Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy

genomic services is an initial proof of

concept in some ways (and a health

literacy tool as well as a possible

delivery mechanism for personal results

and recommendations), but not an “all-

human-scale” solution for sequencing.

Blockchain technology, in the form of a

universal model for record keeping and

data storage and access (a secure,

decentralized, pseudonymous file

structure for data stored and accessed in

the cloud) could be the technology that is

needed to move into the next phase of

industrialized genomic sequencing. This

applies to genomic sequencing generally

as an endeavor, irrespective of the

personal data rights access issue.

Sequencing all humans is just one

dimension of sequencing demand; there

is also the sequencing of all plants,

animals, crops, viruses, bacteria,

disease-strain pathogens, microbiomes,

cancer genomes, proteomes, and so on,

to name a few use cases.

There is a scale production and

efficiency argument for blockchain-

based transnational genomic services.

To move to large-scale sequencing as a

“universal human society,” the scope and

scale of sequencing and corresponding

information processing workloads

suggests not just transnationality, but

more important, heavy integration with

the cloud (genomic data is too big for

current forms of local storage and

manipulation), and the blockchain

delivers both transnationality and the

cloud. Transnational regional centers for

genomic sequencing and processing and

information management of the

sequenced files could be the best way to

structure the industry given the cost,

expertise, equipment, and scale

required. This could be a more efficient

solution rather than each country

developing its own capabilities.

Blockchain technology might be used to

achieve a high-throughput level of

industrialized genomic sequencing—on

the order of millions and billions of

genomes, well beyond today’s hundreds.

In reality, blockchain technology might

supply just one aspect of what might be

needed; other issues are more critical in

achieving industrialized genomic

sequencing operations (information

processing and data storage is seen as

the real bottleneck). However, the

blockchain ecosystem is inventing many

new methods for other operational areas

along the way and might be able to

innovate in a complementary manner for

a full solution to industrial-scale

genomic sequencing, including recasting

the problem in different ways as with

decentralization concepts.

Blockchain Technology as a

Universal Order-of-Magnitude

Progress Model

Blockchain technology might be

indicative of the kinds of mechanisms

and models needed to achieve the next

orders-of-magnitude progress in areas

like big data, moving to what would

currently be conceived as “truly-big-

data,” and well beyond. Genomic

sequencing could be one of the first

demonstration contexts of these higher-

orders-of-magnitude models for

progress.

Genomecoin,

GenomicResearchcoin

Even without considering the longer-

term speculative possibilities of the

complete invention of an industrial-scale

all-human genome sequencing project

with the blockchain, just adding

blockchain technology as a feature to

existing sequencing activities could be

enabling. Conceptually, this would be

like adding coin functionality or

blockchain functionality to services like

DNAnexus, a whole-human genome

cloud-based storage service. Operating

in collaboration with university

collaborators (Baylor College of

Medicine’s Human Genome Sequencing

Center) and Amazon Web Services, the

DNAnexus solution is perhaps the

largest current data store of genomes,

having 3,751 whole human genomes and

10,771 exomes (440 terabytes) as of

2013. 147 The progress to date is

producing a repository of 4,000 human

genomes, out of the possible field of 7

billion humans, which highlights the

need for large-scale models in these

kinds of big data projects (human whole-

genome sequencing). The DNAnexus

database is not a public good with open

access; only 300 worldwide

preapproved genomic researchers have

permission to use it. The Genomic Data

Commons148 is a US-government-funded

large-scale data warehouse and

computational computing project being

assembled to focus on genomic research

and personalized medicine. In this case,

the resource is said to be available to

any US-based researcher. This is a good

step forward in organizing data into

standard unified repositories and

allowing access to a certain population.

A further step could be using an appcoin

like Genomecoin to expand access on a

grander scale as a public good fully

accessible by any individual worldwide.

Further, the appcoin could be the

tracking, coordination, crediting, and

renumerative mechanism sponsoring

collaboration in the Genome Data

Commons community. Like the

aforementioned Wikinomics example,

the highest potential possibility for

discovery could be in making datasets

truly open for diverse sets of individuals

and teams from a variety of fields and

backgrounds to apply any kind of model

they might have developed.

One benefit of “Bitcoin/blockchain-as-

economics” is that the technology

automatically enables embedded