Blockchain genomics pioneer and self sovereign identity specialists join forces to securely manage genomic identity and DNA data privacy 

Shivom, the blockchain genomics platform that is powering personalized healthcare, has partnered with Spherity, the decentralised platform provider to ensure the privacy of Shivom’s massive genome datasets as the popularity of DNA sequencing grows.

Spherity, who have supported Shivom’s technical whitepaper in advance of the blockchain genomics company’s forthcoming token sale, will provide the identity layers that identify machines, humans and datasets. They will also provide permission management services that ensure access to the data is restricted to people with the right permissions. In addition, the teams will work on joint research into privacy preservation for DNA data storage and analysis, which will allow Shivom to adopt the latest technology as soon as possible.

“Our partnership with Spherity is particularly important because of the auditable log component that it will enable. In the world of DNA sequencing, researchers need to be able to view a log of who has accessed the information before and when that access occurred. This is an important aspect of our collaboration with Spherity that will enable advances in the world of precision medicine for many years to come,” said Natalie Pankova, Chief Scientific Officer at Shivom.

The storage requirements for genomic data are set to exceed all other fields in the coming years, as more and more people access DNA sequencing. With file sizes ranging from around 100-400GB per genome and a forecast that up to 2 billion people will have had their genomes sequenced by 2025, the way in which this data is stored and accessed will become increasingly important. With Spherity’s help, the Shivom platform will allow for creation of a public identity, a human genome data vault, and a structure for using one-time transaction identities during the registration process.

This will provide a potential solution to the fear that many individuals currently have towards the storage of their genomic sequencing data. Access to the data in the Shivom ecosystem will be managed by each individual DNA data holder, through a public/private key infrastructure that is based on similar blockchain systems previously built by Spherity for the energy sector.

“We are partnering with Shivom to help them develop a high level of privacy and individual control for their blockchain genomics platform. Modern cryptography allows us to add privacy while preserving computation through processes like multiparty computation and homomorphic encryption. Also, zero knowledge proof systems can be used for DNA matching and privacy preserving solutions or customized for human genome analytics,” said Dr Carsten Stöcker, Founder of Spherity.

Spherity will provide added value to the architecture of the Shivom platform and ecosystem, and will comprise part of the components that are required to build an efficient and useable technology to advance the Shivom vision. With Spherity, the platform will be unlike any other, and will allow Shivom to maximize the impact of decentralized DNA data storage, healthcare identity management, and data sharing.