How blockchain saved the Library of Alexandria

The study of history and ancient people is very important to preserve the knowledge passed on from generation to generation.

Unfortunately, when knowledge is lost, its significance becomes more prominent. With tragedies such as the fire in the Library of Alexandria, the looting of the House of Wisdom in Ancient Baghdad, or the recent loss of artifacts from the Iraqi Museum, viewpoints are lost, advances in philosophy and literature are forgotten, and language and translation disappear from the earth.

When we want to protect our history, how do we protect our heritage artifacts from disaster?

The use of blockchain technology to record data stored on decentralized cloud services may be exactly what the history and archives industry needs to protect our collective human history from destruction, plunder, and false record keeping.

Blockchain as a data administrator

The archival industry in many sub-sectors is underfunded and lacks the means to properly keep the stored data.As this 2014 manifesto says Petition For more funds for the American Archives, it is clear that there is a lack of funds in many areas, which may result in the loss of physical and digital records.

Another solution is to store the data directly on the blockchain. As Skynet CEO and Sia co-founder David Vorick said to Cointelegraph, “One of the main advantages of using blockchain is that you can build on an open market, which ensures fair pricing for everyone.” This prevents third parties from participating in the funding, while also ensuring that community members who are keen to protect their heritage can directly fund the storage system.

Vorick further stated, “If you rely on external infrastructure, you give your infrastructure providers the ability to completely disrupt your business-they are happy to use this to their advantage.”

Generally, people worry about the legality, security, and privacy of stored information. Many documents and records are kept for the people of the community, so for their heritage, they need to be safe and reliable. Blockchain-based data custodians protect the nature of information Instead of storing it in a centralized database like some leading organizations, making it more susceptible to data breaches, it reduces Possibility of external control of users” data. “

Another important aspect of archive storage on the blockchain is the immutability of the document itself. “But online archives can also easily delete files in an undetectable way,” the Social Science Research Council pointed out.it is also record As early as 2001, writers obtained the right to archive their own works online, but other people can access and delete the writer’s work without revealing information or explaining why the article was deleted. Articles and publications have been lost because some articles have been deleted Think it’s not worth saving.

Blockchain archives can store data across nodes around the world to ensure that it is a permanent fixture on the blockchain, and therefore a permanent fixture in history.

This conveniently brings the next part of the benefits of blockchain technology: by establishing an immutable ownership record, giving credit when it expires. With the use of blockchain, there is no doubt who owns what-such as digital passports for documents and records.

Blockchain enthusiasts often explain that “immutability provides integrity”, protect Who owns the document and who has access to it.For example, non-fungible tokens or NFTs are causing Revisit the art industry In terms of ownership, “Allow artists to protect their creations from forgery and duplication in the digital realm.” By using the same ideas in archiving and data collection, there will always be a way to ensure that records have not been tampered with and prove the original owner And original format.

related: How does the blockchain work?Everything to know

How to help

In hindsight, we can look back at history to see what went wrong and what might help.

Although this may be to prevent other similar problems from happening, or just out of curiosity, this approach can save our dying language and preserve people’s memory for future generations.

Imagine if all the records lost in the fire at the Library of Alexandria-or those lost due to the destruction of the temple 500 years later-Serapeum-were kept on the blockchain. What information will we learn and learn that can change modern society forever?

During the looting of the ancient Baghdad House of Wisdom with some of the best translations in the world, philosophical and religious texts were destroyed and dumped in the Tigris, leading to it flow “It’s been black for half a year because the ink of thousands of books drowned their metaphors.” The loss of these precious records has caused immeasurable damage to our understanding of human nature, which is usually regarded as a historical phenomenon. A way weaken Inherit and rewrite the narrative. Therefore, according to the “Lost Memories-Destroyed Libraries and Archives in the 20th Century” of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, “measures must be taken to protect our written heritage.”

When a fire broke out in the National Museum of Brazil in 2018 and destroyed our valuable records of history and art, the use of immutable blockchain technology to ensure record security can be of great benefit. Dalton de Souza Amorim, professor at the University of São Paulo, famous Saying “Anthropological collections are the most serious loss”, they are recordings in indigenous languages ​​and are now gone forever.

Although blockchain technology cannot protect physical objects from accidental or deliberate damage, it can protect recorded data from these objects and researchers, just like recordings of people speaking a now forgotten language.

Clifford Geertz statement In his thesis “Religion as a Cultural System”, culture is “a historical transmission mode of meaning embodied in symbols, a system of inheritance concepts expressed in symbolic form, through which people communicate, continue and Develop their knowledge and attitude towards themselves. Towards life”, therefore, protecting language records is a necessary condition for protecting people’s culture.

Putting ownership on the blockchain will ease the debate about who owns what regardless of who discovered it and who owns it now. This is especially true considering the recent successes of Iraq and Egypt in Africa. claim After proving ownership and “coordinating the return of approximately 5,000 ancient papyrus fragments and 6,500 ancient clay objects, 11,500 artifacts returned because these artifacts lack a reliable provenance or ownership history.” By using blockchain, the country and The community will no longer need to declare ownership of any files or records, because all correct information will be recorded and will not be tampered with.

Now that we are equipped with blockchain technology, we can position ourselves to protect and pass on our knowledge and history to future generations without worrying about possible loss of records, materials and data forever. If we know the importance of blockchain technology in storing and retrieving information, imagine how many Alexandria libraries can be stored in the future.