Here comes one of the big guys – a tech giant by the name of Google, that is spinning the Blockchain FinTech in a new direction. In summary, Googles’s DeepMind artificial intelligence (AI) lab is utilizing Blockchain like cryptography, namely Merkle Trees, not in the legacy fashion of using a decentralized network of computers to prove the authenticity of transactions, but instead is creating a new way to authenticate and track changes made to the data without the external networking overhead. The DeepMind project is operating in the healthcare sector and needed a way to comfort the medical industry that any use of private patient data that was being used in their AI research was accurately tracked. This Blockchain like technology of Merkle hash trees could be the answer for Google.
Cade Metz, in writing for wired.com, describes DeepMind’s endeavor as an “Auditing system for healthcare data” (Metz, 2017). I agree with Metz in his analysis of how Google’s effort is unique, and that other players continue to push the traditional use of blockchain technology and digital ledger transaction. I also think Google’s approach is smart, as they truly understand the potential of cryptography in maintaining sensitive data, and have the deep pockets to know that it may just be that the underpinnings of the blockchain are the key, and pulling that technology out, repackaging it and finding other uses for it is the recipe for success. Stay tuned.
Metz, C. (2017, March 11). Google DeepMind’s Untrendy Play to Make the Blockchain Actually Useful. Retrieved from www.wired.com: https://www.wired.com/2017/03/google-deepminds-untrendy-blockchain-play-make-actually-useful/