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Blockchain in the Life Sciences Stephen Downes National Research Council Canada May 30, 2018
Areas of Application • Electronic Health Record • Medical Inventory • Certification and Compliance • Medical Research Data
What is Blockchain? ‘A permanent distributed consensus-based ledger’
Ledger • Transactions (a=b) • Contracts (if c then (a=b) ) • Activities (a did b)
Consensus • Methods of agreements – • proof of work, • proof of stake, • authorization
Distributed • One ledger with many owners vs: • One big ledger owned by someone • Many individual & separate ledgers
Permanent • Write-only, verification ensured by hashing
Public vs Private Blockchains • Public • For example: Bitcoin • Transactions are viewable by anyone • Participant identity...
Requirements for Life Sciences Blockchains • Identity / Authentication – know who is contributing, track information to so...
Issues • Data-entry overhead • Betamax vs VHS • Digital overhead – processing and data requirements • Privacy and security
The Future • Public encrypted write-only records are mainstream • We will all have digital signatures / keys • Automation ...
Stephen Downes National Research Council Canada http://www.downes.ca
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Blockchain in the Life Sciences

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Slides are of my presentation to the panel giving an accessible overview of blockchain technologies and explaining their relevance to life sciences. The audio is from the panel as a whole (the first minute is missing); it looks at the future of life sciences technology and features speakers from OBIO, CHEO and IBM as well as myself. My audio begins at the 41:00 minute mark. For audio please see https://www.downes.ca/presentation/494

Published in: Technology
License: CC Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License
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Blockchain in the Life Sciences

  1. 1. Blockchain in the Life Sciences Stephen Downes National Research Council Canada May 30, 2018
  2. 2. Areas of Application • Electronic Health Record • Medical Inventory • Certification and Compliance • Medical Research Data
  3. 3. What is Blockchain? ‘A permanent distributed consensus-based ledger’
  4. 4. Ledger • Transactions (a=b) • Contracts (if c then (a=b) ) • Activities (a did b)
  5. 5. Consensus • Methods of agreements – • proof of work, • proof of stake, • authorization
  6. 6. Distributed • One ledger with many owners vs: • One big ledger owned by someone • Many individual & separate ledgers
  7. 7. Permanent • Write-only, verification ensured by hashing
  8. 8. Public vs Private Blockchains • Public • For example: Bitcoin • Transactions are viewable by anyone • Participant identity is more difficult to control • Private • For example: Hyperledger Fabric • Network members are known but transactions are secret • Permissioned • anyone to join the permissioned network after verification of identity • allocation of select and designated permissions to perform only certain activities on the network.
  9. 9. Requirements for Life Sciences Blockchains • Identity / Authentication – know who is contributing, track information to source • Permission-based – not just anyone contributes, different participants have different rights • Consensus – based on authorization, not proof of work • Privacy – records are encrypted, cannot be accessed without authorization and key
  10. 10. Issues • Data-entry overhead • Betamax vs VHS • Digital overhead – processing and data requirements • Privacy and security
  11. 11. The Future • Public encrypted write-only records are mainstream • We will all have digital signatures / keys • Automation of data entry / internet of things • Multiple interconnected blockchains / interoperability https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A_paper_printable_Bitcoin_wallet_consisting_of_one_bitcoin_address_for_receiving_and_the_corresponding_p rivate_key_for_spending.png
  12. 12. Stephen Downes National Research Council Canada http://www.downes.ca

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