RE: Will Technology Ever Trump Politics?
You are clearly thinking Kevin! I like it.
First of all, I think genomic data produces highly novel signatures, and anyone would face difficulty in generating their own "legit" genomic data without access to specialised equipment.
There is a lot of flexibility here. Genetic variations between individuals is very small, less than a percent. Creating false gene data would be trivial, without specific equipment. There is still incredible uniqueness here that can be useful. Using genomes as keys is interesting; I think I would still go with my pseudorandom keys.
I think the real cool stuff comes when you incorporate secure gene data into systems of decenteralized identity like uPort. Giving users control over the visibility and use of their gene data is going to be important.
There's one problem that I've been trying to find solutions for, but I think it's just way out of my depth. So for example if I'd created farming kits with built-in sensors that measure everything from soil acidity, moisture, crop height sensor, etc for distributed research via blockchain data "rental". How do I even begin to be able to trust that I'm paying for real data? Someone could just fake any signals, unless there's a way to pair signals with hardware and time of transmission. Not even sure what word I'm looking for to describe this problem.
I see what you are saying - verification on the blockchain is hard. If I see this problem as you do, the solution I'd raise would revolve around a few concepts: Trusted parties and reputation systems. You want to have a system in place where reputable users are trusted but any proof of them faking their data would harm their reputation.