{"id":117,"date":"2017-06-01T10:31:28","date_gmt":"2017-06-01T14:31:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dwan.org\/?p=117"},"modified":"2019-10-25T15:18:57","modified_gmt":"2019-10-25T19:18:57","slug":"blockchain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/2017\/06\/01\/blockchain\/","title":{"rendered":"Blockchain"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the summer, I have the opportunity to think deeply about the ecosystem of technologies that go by the name “Blockchain.” I’m focusing particularly on how these might apply in a couple of different scientific and healthcare contexts. I plan to post snippets here from time to time, as much to force me to clarify my thinking as anything else. As Hyman Rickover<\/a> said, \"Nothing so sharpens the thought process as writing down one's arguments. Weaknesses overlooked in oral discussion become painfully obvious on the written page.\"<\/code><\/p>\n

One challenge when trying to talk about blockchain is that it is massively<\/em> hyped – sitting right at the peak of Gartner’s hype cycle<\/a>. Most of the meetings I go to these days include at least one person who asks, regardless of the topic at hand, “what about blockchain?”<\/p>\n

Another challenge is that Blockchain is strongly associated with Bitcoin<\/a> and other cryptocurrencies<\/a>. The hype brings a certain breathiness to the conversation, while the finance connection brings associations with fraud and nefarious dealings. Neither of these is entirely merited – but I’m finding it important to keep in mind as I explore.<\/p>\n

For all that, the foundational documents are remarkably crisp, lucid, and readable. The original bitcoin paper,<\/a> written under the pseudonym “Satoshi Nakamoto,” is only eight pages long – plus a half page of references.<\/p>\n

It’s clear to me that there’s important work to be done in this space – and I’m thrilled to have the time to take part.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Over the summer, I have the opportunity to think deeply about the ecosystem of technologies that go by the name “Blockchain.” I’m focusing particularly on how these might apply in a couple of different scientific and healthcare contexts. I plan to post snippets here from…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[3],"class_list":["post-117","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blockchain","tag-blockchain"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=117"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":120,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/117\/revisions\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=117"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=117"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dwan.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=117"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}