Funding Agency: Nanyang Technological University
Funding Quantum: SGD $5,000
Duration of Award: September 2021 to September 2022
Role: Principal Investigator
What the project is about:
The increasing adoption of blockchain technology by Singapore’s financial and healthcare sectors have gained public attention on the potential benefits of asset tokenization—the conversion of physical assets (e.g., properties, equities) into fractional digital tokens on a blockchain platform with legal ownership rights.
To date, financial companies have tokenized assets such as properties or stocks where individuals could legally purchase or sell fractional shares of a properties/equities at affordable quantum. In healthcare, tokenizing health data (e.g., medical health records, physiological data from health apps/wearables) is gaining traction, where individuals decide how their data would be used (funnelling it for research or to make purchasing/investment decision with it).
While there are potential benefits of asset tokenization such as democratizing access, ownership, and decision-making of health and financial assets traditionally available to the rich, the benefits may not be equally accrued by all populations, and potentially may amplify health and financial inequalities instead of closing them.
This study aims to achieve the overarching goals:
- Examine motivations/barriers of adopting health and financial asset tokenization among the poor through the perspective of communication inequalities—the differences among social groups in the generation, manipulation, and distribution of information;
- Develop evidence-based communication strategies to close gaps in adoption/use of asset tokenization among the poor to promote financial/digital health well-being
This would be achieved through 2 work packages (WPs):
- WP1: In-depth interviews (n =30) with (a) blockchain developers in health/financial sectors, (b) government agencies (e.g., GovTech), and (c) low-income/education groups
- WP2: Pilot-testing of communication and nudging messages to increase adoption of asset tokenization platforms through online experiments (n = 500)
This project will be significant in providing the first social-science theoretical and evidence-based perspective in using communication strategies to bridge disparities in use of asset tokenization technology to drive equitable health/financial outcomes.
Edmund W. J. Lee 