People are living longer in the 21st Century, but what's less recognized is that, despite our increasing longevity, we're also getting sicker. According to research, the number of people over 65 afflicted with at least four medical conditions is on course to rise by 100 percent by 2035. As can be imagined, such a jump in illness is going to place an increasingly heavy burden on medical institutions and services, with the implication being that we — as a global community — need to find new, innovative ways of dealing with disease.
Fortunately, crypto is on hand to help with this emerging crisis. It won't be a panacea for the ills of our struggling health systems, but in a number of important ways, blockchains and cryptocurrencies could help the health sector meet its growing workload in the years and decades to come. By increasing the security and transparency of medical data, they could give patients greater assurance that their personal info is being protected, which in turn could increase trust in medical institutions and make people likelier to put their lives in the hands of health professionals. And by providing medical research companies with greater access to funding, they would accelerate progress in the area of drug treatment discovery, thereby saving lives and reducing sickness.