It is said that a single donation can save 3 lives. In developing nations, there is an underlying shortage of blood supply and a low number of blood donors to critical patients in need. With a population of over 200 million people, Nigeria requires up to 1.8 million units of blood every year to the health ministry. But experts say, Nigeria's National Blood Transfusion Service (NBTS) is collecting just 500,000 pints of blood annually – a shortfall of nearly 75%. Underlining the need for blood donations is the fact that Nigeria has the fourth-highest maternal mortality rate in the world, accounting for 19% of all maternal deaths globally. Postpartum hemorrhages (the loss of too much blood following birth) is the leading cause of such deaths. Blood donation and transfusion has been reported to be underperforming in quality and ease of access to critical patients due to a factor of problems ranging from; • Persistent blood shortages coupled with increased poverty, creating another population of donors who give blood strictly for financial gratification. • Negligent healthcare system and lack of proper health insurance schemes nationwide. • Shortage of blood. • Poor implementation of blood transfusion guidelines. • Inadequate funding of NBTS leading to high blood prices. • Inadequate designated blood donation centers/facilities. • Low public awareness on non-remunerated blood donation arising from deep cultural myths and misconceptions. Data On Blood Deficits A number of studies have shown factors leading to blood supply deficits. Below is a chart detailing the factors leading to supply deficits. • Fear of contracting TTIs (Transfusion-Transmissible Infections) (52.4%) Fear of side effects such as; • Weight loss (23.8%) • Sudden death (3.3%) • Sexual failure (5.9%) • High blood pressure (5.2%) • Concussions (1.5%) RedToken aims to tackle this problem by highlighting these solutions; Awareness : Explaining pedagogically why blood donations are needed and how blood is used to save lives.Fight cultural myths and misconceptions. Access : Users can now know safe nearby hospitals/donation centers. Users can book visits to hospitals/donation centers. Blood Supply/Prices: Caused by various number of factors (like the problems listed above) leading to high blood prices in Nigeria.We aim to drive down blood prices in Nigeria by matching it's demand by providing supply to patients in need of it at much cheaper rates. Blood (Asset) Tracking: Users are given vital real-time information on what happens to their donation and the lives it helps save.This helps destigmatize the concept of blood donation in certain regions. Token Issuance Model RedToken aims to structure a model dedicated to selected regular donors that issues them (utility) tokens that can be used to pay for light utility bills like phone data bills, education, healthcare, and other needs. This model mimics the structure of a typical blockchain, where a transaction is made and authenticated by multiple nodes (users on the network) before being issued a token. How It Works The user provides his blood and data that is given and confirmed to us by the donation center. It is sent to the blockchain, where it receives the data as a transaction, authenticates it and rewards the user with a utility token that can be used within the app's ecosystem. The hospital in need of blood supply can send and receive data/updates through an issued API. Future RedToken hopes to continuously improve on it's model and expand beyond borders, explore other fields like the introduction of sachetized insurance packages to low income families. We also strive to implement our model onto different donating opportunities (eg, platelets, marrow, sperm donations) to the users/donors. Also submitted to Blockchain for Social Good during WYOPHACKATHON. https://cardano.ideascale.com/a/dtd/RedToken-s-Blood-Donation-DApp/327279-48088 We would also like to explore the opportunity or options to work with other proposals such as West Africa Decentralized Alliance, ABCD, Gimbalabs, ConversationalUI, IoT projects, and others. Through our token, we aim to support other proposals and would also like to explore opportunities to help expand Cardano adoption and also help facilitate channel partnerships for EMURGO and IOHK. ERGO is also something we would like to explore, specifically LETS, https://ergoplatform.org/en/blog/2020_04_02_use_cases/ There are potential opportunities to incorporate metadata into Redtoken. IN CLOSING: Nigeria is about to see an increase is outside funding initiatives and the public/private partnership sector is going to be the key to success. We are in talks with several FUNDS outside of catalyst and should be be funded here, or outside of Catalyst, it will strengthen the Cardano community and we would like to incorporate any outside funding into our project and also support others in the community and challenges. https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/04/nigerias-82-billion-health-care-gap-investors-stand-by.html Project Brief: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zoAAOOvF6TZCQsyeDDLktayY4QpTVXg0oSPtwGeOoK0/edit?usp=sharing