Anryton’s Roadmap
The Research Behind Anryton
Initial Exploration
2+ Years of Research into Decentralized Solutions
In the early stages of Bioaro’s exploration into blockchain technology, the focus was clear—find a solution that could address the complex needs of the healthcare industry, especially with data management. Like many forward-thinking organizations, Bioaro recognized the transformative potential of blockchain to revolutionize data security and privacy. With healthcare data becoming more digitized and patient information being stored across various platforms, Bioaro initiated a deep dive into blockchain technologies, believing that decentralized systems held the key to ensuring the integrity and privacy of such sensitive information.
Over the next two years, Bioaro’s research team examined and experimented with several existing blockchain solutions, including decentralized storage platforms, decentralized applications (DApps), Layer 2 solutions, sharding techniques, and sidechains. These technologies offered promising features and theoretical advantages for handling large datasets as explained below.
Decentralized Storage
Initially, Bioaro explored decentralized storage platforms such as IPFS and Filecoin, which promised to eliminate the risks of centralized data silos by spreading data across a distributed network. These solutions were attractive for storing vast amounts of medical and genomic data, as they theoretically provided greater security and redundancy.
DApps and Layer 2 Solutions
Bioaro also explored building decentralized applications (DApps) on established blockchains such as Ethereum, and investigated Layer 2 scaling solutions like rollups to reduce transaction fees and improve network throughput. These methods aimed to enhance the performance of existing blockchains by offloading transactions from the main chain, which was appealing for applications that required real-time access to patient data or genomic analysis.
Sharding and Sidechains
To further address scalability challenges, Bioaro’s research also led to the exploration of sharding, where a blockchain is split into smaller pieces (shards) to process transactions in parallel, and sidechains, which allowed independent blockchains to run alongside the main chain for specific use cases. Both solutions held theoretical promise for improving performance and reducing congestion.
Challenges Faced
Scalability, High Transaction Costs, and Securing Decentralized Storage
Despite these promising technologies, Bioaro encountered significant challenges during the implementation phase, many of which exposed the shortcomings of existing blockchain solutions in meeting the unique demands of healthcare and other data-intensive industries.
Scalability Issues
While sharding and Layer 2 solutions helped to some extent, they were often not robust enough to handle the sheer volume of healthcare data being generated in real time. For example, genomic datasets alone contain billions of data points, making it extremely difficult for existing blockchains to process this data efficiently. The need for low-latency, high-throughput systems became apparent.
High Transaction Costs
Ethereum’s popularity and widespread use presented a fundamental challenge: high gas fees or unpredictable fees. For decentralized applications, especially those involving frequent interactions with the blockchain, the cost of executing transactions quickly became prohibitive. Healthcare organizations and institutions, that operate on tight budgets, could not justify the overhead costs of using such platforms when cheaper alternatives existed, even though those alternatives lacked the security blockchain offered.
Securing Decentralized Storage
Decentralized storage platforms such as IPFS faced challenges related to data availability and permanence. While data could be stored in a decentralized manner, ensuring that the data was always accessible and verifiable when needed was not guaranteed. Furthermore, the lack of a native incentive mechanism to ensure long-term storage reliability made decentralized storage platforms a less-than-ideal solution.
The friction caused by these challenges ultimately pushed Bioaro to rethink its approach.