Title: On the economics of knowledge creation and sharing,
Abstract: This work bridges the technical concepts underlying distributed computing and
blockchain technologies with their profound socioeconomic and sociopolitical
implications, particularly on academic research and the healthcare industry.
Several examples from academia, industry, and healthcare are explored
throughout this paper. The limiting factor in contemporary life sciences
research is often funding: for example, to purchase expensive laboratory
equipment and materials, to hire skilled researchers and technicians, and to
acquire and disseminate data through established academic channels. In the case
of the U.S. healthcare system, hospitals generate massive amounts of data, only
a small minority of which is utilized to inform current and future medical
practice. Similarly, corporations too expend large amounts of money to collect,
secure and transmit data from one centralized source to another. In all three
scenarios, data moves under the traditional paradigm of centralization, in
which data is hosted and curated by individuals and organizations and of
benefit to only a small subset of people.