What is HAVEN?
HAVEN (Health Asset Value & Exchange Network) is an open, free protocol for patient-controlled health data. It sets the rules for how a patient's records are pointed to, how permission is given and withdrawn, how every access is logged, and how a patient's contribution to research is measured, so those rules go with the data wherever it is used. The current version, v2.0 draft, was published February 2026 under CC BY 4.0. Prometheno is its reference implementation.
- Status
- v2.0 draft · February 2026
- License
- CC BY 4.0
- Builds on
- FHIR R4 · OMOP CDM
Three other HAVENs. None of them are this one.
A privacy cryptocurrency. HAVEN has no token, no coin, and no blockchain requirement.
Care providers and clinics that share the word. No relation.
A United States bankruptcy statute for veterans. No relation.
If a search result talks about mining, wallets, or a price chart, it is the wrong HAVEN.
The whole protocol is four objects.
Each one is written as a formal spec, the same style internet standards use, with worked examples and test cases an implementer can check against.
- 01Health Asset
A fingerprint (SHA-256 hash) that points at a piece of clinical data without copying it. The fingerprint must carry a consent reference, so an asset without governance cannot exist.
- 02Consent Protocol
Permission written so software can check it: what data, for whom, for what purpose. Revocable at any moment. If a use was not explicitly allowed, it is denied.
- 03Provenance Record
A log that can only be added to, never edited. Each entry is linked to the one before and signed, so any tampering shows, and anyone can prove a given entry is in the log without downloading all of it (hash chain, Ed25519, Merkle proofs).
- 04Contribution Model
Three quality checks and a weighted score that say how much a patient's data contributed to a study, so value can be shared fairly.
What HAVEN leaves to implementers.
HAVEN does not specify storage, encryption, key management, identity, or payment rails. It reuses the login and identity checks that already exist (hospital portal logins, standard web sign-in such as OIDC, or decentralized IDs) and introduces no new data format: assets point at FHIR R4 resources and OMOP CDM records that institutions already hold.
- Storage and encryption: yours.
- Identity: reused from hospital logins, OIDC, or decentralized IDs.
- Payment rails: outside the spec. The Contribution Model scores value; it does not move money.
- Public-ledger anchoring: optional. The audit chain is tamper-evident on its own.
One reference implementation, one optional companion.
The reference implementation: a consent registry, a tamper-evident audit log, consent-gated data access, and study value distribution that only pays participants whose consent is active. 27 protocol tests cover consent, the audit chain, and Merkle proofs. Patients use it through Ember, researchers through Forge.
Patient Scenario Definition Language. A declarative language for the clinical scenarios and consent policies HAVEN governs. Recommended, not required.
Straight answers.
- Is HAVEN a blockchain?
- No. The audit log is a chain of signed entries, each linked to the one before, which makes tampering visible without a distributed ledger. Anchoring the chain to a public ledger is allowed but optional, and there is no token.
- Does HAVEN store patient data?
- No. A Health Asset is a SHA-256 reference to data that stays where it already lives. HAVEN governs access to the data; it never holds a copy.
- What does closed-world consent mean?
- Access is allowed only when a matching, unrevoked consent record exists. Anything the patient did not explicitly authorize is denied by default, and the denial is logged.
- What happens when a patient revokes consent?
- Revocation takes effect immediately. Every later access check fails, and the revocation itself is written to the provenance record so auditors can see when it happened.
- How does HAVEN relate to FHIR and OMOP?
- It builds on both. FHIR R4 and OMOP CDM describe the data; HAVEN adds the consent, audit, and value layer those standards leave out.
- Is HAVEN free to use?
- Yes. The specification is CC BY 4.0: use it, implement it, or fork it, with attribution. There is no company behind it and no fee.
- How do I cite HAVEN?
- Guan, Z., & Qiande, M. (2026). HAVEN: A Value Exchange Protocol for Patient-Controlled Health Data. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18701303