Blockchain is a decentralized digital cache that stores and records data and is best known for facilitating transactions for digital currencies such as bitcoin. It also has many people hoping to get rich by investing in digital assets such as GIFs and works of art – some of which sell for millions, such as the digital art Everydays: The First 5,000 Days by American artist Beeple, which sold for 69.3 Million US dollars in 2021 Technology has also been criticized for its harmful environmental impact. But investors and celebrities are not the only ones investing in blockchain-enabled technology or cryptocurrencies. In BC, indigenous artists used the blockchain to secure their art, while researchers studied how technology could better protect personal health information.

NFT Native Art

In an airy studio in Burnaby, BC, Okanagan Nation artist David Fierro creates drums using traditional leather, such as elk, and acrylic paint that appears to come to life under black light. But the drums, part of the 400 Drums project, are not made to be sold as they are. Once completed, the instrument is photographed and sold as a non-exchangeable coupon or NFT. An NFT is a digital asset commonly found in the Ethereum blockchain and stores unique data that includes a proprietary and transaction file. NFTs cannot be replicated and unlike cryptocurrencies like bitcoin, each NFT has a unique value. This unique nature is one of the reasons why NFTs are aimed at indigenous artists such as Fierro, as stealing, reproducing and selling authentic indigenous art remains a major problem, even in large galleries. Indigenous Okanagan artist David Fierro creates these handmade drums, which are photographed and converted to NFT. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza / CBC)
The ability to register and verify the authenticity of a work of art via blockchain is also appealing to Tamara Goddard, Fierro’s business partner. Goddard is the leader of 400 Drums, a campaign that supports indigenous creators who use online platforms to share teachings and stories. Fierro and Goddard plan to sell NFTs on the OpenSea platform for 1 ether – the Ethereum blockchain cryptocurrency – which equates to about $ 4,200. The funds will support initiatives for indigenous young people and artists, including media training and workshops to launch their own NFT projects. “Our art is our value, our art is our legal culture. We feel that as indigenous peoples, we must enter this space to preserve the authentic nature of art as value, art as money,” he said. Godard, who belongs to the Saulteau First Nation. “It’s very good for us, because we believe that NFT, even though it is a digital asset you own, will be valued and increased in value like all of our indigenous art.”

Ensuring health data

At the University of British Columbia School of Information, research is also being conducted on how technology can help protect health information. Victoria Lemieux, an associate professor of archival science and one of the few women in the world to lead a blockchain-focused research lab, works in a “personal health wallet” where health information is securely stored on a person’s smartphone using a blockchain. Victoria Lemieux investigates how blockchain technology could be used to secure personal health information on a smartphone. (Gian-Paolo Mendoza / CBC)
Technology, he says, is more secure than current information systems because it does not rely on standard security measures, such as passwords, and decentralizes information as opposed to common third-party services, such as the cloud. That means blockchain information is less vulnerable to hackers who may want to see or change any of that data, he says. “They do not have access to this large pool of data that they can hold as ransom,” he said. “They have to work harder to get smaller pieces of information.” The health wallet in which he works will allow people to share health information with a doctor safely and effectively, he says, and will allow people to prevent the use of their data for research purposes. “If you have done, for example, some kind of transplant, you will have many different doctors, you will have pharmacists and so on. All this information needs to be gathered to help the care team take care of you effectively, but it is very secretive right now. “, he said. “It’s all part of this trend to give people the ability to control their data, to seize power from platforms that tend to power our data without asking.”