HNHacker News
TopNewBestAskShowJobs

kysar_tom

50 karma · joined October 5, 2016

submissionscomments
kysar_tom··on Blockchain Healthcare 2016 Report – Promise and Pitfalls
Tierion anchors the root of a Merkle Tree made up of all inbound records every 10 minutes into a Bitcoin transaction. With that root in a Bitcoin transaction, you can use a portable cryptographic proof (Tierion calls them blockchain receipts) to validate the integrity of each record at a later point in time.

The Bitcoin blockchain is a global immutable data ledger that makes for a great place to anchor hashes to.

kysar_tom··on Blockchain Healthcare 2016 Report – Promise and Pitfalls
The Bitcoin blockchain is really great for value transfer and data integrity.

You want a hash of your data stored in the Bitcoin blockchain, that can referenced at a later point in time to validate the accuracy of the data.

kysar_tom··on Blockchain Healthcare 2016 Report – Promise and Pitfalls
Should have been more clear. No records should be stored on the Bitcoin blockchain, only a hash of the data. Using a service like Tierion, a hash of your data is anchored into the Bitcoin blockchain, and Tierion gives you back a blockchain receipt. That blockchain receipt is a cryptographic proof that can be used to verify the integrity of that data at a later point in time.
kysar_tom··on Blockchain Healthcare 2016 Report – Promise and Pitfalls
Tierion uses the Bitcoin blockchain for these reasons. Proof of work is what really secures your data.
kysar_tom··on Blockchain Healthcare 2016 Report – Promise and Pitfalls
You could, but a relational database isn't distributed upon 5,000+ worldwide nodes in an immutable data ledger. That's the value the Bitcoin blockchain provides, it allows you to stick data into a transaction that will be there forever. The Bitcoin blockchain provides an economic incentive to keep the data accurate and accessible, as it would be (near) impossible to pull off a 51% attack in todays day and age.

Many databases can be modified by the ones who centrally operate it. The Bitcoin blockchain is the worlds first distributed global database that takes the burden of trust off your internal systems and records.