IBM Is Preparing a Blockchain Solution For Researchers

IBM has submitted a patent application for a blockchain system that can simplify the process of scientific research.

Blockchain for scientists

The patent application from the IBM Watson research center team represents a vision of dynamic collaboration for scientists. Using it, researchers can track their work beyond institutional borders. This is another non-financial app of distributed Ledger technology that IBM has been working on in recent months.

This latest patent can be seen as a complex journal of software changes, but only for science. Or, as the statement says, a system that provides a "journal of scientific research resistant to unauthorized interference."

"The blockchain system can form a blockchain representing a research project, where the blockchain comprises the first block of research data and the second block of analysis data representing a log of an analysis performed on the research data. Summary blocks and correction blocks can also be added to the blockchain representing the post analysis of the research results," was noted in the IBM press release.

Make life easier

The application, called "Blockchain for Open Scientific Research," was first filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office in December 2017. The list of inventors includes IBM researchers Jae-wook Ahn, Maria Chang, Patrick Watson, and Rabindranath the Coccus.

There are now limited platforms that allow the exchange of information on research and demonstrate transparent stages of data collection and analysis. They don't have the necessary controls and mechanisms to ensure the reliability of the data because there are few options to ensure the sustainability of data to changes, the patent says.

Not the only ones

IBM is not the only group working on the app of distributed Ledger technology in the scientific field. Earlier this week, the Berlin-based Blockchain for Science think tank held its first international conference. The blockchain-flavored patent is one of many for Big Blue.

According to data published in September, IBM is number two after Chinese Internet giant Alibaba by the number of patent applications associated with blockchain. In total, the software giant has 89 of them, and their number has been growing in the last two months.