Here’s definitely a new one for the Blockchain use case file: a Blockchain-based Web browser.
Yet that is indeed what IBM scientists have been looking into – with their resulting work filed as an official patent application with the responsible US legal authorities last week.
The “why” here isn’t that hard to figure out, of course: such a system would would put all your Web surfing data in a place that the user alone could securely access, preserving privacy. The company also notes that if your computer is attacked, a viable backup of all your data would always be available.
The proposal is for a browser that would collects pre-specified session data, which would then be transferred to a peer-to-peer node network for “collection and storage”.
The type for format of what session info would be collected can be pre-set by the user, so different for your work versus your home device, and is said to range from what sites got visited, what bookmarks were kept or accessed, geolocation, what security patches used, and so on.
The proposed system also contains use of tokens – as you can see for yourself by checking out the patent application online here.