This document discusses how blockchain technology can be applied to open science. It describes how blockchain involves storing replicated ledgers on multiple computers and uses hash functions to validate transactions. Blockchain properties like immutability, transparency and decentralization make it well-suited for scientific applications such as peer review, data management, intellectual property and collaboration. Several startups are exploring uses of blockchain for open science workflows and incentivizing data sharing. The document also describes one project called Frankl that is building blockchain applications for collecting and sharing cognitive research data.

1. BLOCKCHAIN FOR OPEN SCIENCE
2018 Australasian Open Science Conference
24-25 September 2018, University of Queensland
JON BROCK

2. BLOCKCHAIN APPLICATIONS
▸ Cryptocurrencies
▸ Banking
▸ Supply chains
▸ Electronic voting
‣ Healthcare records
‣ Real estate
‣ Digital identity
‣ Science
Blockchain is the tech behind
cryptocurrencies like bitcoin but there
are many other interesting applications

3. DISTRIBUTED LEDGER TECHNOLOGY
Blockchain is often
referred to as
“distributed ledger
technology”. A ledger is
just a record of
transactions

4. Blockchain involves multiple
copies of the ledger stored on
different computers.

5. There’s a Chrome plugin that replaces
“Blockchain” with “Multiple copies of a
giant excel spreadsheet”. But there’s
more to blockchain than that!

6. HASH FUNCTION
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally
breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling
on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
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In law you search cases on topic X & are 100% certain to find every decision.
Wouldn't that be nice in science?#uqopenscience #ontology4sci
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The lightbulb moment for me was
when I understood the idea of hash
functions. These are central to
blockchain. They take text of any
length and produce a fixed-length
alphanumeric code

7. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally
breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling
on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
0ccba6417b0d6d5ffa5dbaa85742c405
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally
breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling
on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
0ccba6417b0d6d5ffa5dbaa85742c405
The same text always generates the
same hash. You can’t retrieve the
initial text from the hash. But two
people can compare their hashes and
see if they have the same text without
revealing it to each other.

8. There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally
breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling
on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
0ccba6417b0d6d5ffa5dbaa85742c405
There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally
breathed into a few forms or into one, and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling
on according to the fixed law of gravity, from so simple a beginning endless forms
most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being, evolved.
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Any change in the original text
completely changes the hash.

9. ▸ Records are validated by the network and put into blocks
▸ Each new block includes the hash of the previous block, creating a chain
▸ Altering earlier blocks changes the hash and breaks the chain
http://graphics.reuters.com/TECHNOLOGY-BLOCKCHAIN/010070P11GN/index.html

10. BLOCKCHAIN PROPERTIES
▸ Records can’t be deleted or changed
▸ Accessible from any node
▸ Censor-resistant
▸ No centralised control
▸ Slow - need to wait for blocks to be ‘mined’
▸ Expensive to store large files - but you can store the hash!
The properties of blockchain
are well aligned with open
science

11. At least 20 projects around
the world are applying
blockchain to science.

12. PEER REVIEW AND PUBLICATION
Katalysis
Infinitcodex
Moringa
Decentralized Science
Orvium
Science Matters
DEIP
Science Root
Pluto Network
OSN
Aletheia

13. https://www.natureindex.com/news-blog/could-blockchain-unblock-science
The editors of Semantic Web
recently discussed the nuts
and bolts of blockchainifying a
journal to improve the
workflow and also to
incentivise reviewers. I wrote
about it for Nature Index.

14. DATA MANAGEMENT
DaMaHub
Science Distributed Covee
Knowbella
Artifacts
Matryx
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTYCOLLABORATION
PREREGISTRATION
Conscience E-Nome
MEDICAL RECORDS AND RESEARCH
Blockchain is also being
applied to other parts of the
(open) science cycle.

15. BLOCKCHAIN FOR RESEARCH
▸ Trust
▸ Transparency
▸ Reproducibility
▸ Credit
▸ Cost
▸ Openness
▸ Access
Digital Science’s blockchain
report is worth checking out.

16. The Blockchain for
Science website and its
living document are
great resources. The
first international
conference is in Berlin
in November.

17. At Frankl we’re focusing on data sharing. We’re building
applications that collect and manage cognitive data. But
the concept generalises to many different areas of science.

18. Data available to
collaborators
Metadata
available to
public
Researcher collects
data using Frankl app
Metadata written
to Ethereum
blockchain
Data securely
archived as it’s
collected
Researcher pays
tokens to Frankl

19. Data available to
collaborators
Metadata
available to
public
Researcher collects
data using Frankl app
Metadata written
to Ethereum
blockchain
Data securely
archived as it’s
collected
Anonymised data unlocked
by scientist
Researcher pays
tokens to Frankl
Frankl returns tokens
to reward sharing
Sharing the data is rewarded
with tokens that can be used
to collect more data

20. Data available to
collaborators
Metadata
available to
public
Researcher collects
data using Frankl app
Metadata written
to Ethereum
blockchain
Data securely
archived as it’s
collected
Anonymised data unlocked
by scientist
Researcher pays
tokens to Frankl
Frankl returns tokens
to reward sharing
…and app
developer
Researchers can “Franklify” their
data collection applications and
receive tokens when other
people re-use them.

21. ▸ Data sharing is made easier
▸ Standards for data and metadata are built into the application
▸ Public record of the existence and location of the data
▸ Hash of the data is the start of the scientific supply chain
▸ Incentivisation to share data - even if the study isn’t published!
▸ Incentivisation to share data collection (and analysis) software

22. HOW DO WE GET BUY IN FROM SCIENTISTS?
▸ Make ‘products’ that are better
than existing tools
▸ Provide incentives that genuinely
reward open science
▸ Remove points of friction
The key to wider adoption
of open science is to make
it easy - build tools with
“open” as the default.

23. FRANKL WALLET
▸ The Frankl wallet allows you
to create and control an
Ethereum address using your
Google account
Creating a wallet and address is a
major friction point for blockchain
adoption. Our new Frankl wallet
developed by Hut34 means you can
do this in 2 minutes using your
Google credentials.

24. ▸ 1793 registrations
▸ 89 PhD holders, 121 PhD candidates
▸ 91 countries
Earlier this year we gave away
tokens to scientists and science
students. The biggest response was
from Nigeria. The greatest impact
of blockchain is likely to be in
developing countries.

25. ‣ Visit frankl.io and create a wallet!
‣ Join t.me/franklcommunity on Telegram
‣ Follow @FranklOpenSci on Twitter, Facebook
‣ Follow @FranklOpenscience on Medium