We’re excited to announce that Nillion has partnered with Monadic DNA, a groundbreaking project set to transform the landscape of personal genomics through innovative privacy-preserving technology. Conceived by at the 2024 Scaling Ethereum hackathon, Monadic DNA won the most prizes overall for its visionary approach to genetic data ownership and is on the cusp of full-scale production, promising a new era of secure genetic analysis.
The Hidden Risks of Personal Genomics
Personal genomics services have been delivering valuable health and ancestry insights to consumers. However, the use of insecure methods and a general lack of care have exposed critical biological data through breaches and unscrupulous sharing. Unlike national identifiers or names, DNA cannot be changed after a breach. Moreover, genetic data can reveal fundamental information about individuals, potentially leading to targeted harm. These concerns have made many people reluctant to use genomics for better healthcare, IVF, and other applications.
The Monadic DNA team pursued this project for two main reasons. First, some team members suffer from chronic health conditions that may benefit from genetic diagnoses and future genetic therapies. Second, they have friends and family members undergoing IVF, facing difficult decisions about the health of their unborn children while giving away sensitive data before birth. Monadic DNA aims to simplify these decisions and eliminate the need for difficult tradeoffs.
Nillion Integration: Elevating Privacy and Performance
Nillion’s Blind Computing technology plays a crucial role in the Monadic DNA ecosystem. Once a user obtains their raw DNA file from a provider, they can upload it to the Monadic DNA Portal and receive a DNA Passport. Behind the scenes, the raw data is processed (and then discarded), with portions stored as secrets on the Nillion network and an attestation made on-chain. The DNA Passport contains an identifier, useful hashes, and metadata about stored secrets on the Nillion network.
SnipperBot, an exemplar service built to demonstrate a privacy-enhanced version of genomic analysis, accepts DNA Passports and uses the metadata to run programs on users’ datasets. Crucially, these programs operate on encrypted data using Nillion’s Blind Computing technology, ensuring that no user data is ever revealed to SnipperBot. After performing computations, SnipperBot issues an on-chain attestation to the user with the results.
This integration ensures that all private data is stored securely on the Nillion network while diagnoses are available pseudonymously as on-chain attestations.
Meet the Minds Behind Monadic DNA
Monadic DNA is the brainchild of Cryptonomic, an NYC-based company that has been operating in the blockchain space since 2017. After years of developing open-source blockchain tools and advising financial giants like J.P. Morgan, they are now focusing on blind computing and the decentralization space.
The team includes:
- Vishakh: a technologist focused on decentralization since 2013. Previously worked on risk and P&L calculation at J.P. Morgan and Bear Stearns. Studied computational biology and machine learning at Columbia University and UC Irvine.
- Bhaskar Kishore: technologist focused on cutting-edge and low-level technology. Worked on risk management systems at J.P. Morgan. Previously worked on computational medical imaging at Johns Hopkins University.
- Navi Arneja: a UX designer focused on decentralized technology. Studied art history and English at Binghamton University with a research focus on media theory/technology studies.
- Aisha Opaluwa: A front-end developer for web3 applications focusing on Ethereum and Tezos. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in computer science from the Federal University of Technology Minna and is about to start studies at Carnegie Mellon University at Kigali.
- Amar Deep: a full stack engineer with a focus on web3 applications. Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in physics from Magadh University.
The Road Ahead
The partnership between Nillion and MonadicDNA represents a significant step forward in the field of genetic privacy. By combining MonadicDNA’s innovative approach with Nillion’s powerful Blind Computation technology, we’re paving the way for a future where individuals can benefit from genetic analysis without compromising their privacy.
We invite you to join us on this exciting journey. Visit their website to see a prototype, browse sample applications, and connect with the team on Twitter.
About Nillion
Nillion is humanity’s first Blind Computer. It is powered by a decentralized network of nodes that enables “Blind Computation” through the coordination and orchestration of privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) such as multi-party computation (MPC), fully homomorphic encryption (FHE) and zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP). Nillion believes Blind Computation will become the internet’s base layer for all private data as PETs continue to mature. Nillion has attracted a notable initial cohort of Blind Computation builders across AI, DeFi, medical data, custody, wallets, global identity, messaging, and more.
Learn more by visiting the Nillion website or following us on Twitter, or Discord.