Self Sovereignty and the 3 Secret Weapons of Blockchain IT
Framing the Revolution
There is a revolution coming. It will not be like revolutions of the past. It will originate with the individual and with culture, and it will change the political structure only as its final act. It will not require violence to succeed, and it cannot be successfully resisted by violence. ~ Charles A. Reich
Blockchain IT is what finally allows patient-centric healthcare to be more than a catch phrase for sleepy health plan and big pharma execs. In traditional healthcare models, empowering patients amounts to giving the keys to the inmates. Revolutionaries among you will understand how “giving keys to the inmates” is exactly how to turn the tide.
Remember when Jerry and Kramer helped Elaine get access to her own health records? She had no power in that relationship with her physician who kept personal health records under lock and key, very private.
Here is a clip of this classic 1996 SEINFELD episode:
Citizens have had access to financial records for so long… How come most of us still do not have secure and portable access to our own personal health records?
Ok, ok.. let me back up.
For more on the implications of this transformative tech, read Brett Thomas’s article Decentralization Disrupts Suck or Steve Case’s The Third Wave of the Internet.
When you strip away all the mystique and hype, blockchains are basically databases with much better security measures and several other significant and unique characteristics.
Before the Secret Weapons can be deployed, here are 5 Important Qualities of Blockchain IT to understand:
1. A “Distributed Ledger” means that the information in the database is shared among many different computers in different parts of the globe. These are called “nodes,” and it means that complete replicas of your database exist. In a blockchain environment (either public, private, or permissioned), the days of upper management simply changing spreadsheets and manipulating account entries is o-v-e-r. A Shared Ledger creates accountability.
2. A blockchain database is “append-only” so every transaction logged is stored permanently; it can’t be changed, only added to. In a blockchain environment, the days of calling up the Warehouse Manager and asking him pre-audit to “remember to go back to October and add those extra pallets that were sold” are o-v-e-r. Immutable means no fuzzy math.
3. A blockchain database contains protocols that ensure agreement across all “nodes” in the blockchain. Consensus algorithms run between all nodes to make sure that the “blocks” of information in the “chain” are the same: this is called Proof of Work or Proof of Stake. Consensus creates transparency.
4. Another characteristic that can define a blockchain database is the ability to demonstrate Proof of Origin or Provenance. In order to make sure that your Louis Vuitton handbag came from the factory in Italy and not the one in China, we put an RFD chip on the handbag, and it is scanned and logged at every port thus allowing a public record of its path to the marketplace. Whole Foods and IBM are doing this with tomatoes and whatnot apparently.
5. Bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto solved the “double spend” problem that had plagued digital currencies. In essence, if I give you a paper dollar bill for something, then it is impossible for me to give that same dollar bill to someone else. Digital currency, however, is virtual so until bitcoin’s consensus-oriented, peer-to-peer connected system, there was the problem of a “double spend.” And in solving this problem for cryptocurrencies, Mr. Nakamoto ushered in a new wave of the Internet. Bitcoin is not blockchain. Bitcoin is the founding application of a technology that will shift the way business is conducted (i.e. value is exchanged).
Third wave technology companies like QubeChain LLC are producing applied uses of blockchain IT by leveraging creative innovation against the above characteristics.
The world is ready for technology tools that disrupt the way value is exchanged currently.
Self sovereign beings participate more fully in wellness behaviors and activities. We will increase population health when more citizens realize that we ourselves hold the (crypto?) keys for driving patient-centric healthcare! The patient is ready to see you now, doctor! Blockchain dApps will enable this wHealth Revolution.
And especially for future generations, such as Bryce and Roxanne, my own blond-haired blooms in the photo above who are now 12 and 15 and who will one day marvel that once upon a time most citizens had no portable and secure access to comprehensive personal health data.
3 SECRET WEAPONS OF BLOCKCHAIN TECHNOLOGY:
· Secure — Blockchain IT establishes a shared truth and is impervious to fraud. Each record is encrypted and shared, but it is possible to de-crypt a piece of data. The transaction logs are hashed as well, and it is impossible to de-hash a transaction log without the proper crypto key. In addition, because each transaction log is hashed, a hacker who breaches your system does not gain access to the entire database, only the transaction that corresponds to that key. (see Equifax for the old way of storing data).
· Trusted — If the data is distributed (See #1 above), if it is permanent and immutable (see #2 above), if the data has consensus (see #3 above), if you can prove origin (#4), if it can’t be hacked (see Secure directly above), if the data is out in the public but anonymized, is it trusted?
· Automation — Blockchains allow smart contracts to be written; these executable pieces of code are stored out on the Internet and because of all of the above, we can automate myriad workflows if certain conditions are met. Think if/then statements. If XYZ and 123 happens, then it triggers the payment or the shipment or the escrow or the transfer of records or the HIPAA-compliant form….automatically.