COVID-19 Survivor Creates 1Point5 Social Distancing App

Hi everyone. We hope you are all safe and well. Today we have an unusual post. It’s not about the blockchain technology or our company. Today we want to contribute, as a blockchain community, to help fight COVID-19 and prevent its spread. You see, one of our new team members has recently gone through the virus but fortunately recovered two weeks later. And we collectively felt like we were able to help somehow… so here is the story of 1Point5App.

Keep your distance > 1.5M

The Dutch government introduced a minimum distance of 1.5 meters to help stop the spread of COVID-19 in The Netherlands. Unfortunately, people are having a hard time implementing social distancing in their daily lives. Panic purchasing and fair weather are not helping… And this is the case in many countries where the lockdown has not fully happened yet.

Now there is an app for that. 1Point5App warns you when another device enters your zone. One of its creators, Renato Cardoso, has a very personal reason to create this technology. Renato survived COVID-19.

Recovered from COVID-19

Renato is a Brazilian expat living in Amsterdam. He caught the virus early March and he was quarantined in his apartment for over two weeks. The symptoms he experienced were excruciating he explains on a video call. “The fever made me delirious. But breathing was the worst. I felt like I had a giant hole in my chest.”

Renato is a developer at LTO Network, who joined just a couple of months ago. When he got better, he asked us to join his passion project. Together with TBWA\NEBOKO, they were answering the call of the Dutch Prime Minister; keep your distance 1.5 meters. They got straight to work, each in our individual homes of course.

“Social distancing saves lives. And this app educates people about what that appropriate distance is.”

How Does 1Point5App Work?

The social distancing app works using Bluetooth. When a person carrying a mobile device encroaches your parameter your phone vibrates. The app also displays a graphic that can be shown to the other person, aimed at defusing the situation.

“Telling someone to go away is pretty awkward. This is a friendly reminder. For yourself and the other person. Because you really don’t want to get or spread corona. Believe me. I know.”

Renato and the team have been working round the clock to finish the app and have hardly left their homes. “And you too should stay home. But when you do go out use 1.5 and flatten the curve.” Renato concludes.

Please Join And Contribute

It’s a very simple version 0.1, and there are more features we want to introduce to help fight the virus. Some of the notable suggestions include ZCash research, and what Arthur from Tezos suggested, as well as many other prominent developers and activists.

This is a community effort. We invite everyone contribute!

Especially the blockchain communities standing behind the ideas of collaboration - let’s put our efforts and improve 1Point5App to fight COVID-19. Whether you are a developer, an individual with social exposure, a company… please keep in mind 1Point5App is a passion project not aimed to harvest data, raise money, sell a product, or anything of that nature.

• Website & Contact: https://onepointfive.app/
• Chat: https://t.me/LTOnetwork
• GitHub: https://github.com/UNTILabs/1point5

Disclaimer

Considering the team behind LTO Network and some of our Ecosystem V friends are helping out, we found it appropriate to include this piece in the blog here. A separate team member expansion article will be following later. We didn’t feel appropriate previously to express our thoughts on the situation as many companies have done - in order to simply get likes and attention. This is not your jeans trying to tell you they care about your privacy. We focus on actually trying to help and raise our voice in critical situations only if we can contribute something relevant.

We are not experts on COVID-19. Only listen to professionals!

As a team, we have been WFH “Work From Home” since Thursday March 12. Our work has not been negatively affected. All the current and upcoming cases progress at a regular quick pace, which we will keep sharing with you.

Please stay safe and stay home.