Skip to main content

COVID-19 Contact Tracing

The past few months have really given us all a crash course in epidemiology. The vast majority of us now know more about the spread of infectious disease and the importance of "flattening the curve" than we ever thought we'd know. I even recently watched Contagion because...well, I don't really know why I watched it (am I a masochist?). But that movie had a pretty interesting depiction of epidemiologists' efforts to trace an outbreak back to an index patient, also known as "patient zero." If you're not in the throes of anxiety about what's currently happening in the world, I'd recommend it giving it a watch.

As the country (and the world) continue to find ways to manage a truly global health crisis, the public health experts have emphasized the need for local communities to have adequate contact tracing processes in place. This process traditionally involves individuals with specialized training working with patients to identify all of the people they've been in contact with within a certain period of time in order to trace the spread of a disease. What has typically been a labor-intensive process is being made less labor-intensive by leveraging technology.

But with the deployment of technology comes concerns inherent in all big data undertakings--namely, privacy and security. My fellow blockchain evangelists think that blockchain could be the answer to these concerns. Blockchain has a number of laudable features and its use of encryption to protect and control access to data is probably one of its most desired. Encryption doesn't allay all of our concerns with large collections of personal data but it could go a long way in ensuring that our data doesn't fall into the wrong hands.

As we enter this next phase of big data collection in the form of contact tracing, do you think blockchain will be able to protect your information? Let me know at info@blockchainblawg.com or tweet me @blockchainblawg.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Before You Mint Your NFT

With NFT season taking a bit of a breather (kinda), I thought this would be the perfect time to lay out a few things to consider before minting an NFT.  If you missed the frenzy, well, welcome. "NFT" stands for non-fungible token and these digital tokens represent real world ownership and provenance of a particular asset. NFTs are minted (i.e., produced), stored and transacted (bought/sold/traded) on a distributed ledger like blockchain. Some NFTs represent ownership of tangible assets and some NFTs are digital/virtual assets  (yes, a digital piece of art was purchased for $69M). "Non-fungibility" is a scary word but it essentially means that the asset is unique, cannot be interchanged with another asset, and cannot be replicated. Think of NFTs as either collectibles, like artwork and trading cards, or title to tangible/real property, like real estate and cars.  So with all the excitement having simmered down a bit, below are a few things to think about before you ...

New home. Who dis?

This post will be short and not blockchain-related. I recently moved my blog to a new platform so I'm still working out the kinks on the aesthetic aspects. Thanks for your patience!

The Rundown on CBDCs

Everyday there is a news report about a country that is "exploring" or "studying" the possibility of developing a central bank digital currency (CBDC). In the past few days, I've read articles about Rwanda, Israel and France looking to pilot programs with CBDCs. And yesterday, the Bank of International Settlements announced its backing of the development of CBDCs. With approximately 80% of central banks around the world taking a closer look at CBDCs, now is as good a time as any to learn more about them. What Are They? A central bank digital currency is exactly what it sounds like--a digital currency issued by a central bank. In the same way our central bank, the Federal Reserve, issues the U.S. dollar, it would similarly issue some official U.S. digital currency ('digital dollar'). This is pretty much where the simplicity of it all ends. Things get really hairy (really fast) when central banks have to figure out how CBDCs fit into a traditional financ...