge from Joe Lubin is pretty similar to what Status has told me: keep telling the truth and covering the space as objectively as I can. 

Editorial control is 100% me.  Blame me first and last.

Social

Follow me on Twitter? @evan_van_ness

This newsletter is supported by ConsenSys (surely you have seen that we're hiring?) and Status.im.  Many thanks to both.

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