It's time to kill fax machines dead. The world urgently needs a clean, elegant, implementable and reliable way to send confidential documents.
THE ULTIMATE BLOCKCHAIN CHALLENGE is the frustrated fruit of an otherwise wasted morning.
THE SCENARIO
You are on your way to a medical specialist for an important appointment. Your daughter is fasting and hasn't had breakfast. She's being awesomely good but might get the hungry grumps any minute. Just as you arrive in the city after a torturous sarcasm 10 minute bus trip (inner city living has its benefits), you realise that you forgot your referral from the Doctor.
THE PROBLEM
"No probs!" you think to yourself. "Modern technology, emails, yada yada = solution."
Alas, no. Oozing confidence and tech-savvyness, you ring the doctor's office to get them to send through a copy of your daughter's referral.
"I'm sorry. We can't do that."
I'm sorry. We can't do that.
"You can't email me a referral? How do you communicate with other medical offices? Fax?"
"We aren't allowed, legally, to send medical records by email. We use fax."
Fax. It's 2017 and they use fax machines. Cutting edge technology from the 1960s...
EDITORIAL NOTE
Before you say "Government regulations blah blah blah," stop and think. These rules exist to protect peoples' privacy. And that's necessary. You see, government isn't the problem. This is actually a good example of government protecting rights and liberties and privacy. The problem is technology: until now, technology hasn't been up to the challenge.
THE CHALLENGE
If we are going to do this, we may as well do it right. So. Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to create a blockchain application:
- That is reliable, useable, and (once implemented) is cheap enough to use (think email kind of cheap) for widespread government and business adoption;
- In which the user can securely create and store data (in this instance medical records but potentially meeting minutes and records, contracts, designs, briefing papers, reports, legal opinions, judgements, policy decisions and approvals, legislation, etc);
- In which stored data is verifiable, immutable and incorruptible - yet updatable and changeable (i.e., multiple edits and new versions can be created);
- Which can instantly send and receive confidential data both within and external to the organisation;
- Which can be used by multiple organisations in their own (more or less) unique way;
- Which can classify users and apply different rules and abilities to different users and give them different levels of access: e.g., set visibility (the ability to see docs only) and access (the ability to modify/edit docs) to any number of users by classification); and
- Which is able to facilitate transactions.
YOUR REWARD
An Application. Worth billions.
And my sincere admiration and appreciation.
I'd be very happy to learn of any existing projects attempting this noble challenge. I suspect that to a large extent EOS, and a much lesser one Ethereum, and perhaps after the recent shenanigans even Bitcoin, are playing in the space. Please comment if you know something!
Stay tuned for an exciting @drwom # steemofconsciousness initiative.
See also https://steemit.com/writing/@drwom/steemofconsciousness-filling-steemit-with-beatniks-and-steemniks
Photos courtesy of pixabay.com mashed by @drwom
@drwom footer by the fabulous @ryivhnn