DNA computing breakthrough could turn living cells into functioning blockchains

Scientists built a DNA computer capable of playing chess.

In the not-so-far future it may be possible to run entire computer networks inside of living cells thanks to a recent breakthrough in molecular computing from scientists in the US. 

According to research published on Aug 22., a team of scientists at North Carolina State University and Johns Hopkins University have built a functional DNA computer.

As Cointelegraph previously reported, DNA storage has been around for a while. But this may be the world’s first functional molecular computer capable of conducting both storage and compute functions via DNA — instead of using electricity, like regular desktop computers and smartphones.

In testing, so far, this DNA-based computer has solved sudoku and chess problems, demonstrating its potential.

DNA computers

Most molecular computers are developed using synthesized DNA. So, for the time being, it’s unlikely we’ll see any practical applications for their insertion into living organisms.

However, scientifically speaking, there’s nothing stopping a sufficiently funded and motivated team from using the foundation created in the aforementioned research to create computation systems inside living cells within organisms.

With future development and expansion, it may even be possible to network DNA-based computers inside of a single organism.

Living blockchains

The basic premise behind a blockchain-inside-a-human would be similar to how blockchain networks function in the classical computing world. Different cells in a person’s body would work as validation nodes for whatever transactions occurred on the cellular blockchain.

It would be theoretically possible, for example, to build a cellular blockchain network inside of a specific organ such as the heart or liver in order to validate function and verify cellular integrity.

This may be far-future tech that’s currently outside of humanity’s grasp, but the breakthrough research published appears to have at least brought it within the realm of possibility.

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