It’s a sad fact that a disease such as AIDS still carries a stigma that can all too often prevent people from seeking help, information, or treatments that could prevent its spread. Although decades of campaigning and medical research have ensured people in advanced democracies can access regular testing and medications that ensure HIV is barely detectable, other parts of the world aren’t as fortunate.

Last month, at AIDS 2024, the 25th International AIDS Conference in Munich, a number of charitable and medical organizations came together to discuss how the current donation model can be improved so that issues related to privacy, costs, and efficiency aren’t the barriers they currently are.

Take, for instance, the case of a young man in sub-Saharan Africa who might be a member of the LGBTQ+ community and have concerns that talking to doctors or official bodies could lead to people knowing about his status. Even if the doctor he talks to respects patient confidentiality, medical records can be misplaced, and cyberattacks can see personal information leaked to third parties, which would understandably be a genuine deterrent. 

Blockchain as a solution

The Elton John AIDS Foundation has recently started a new donation model using the Partisia blockchain technology that enables smart contract technology to automate the release of funds based on predefined conditions. This ensures money is used as intended, reducing the need for operational oversight. It also eliminates the need for intermediaries, and distributed ledger technology provides transparency whereby every transaction is recorded, reducing the need for third-party auditors to verify that funds have been received and spent as intended. 

In addition to transparency, DLT can facilitate peer-to-peer interactions between donors and recipient organizations, eliminating traditional intermediaries such as transport companies, operations managers, and distributors, who understandably need to be compensated for their time. The elimination of intermediaries can also go hand-in-hand with reduced administrative costs associated with managing and distributing funds, allowing more money to go directly to the intended causes. The elimination of these intermediaries will inevitably make some people worse off as their jobs are no longer required; however, it will create a more streamlined process for donations to be made to those most in need.

More importantly, it enables people to maintain privacy and anonymity where previously it wasn’t possible. Using the blockchain enables people’s identities to be hidden behind a series of letters and numbers that the user controls and are unidentifiable. Granted, there are issues related to the user experience, such as miscopying long addresses or losing the all-important passphrases; however, it does provide a fundamental portal for people in need looking to receive aid. As of 2021, around 78 percent of people in Eastern and Southern Africa living with HIV were on antiretroviral treatment. However, access to antiretroviral treatment can vary drastically by country. New technologies and approaches have the potential to address the current lack of access some people face. Although HIV is usually associated with certain at-risk groups, such as people who inject drugs, men who have sex with men, and sex workers, these groups do not account for the majority of new HIV infections in Eastern and Southern Africa. In 2021, around 54 percent of new HIV infections in the region were among the population outside of these key risk groups.

AIDS is just a disease and can impact anyone; however, prejudices and antiquated thinking have created a toxic legacy whereby people needlessly continue to be infected and die prematurely. Now is the time for fresh thinking on how we tackle this crisis and harness new technologies to educate, empower, and connect people with the resources that would previously been unavailable to them. 

Blockchain is often criticized as a solution in search of a problem or the solution to all problems; although some of its proponents can be overly zealous in their proselytization, its application has enormous potential in regions of the world that have traditionally been excluded from technology and services we take for granted in the advanced economies. Now is the time for policymakers and charities to take a more imaginative approach to how they tackle long-standing problems that have held back progress for decades. Blockchain technology has the potential to eliminate problems related to costs, friction, privacy, and data security. Now is the time to put it to use; the consequences of inaction are simply too high.