Last updated a month ago
AI enables decentralised health, but it depends on trusted systems. Non-technical health organisations struggle to adopt blockchain and identity tech needed to make it work.
Deploy an open-source Health Systems Cooperative Kit, enabling health organisations to roll out blockchain, SSI and AI-accountable operations across traditional and emerging services.
Please provide your proposal title
Powering New Health Systems using Cardano by selfdriven
Enter the amount of funding you are requesting in ADA
200000
Please specify how many months you expect your project to last
10
What is the problem you want to solve?
AI enables decentralised health, but it depends on trusted systems. Non-technical health organisations struggle to adopt blockchain and identity tech needed to make it work.
Supporting links
Does your project have any dependencies on other organizations, technical or otherwise?
Yes
Describe any dependencies or write 'No dependencies'
Cardano network, selfdriven.network, selfdriven.health Cooperative
Will your project's outputs be fully open source?
Yes
Please provide details on the intellectual property (IP) status of your project outputs, including whether they will be released as open source or retained under another licence.
Yes (MIT/Apache‑2.0/CCO).
Please choose the most relevant theme and tag related to the outcomes of your proposal
Healthcare
Describe what makes your idea innovative compared to what has been previously launched in the market (whether by you or others).
We cannot find any existing product or Catalyst proposal that takes a health initiative all the way from an initial intent definition through to a fully provisioned, operational, decentralised cooperative system. The gap is end-to-end delivery: most solutions focus on tooling or pilots, but none provide the full pathway for real health organisations to define a mission, coordinate stakeholders, establish governance, deploy infrastructure, and operate a live cooperative model.
Describe what your prototype or MVP will demonstrate, and where it can be accessed.
The prototype will be accessible at https://coop.selfdriven.health (built on org.selfdriven.app and app.behub.io). It will show the current cooperative platform in action and demonstrate how self-actuation extends it — guiding a health organisation from definition of intent through to a fully provisioned decentralised cooperative system with governance, identity, and deployment steps built in.
Describe realistic measures of success, ideally with on-chain metrics.
Success can be measured through clear on-chain signals. These include the generation of cooperative Script and Plutus addresses to manage shared assets, proofs of identity issued and verified, and evidence of cooperative members actively using the system themselves — such as creating their own wallets.
Please describe your proposed solution and how it addresses the problem
We will build and deliver an open-source Health Cooperative Kit—a fully integrated, end-to-end framework that allows health organisations to move from “intent definition” all the way to a fully operating decentralised cooperative on Cardano.
This is the first real health-sector implementation that spans definition → governance design → SSI identity → treasury/asset provisioning → live cooperative operations on-chain.
Key technical components:
Please define the positive impact your project will have on the wider Cardano community
This project enables health organisations to adopt blockchain, SSI and cooperative governance in practice — not theory. Instead of more proofs-of-concept, it delivers a live cooperative model that real health providers can operate, learn from and scale.
The impact is threefold:
Simplifies access to decentralised technology for non-technical health organisations.
Strengthens patient and practitioner trust through verifiable identity and transparent governance.
Reduces dependency on centralised operators by allowing health organisations to collectively own and govern shared digital infrastructure.
Opens the door to new models of care: mutual support networks, community-based resourcing and distributed service delivery.
Demonstrates a compelling real-world use case for Cardano combining Plutus, SSI and DeFi in a transparent and socially beneficial sector.
Creates repeatable open-source patterns for cooperative formation and on-chain treasury management.
Expands Cardano’s footprint into the health industry and generates new opportunities for integrations (identity wallets, payments, service tokens, research registries, etc.).
Health organisations retain control of their data, membership and financial flows.
Members can participate directly — creating wallets, receiving credentials, voting on proposals and benefiting from shared value.
Encourages patient-first health models where accountability is built in and value flows back to the community.
The project’s success establishes a reproducible pathway for other sectors (insurance, education, disability support, aged care, telehealth, mental health). Each new cooperative can be created faster and with lower cost because the framework, infrastructure and governance patterns already exist.
This project doesn’t demonstrate blockchain for health — it operationalises it.
What is your capability to deliver your project with high levels of trust and accountability? How do you intend to validate if your approach is feasible?
The selfdriven Foundation was founded in 2019 and the team is highly engaged within the Cardano community. It has a robust organisational structure and includes a professional services team - selfdriven.services/team.
Mark Byers (selfdriven Co-founder)
Mark is a qualified Engineer and has 30+ years experience delivering internet based high-grade solutions to market, including the vision to co-found the https://entityOS.cloud service in 2000.
Mark has been involved in the Cardano ecosystem since 2019 and has a strong technical understanding and involvement in community projects and a co-initiator and contributor to the Eastern Cardano Council.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/marknbyers
Bence Lukács (selfdriven Co-founder)
Bence is a former sports trainer and school teacher with 10+ years of experience in Digital Education, Higher Education Organisational Development and building open learning and collaboration (infra-)structure.
Bence also researches Blockchain through the lens of social sciences, focusing especially on Openness, Open Science and DeSci.
At the selfdriven Foundation he is the Organisational Lead, managing projects and organisational operations as well as supporting the development of the educational frameworks. He is engaged in the DACH (Germany, Austria and Switzerland) Cardano Community and an IntersectMBO member, participating in the Decentralised Education, the Decentralised Trust & Identity SIG and (co-hosting & attending various) Constitutional Workshops.
https://linkedin.com/in/bencelukacs
Damian Noonan (selfdriven Co-Founder)
Damian has over 20 years experience delivering technology projects as part of strategic transformation initiatives, with expertise particularly Salesforce, MuleSoft and its emerging technologies. As co-founder of recently acquired Tquila ANZ, Damian has experience in building teams and delivering enterprise solutions.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/damian-noonan-9942891
Elizabeth Jones – Co-Founder & Partnership Development Manager
Elizabeth is a health professional and entrepreneur with over 35 years’ experience across clinical nursing, hospital procurement, sales leadership, and healthcare innovation. A former ICU nurse, she has held senior roles with Ramsay Health Care, Sydney Adventist Hospital, BD, and ICU Medical, leading teams, managing multimillion-dollar procurement portfolios, and forging strategic partnerships in both public and private health. As co-founder of beHub, Elizabeth combines frontline clinical insight with commercial acumen to improve clinician access to accurate device information, streamline onboarding, and enhance patient flow. She continues to work part-time within NSW Health, keeping her closely connected to the realities of hospital operations.
https://au.linkedin.com/in/elizabeth-jones-38982511
Brian Halse – Co-Founder & Chair
Brian Halse is an experienced chair, non-executive director, and governance specialist with over two decades of leadership across agribusiness, education, health technology, and the not-for-profit sector. His career includes CEO roles at ChemCert Australia, High Security Irrigators, and beHub Health, where he co-founded and helped scale the platform to 31 hospitals and 3,000+ clinicians. Known for building trusted stakeholder relationships and delivering organisational transformation, Brian brings deep expertise in strategic governance, financial management, and guiding multi-stakeholder initiatives from concept to execution.
https://au.linkedin.com/in/brianhalse
About beHub
beHub is an Australian digital health platform transforming how hospitals, manufacturers, and clinicians access medical device and product information. In large, geographically dispersed healthcare systems like Australia’s, frontline staff often struggle to access up-to-date, manufacturer-approved resources when and where they need them. beHub solves this by centralising product and training materials into one secure platform, enabling hospitals to create department-specific device “playlists,” track usage, and receive direct updates from manufacturers.
Already rolled out to 31 hospitals with over 3,000 clinicians, including some of the most remote facilities in the country, beHub is live across the Murrumbidgee Local Health District in New South Wales and Alice Springs Hospital in the Northern Territory. Operating within NSW Health – one of the world’s largest healthcare systems with 220+ hospitals – the platform ensures every site, from tertiary centres to rural outposts, has instant access to accurate, current device information. Expansion is underway into more NSW and NT hospitals, supported by early manufacturer partnerships and a scalable subscription model for long-term growth.
Teams
Milestone Title
Project Management Plan & Foundations
Milestone Outputs
A full project plan detailing scope, stakeholder mapping, work breakdown structure, risk register, QA approach, communications plan, and delivery calendar, ensuring every contributor understands timelines, responsibilities, dependencies, and success measures.
Acceptance Criteria
A single versioned plan (PDF or Markdown) stored in the project repo, tagged with release v0.1, with a visible commit history and clearly defined roles/responsibilities and timeline.A single versioned plan (PDF or Markdown) stored in the project repo, tagged with release v0.1, including full commit history, clearly defined roles and responsibilities, agreed milestones, timeline, acceptance criteria, and update process, ensuring everyone works from one authoritative source of truth throughout the project lifecycle.
Evidence of Completion
Public link to the repository displaying the plan file, the current version tag, the full commit history, and timestamped updates, providing transparent evidence of progress, governance, authorship, and accountability so reviewers can verify that roles, decisions, and milestones are being tracked and delivered against a single maintained source of truth.
Delivery Month
1
Cost
20000
Progress
10 %
Milestone Title
Design & Build - Health Systems Cooperative Kit
Milestone Outputs
Initial release of Health Cooperative Kit with define-to-provision workflow
Templates for roles, governance, and cooperative blueprint (JSON/YAML)
Basic SSI identity flows (issue/verify member credential)
Plutus script generation for cooperative addresses
Acceptance Criteria
A cooperative blueprint file that can automatically generate cooperative scripts and the corresponding DID/credential structure, for the selfdriven Health cooperative from onboarding to identity issuance, member wallet setup, cooperative actions, and proof-of-participation, showing the full lifecycle can run on the selfdriven Health cooperative stack without manual intervention.
Evidence of Completion
Demo video + functioning prototype at https://coop.selfdriven.health
v1 release tag in repo with changelog
Delivery Month
5
Cost
80000
Progress
50 %
Milestone Title
Use & Reflect - Deployment with selfdriven Health Cooperative
Milestone Outputs
A live deployment with real participating health organisations, where governance processes, membership onboarding, identity issuance, and treasury operations are fully activated, supported by guided onboarding flows designed for non-technical users so they can join, manage roles, perform cooperative actions, and participate confidently without needing blockchain expertise.
Acceptance Criteria
A successful milestone is demonstrated by onboarding the selfdriven Health organisations, issuing credentials and wallets to a minimum of 10 members, and recording the first cooperative proposals and votes on-chain, proving the membership, governance, credentialing, and decision-making flows all operate in a real environment with verifiable participation and accountability across the selfdriven Health network.
Evidence of Completion
On-chain metrics: scripts created, transactions, credentials issued
Pilot report summarising organisational onboarding & learnings
Screenshots/dashboards from live deployment
Delivery Month
8
Cost
60000
Progress
80 %
Milestone Title
Document & Socialise - Public Release Kit
Milestone Outputs
Open-source repository + documentation for running a cooperative
Deployment and adoption playbook for new sector partners
Metrics dashboard showing identity usage, governance activity and treasury flow
Presentation + wrap-up video for Catalyst community
Acceptance Criteria
The Health Cooperative Kit is proven when external organisations can use the toolkit independently without core-team support, a public demo instance of the cooperative kit is available for hands-on exploration, and full documentation plus an onboarding playbook are published on the website, enabling new health groups to self-start, configure governance, issue credentials, and activate cooperative operations without requiring internal intervention.
Evidence of Completion
Public repository and website updated with all project outputs, plus a final report to Catalyst that includes on-chain metrics, implementation outcomes, and key learnings, supported by a recorded presentation video and community demo that openly showcases functionality, adoption results, and next-steps for wider deployment.
Delivery Month
10
Cost
40000
Progress
100 %
Please provide a cost breakdown of the proposed work and resources
M1 – Project Management Plan – 20,000 ADA
Project Management: Scope definition, stakeholder mapping, work-breakdown structure, risk register, QA plan, comms plan, delivery calendar – 18,000 ADA
Tools & Admin: Project repository setup, version control, reporting templates, meeting facilitation tools – 2,000 ADA
M2 – Design & Build – 80,000 ADA
Solution Architecture & Design:
Use-case design, process mapping (inputs/outputs), data schema definition, public/private data categorisation – 5,000 ADA
Community Cardano Kit Development:
Core build of Community Cardano Kit components, integration with Selfdriven.network On-Chain, SSI & AI interfaces – 50,000 ADA
selfdriven / Cardano Network Integration:
Mapping to Cardano assets, AVS/partner-chains setup, integration of AVS features including Midnight compatibility – 10,000 ADA
Interface Enhancements:
Updating On-Chain interface reference and implementing UI/UX improvements for community onboarding – 10,000 ADA
Testing & Quality Assurance:
Internal QA, functionality verification, interface validation, regression testing – 5,000 ADA
M3 – Use / Test – Pilot – 60,000 ADA
Deployment & Setup:
Deploy Community Cardano Kit in pilot environment, configure network and infrastructure – 5,000 ADA
User Onboarding & Training:
Create onboarding pathways, run training workshops, support initial users – 35,000 ADA
Field Testing & Feedback:
Run live tests, gather feedback, analyse performance data, make adjustments – 15,000 ADA
Reporting & Review:
Document test results, lessons learned, and recommendations for scaling – 5,000 ADA
M4 – Document / Socialise / Publish – 40,000 ADA
Documentation:
Compile final public docs, onboarding materials, reports and technical integration notes – 30,000 ADA
Community Engagement:
Presentations, social media promotion, partnership announcements, case studies – 5,000 ADA
Production & Publishing:
Video walkthroughs, assets, website updates, graphical comms – 5,000 ADA
How does the cost of the project represent value for the Cardano ecosystem?
This project delivers maximum real-world impact per ADA by focusing funding on working software, live adoption and open-source infrastructure — not on research or theoretical analysis.
Why the budget is efficient
The solution builds on existing deployed platforms (org.selfdriven.app + app.behub.io), avoiding months of foundational work and cost.
Funding goes toward extending a working system into a reusable Health Cooperative Kit rather than creating a one-off bespoke product.
Pilot partners supplied by beHub reduce outreach and onboarding costs while guaranteeing immediate use of the system.
Primary value drivers
A repeatable cooperative model that can be used by other organisations and sectors without needing new development.
Permanent open-source assets (identity flows, governance tooling, cooperative blueprinting, wallet + treasury operations).
On-chain utility for Cardano (Plutus scripts, DID usage, transactions in ADA/USDM, governance interactions).
Cost discipline
~65% of funds go directly to engineering and UX for the reusable open-source kit.
~20% support real pilot deployment, ensuring adoption and measurable usage.
~15% cover project management, documentation and Catalyst reporting.
Long-term sustainability
After completion, health cooperatives and future sector partners can adopt the system without additional Catalyst funding.
Future growth is driven by organisations running their own cooperatives — not ongoing public funding.
Net effect
For the cost of a single project, Catalyst funds infrastructure that:
solves an immediate real-world need in the health sector, and
becomes a reusable foundation for education, disability support, aged care, insurance and other community-owned service domains.
This is high-leverage funding that turns one proposal into a long-term multiplier for Cardano adoption and impact.
I confirm that evidence of prior research, whitepaper, design, or proof-of-concept is provided.
Yes
I confirm that the proposal includes ecosystem research and uses the findings to either (a) justify its uniqueness over existing solutions or (b) demonstrate the value of its novel approach.
Yes
I confirm that the proposal demonstrates technical capability via verifiable in-house talent or a confirmed development partner (GitHub, LinkedIn, portfolio, etc.)
Yes
I confirm that the proposer and all team members are in good standing with prior Catalyst projects.
Yes
I confirm that the proposal clearly defines the problem and the value of the on-chain utility.
Yes
I confirm that the primary goal of the proposal is a working prototype deployed on at least a Cardano testnet.
Yes
I confirm that the proposal outlines a credible and clear technical plan and architecture.
Yes
I confirm that the budget and timeline (≤ 12 months) are realistic for the proposed work.
Yes
I confirm that the proposal includes a community engagement and feedback plan to amplify prototype adoption with the Cardano ecosystem.
Yes
I confirm that the budget is for future development only; excludes retroactive funding, incentives, giveaways, re-granting, or sub-treasuries.
Yes
I Agree
Yes
Mark Byers - Project Lead
Solution architecture, SSI, Cardano integrations.
Founder of selfdriven Foundation. 10+ years designing decentralised operating systems for communities. Leads development of Cardano-enabled identity, governance and cooperative tooling.
Bence Lukács - Organisation Lead
Cooperative structure, operating models, member roles.
Specialist in organisational architecture and community self-governance. Experience designing practical operating models for cooperatives and distributed teams.
Damian Noonan - Systems Lead
Health systems, deployment, provider onboarding.
Health innovation strategist. Works across clinical and allied health systems with deep knowledge of service workflows and compliance in real-world settings.
Elizabeth Jones - Design & Engagement Lead
UX, adoption, non-technical onboarding.
Designer focused on accessibility and human-centred rollout of complex systems. Experienced in stakeholder education and communications for community-based projects.
Brian Halse - Governance
Governance frameworks, policy, proposals & voting.
Independent governance specialist. Experience in cooperative governance, risk frameworks and transparency mechanisms for community-owned organisations.