Why metadata matters
Addressing science’s missing data problem by putting metadata on the blockchain
When scientists use Frankl applications to collect data, they make a micropayment in Frankl tokens. This is recorded as a transaction on the Ethereum blockchain.
And with a few tweaks to the smart contract that is writing this transaction, we can add a small amount of metadata — information such as the version of the application that was used, the location where the data itself is stored, and a hash (a sort of digital fingerprint) of the data.
With this simple step, the blockchain record transaction becomes incredibly useful. It provides a permanent, public record that the data exists. And it helps to solve one of the biggest problems facing science — the disappearance of data.
Our full post, Why metadata matters, is now republished on the Toward Data Science blog. You can read it here.
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