Once the preserve of Bitcoin evangelists and tech disruptors, the database technology underlying cryptocurrencies, blockchain, is now of enormous significance in the ever-changing landscape of R&D.
R&D can only function if three things are true:
Innovation is encouraged, and R&D proceeds unfettered.- Trade secrets and IP are sufficiently protected.
- There is recourse if intellectual property ownership is challenged.
And this is where blockchain comes in. In this article, we’ll dissect and evaluate the role of this unique technology in revolutionizing R&D across numerous sectors.
We examine how blockchain technology reshapes research and development paradigms through expert analyses, cutting-edge applications, and foresight into future innovations.
Advanced blockchain fundamentals for R&D
With its decentralized architecture and immutability, blockchain technology offers new kinds of protection for R&D departments. The protection is twofold:
Decentralization means there is no single, localized data source for outsiders. Instead, a company’s IP and trade secrets can be registered in encrypted entries in the blockchain, which are time-stamped and accessible only to those granted the relevant permissions. There are no company servers to breach, and origination and ownership can be transparently established.
Immutability means that once a record of R&D activity is registered in the blockchain, it cannot be altered or removed. Once the asset is created, it’s better than carved in stone (stone erodes over time, blockchain units do not).
As blockchain professional Anne Rose wrote for the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in 2020, “These characteristics could provide intellectual property (IP) offices with an opportunity to transform the registration of IP rights by making the process more cost-effective, faster, and more accurate and secure. Further, the technology could provide an opportunity to transform the efficiency and transparency of rights management information.”
Of course, there isn’t one single blockchain. The technology can be leveraged across different blockchain architectures, including public, private, and consortium blockchains, each serving unique R&D needs.
Anyone with the relevant technology can access public networks.
Private networks are controlled by a single entity, which grants or refuses access.
Consortium networks (federated blockchain) work cooperatively, and every consortium member has equal input into the blockchain’s governance and operations.
Consensus mechanisms such as Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake (PoS) further enhance these architectures, ensuring integrity and trust in R&D processes.
Proof of Work, a concept from cryptocurrency, has a subtly different meaning in a non-currency context. In a recent Forbes article, eCash founder Amaury Sechet identifies its extended value: “It’s a consensus mechanism that allows anonymous entities in decentralized networks to trust one another.”
Proof of Stake, by contrast, creates an informal code of conduct rather than trust. It rewards participants as “validators” for verifying and adding new ledger entries. Validators with a high stake are usually chosen and, therefore, have much to lose if they incorrectly perform validation.
Blockchain’s adoption and applicability to R&D
One of the most promising applications of blockchain in R&D is its ability to enhance data integrity, reproducibility, and peer review in scientific research.
Enhanced cryptographic security prevents data from being altered while establishing timestamped ownership. The data can be reproduced with a lower likelihood of corruption or transcription errors. Access privileges can be given to protected data, allowing secure and trackable peer review.
By securing R&D data, including sensitive patent findings and peer review processes, blockchain technology mitigates the risks of data tampering and intellectual property disputes, thereby fostering a more reliable and efficient R&D ecosystem.
In a Management and Business Review article, David de Cremer and Yan Pang have a subtly dissenting view. They believe that using blockchain to establish trust within organizations shifts the locus of trust away from individuals and onto the technology itself.
They write, “Using decentralized principles to guarantee and verify safe interactions, blockchain becomes a kind of middleman, regulating the safety of users’ interactions in a given network.”
Expert perspectives on blockchain’s integration in R&D
Interviews with leading figures in blockchain research and technology innovation reveal a consensus on the transformative impact of blockchain on R&D.
Here are some typical opinions:
“At its core, blockchain is a tamper-proof database that securely logs interactions using advanced encryption (cryptography). This feature is advantageous for managing sensitive content and information, such as intellectual property. When managing Trade Secrets, holders’ key challenges include establishing proof of ownership and demonstrating reasonable measures to safeguard these secrets. A blockchain-based application addresses these challenges by registering and managing Trade Secret assets,” said Daniel Whitman, CEO of Peerdweb.
“It facilitates a streamlined process for granting access to patented content through smart contracts and NDAs, enhancing the efficiency of patent management entities in handling disputes and proving the provenance and originality of the content.” Appinventiv.com
“Such initiatives [China’s use of blockchain for trade secret protection] highlight the global movement towards leveraging blockchain for IP protection, evidencing inventorship, and enhancing judicial practices related to trade secrets.” Ledger Insights
“Blockchain enables the creation of tamper-proof records and smart contracts. Through this technology, you can establish an immutable and verifiable trail of ownership for intellectual property assets. From patents and copyrights to trademarks and digital content, blockchain can help protect them all,” said Justin Delfino, EVP of IP and R&D Solutions at Evalueserve.
However, integrating blockchain into traditional R&D environments faces several barriers, including technological complexity, resistance to change, and a lack of understanding of blockchain’s benefits.
As a 2021 literature review in Frontiers in Blockchain concluded, “technological differentiation among the various blockchains (otherwise known as, private/consortium versus public blockchains), the business model behind these blockchains, and the applied blockchain governance model play an important role in the adoption of this new technology in an industrial context.”
In other words, there’s a PR campaign to be won to explain blockchain and show that it’s about more than crypto billionaires, NFTs, and incomprehensible tech.
Experts suggest that overcoming these challenges requires comprehensive education and demonstration of blockchain’s potential in streamlining R&D processes, enhancing data security, and fostering collaborative research.
Trusted innovators, such as IBM, have a role to play in evangelizing for blockchain. For instance, writing about smart contracts, an everyday use case for blockchain in R&D, writes, “This technology removes the need for intermediaries, streamlines processes, and ensures the immediate certainty of outcomes for all parties involved.”
If a company at the forefront of R&D and innovation, like IBM, trusts blockchain’s potential, the rest of the industry will presumably follow.
Case studies of blockchain in high-level R&D applications
Exploring complex blockchain applications in biotechnology, quantum computing, and environmental science reveals significant outcomes and learnings.
Biotech: New York’s Coral Health uses the blockchain to record sensitive patient information, prevent unauthorized access, and protect data integrity. They also use the technology to implement smart contracts between healthcare providers and their patients, recording with absolute accuracy what has been agreed upon.
Quantum Computing: IonQ, the first publicly traded quantum computing company, specializes in using quantum computing’s computational power to improve the cryptographic security of blockchain technologies.
LinkedIn’s Tatiana Revoredo foresees a convergence between quantum computing, AI, and blockchain, which should help push cryptography to new and dizzying heights. She writes, “Quantum computing, with its ability to process data at the speed of light, could help solve [the speed] problem by making the blockchain faster without sacrificing security.”
Environmental Science: A collaboration between the World Wildlife Fund, Sea Quest, ICT hardware developer TraSeable, and blockchain developer ConsenSys has created a blockchain-verified traceability tool to help monitor and regulate the Pacific tuna industry. The tool uses blockchain architecture to incorporate encrypted and protected IoT and data analytic technology.
Such case studies underscore blockchain’s potential to address specific R&D challenges, demonstrating its effectiveness in developing and deploying bespoke solutions that integrate IoT, AI, and data analytics at scale.
Navigating the complexities of blockchain in R&D
Deploying blockchain in sensitive, high-stakes R&D contexts involves navigating technical, ethical, and regulatory complexities.
The balance between blockchain’s transparency and the need for confidentiality is particularly challenging in qualitative research environments.
Furthermore, blockchain’s ability to protect the IP and trade secrets that R&D generates depends on the territories’ legislative framework and case law. We are still in the early stages of establishing legal precedents for blockchain’s admissibility in ownership disputes.
International collaboration is another area where in-roads are being made. We hope to see further promotion of blockchain IP protection by organizations like WIPO (although their WIPO Proof service was discontinued in 2022 due to lack of uptake). There’s advocacy work yet to be done to promote the value of blockchain’s potential in R&D worldwide.
Establishing standards will help engender trust and increase uptake. WIPO has established its Blockchain Task Force under the Committee on WIPO Standards (CWS) to draft a new WIPO standard supporting blockchain technologies within IP ecosystems. It’s early days in developing such standards, but this is an essential first step.
Predicting the future: Next-gen blockchain and R&D
The convergence of blockchain with other revolutionary technologies like CRISPR and quantum sensors promises to drive next-generation research breakthroughs.
These technologies generate vast volumes of data, which is of immense value to the companies engaged in this cutting-edge research. Blockchain provides the security they need to protect investment in their innovation.
Cutting-edge developments in blockchain technology, such as Layer 2 solutions and zero-knowledge proofs, are set to redefine R&D processes, making them more efficient, secure, and collaborative.
Layer 2 solutions in blockchain technology are designed to enhance scalability and efficiency by handling transactions off the main blockchain (Layer 1). This allows for faster processing times and lower fees without compromising the security and decentralization of the primary blockchain.
Zero-knowledge proofs are cryptographic methods allowing one party to prove to another party that they know a value (e.g., a secret key) without revealing additional, unnecessary information.
Expert forecasts suggest an evolution of R&D ecosystems towards decentralized research platforms, open science movements, and blockchain-based funding models, highlighting the critical role of blockchain in shaping the future of R&D.
With a move towards greater collaboration and transparency comes a need for better IP and data protection, which blockchain is well-positioned to provide. Decentralized storage creates a distributed network of research findings and open-source data, with all participants equally incentivized to store, access, and use data appropriately.
Newcastle University in the U.K. is already sourcing research funding through cryptocurrency on the blockchain as part of a program investigating the phenomenon of autophagy (“self-eating”) in damaged human cells.
While this may not replace traditional funding models, it offers an alternative in challenging times that may appeal to adventurous, tech-savvy venture capital firms and angel investors.
CoinDesk’s “Crypto 2024” predictions report summarizes some other likely trends as follows:
- Increasing interoperability between once competing blockchain protocols.
- Improved security and privacy to combat hacking and fraud incidents within the sector.
- An uptake in Layer-2 and Zero Knowledge Proof measures, as explored above.
As we’ve seen, given blockchain’s wide-ranging potential for secure data sharing and protection and IP ownership proof establishment, there’s likely to be a move towards making blockchain’s underlying technology and governance increasingly reputable in the coming years.
Blockchain protects R&D products like no other technology
Blockchain technology’s impact on R&D is profound and multifaceted, offering unprecedented opportunities for innovation, collaboration, and efficiency.
As we enter a new era in research and development, blockchain integration promises to catalyze transformative changes, paving the way for a future where R&D processes are more transparent, secure, and accessible.
References:
Readers looking to deepen their knowledge of blockchain’s underlying technology and its use within R&D divisions might consult the following:
Organizations:
WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization: Blockchain and Intellectual Property
Books:
“Blockchain Revolution” by Don and Alex Tapscott: A comprehensive book on how blockchain technology is changing the infrastructure of society.
“Mastering Bitcoin: Programming the Open Blockchain” by Andreas Antonopoulos and David Harding: A detailed guide to understanding Bitcoin and blockchain technology for developers and programmers.
“The Basics of Bitcoins and Blockchains” by Anthony Lewis is an excellent entry-level primer for those new to the technology.
Papers:
Bitcoin Whitepaper by Satoshi Nakamoto: The foundational document introducing Bitcoin and the concept of decentralized digital currency.
Journal of Intellectual Property Law & Practice: Oxford University published journals, often including articles about the influence of blockchain in IP protection and R&D.
Analyzing Decision-Making in Blockchain Governance, Schadler, Lustenberger & Spychiger in Frontiers in Blockchain, Volume 6 – 2023.
Justin Delfino is the global head of Evalueserve’s Intellectual Property and Research & Development (IP and R&D) practice. Mr. Delfino delivers on critical priorities across operations, digital products, overall go-to-market strategies, and customer success for the IP and R&D line of business.
Before joining Evalueserve, Mr. Delfino accumulated over 20 years of experience in the R&D area, holding positions in sales management at LexisNexis, IQVIA (formerly IMS Health), and Nielsen. Notably, Mr. Delfino was part of the founding team at LexisNexis, launching their intellectual property products. He holds an MBA from the University of East Anglia.
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