scholarly journals Using Ethereum blockchain to store and query pharmacogenomics data via smart contracts

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gamze Gürsoy ◽  
Charlotte M Brannon ◽  
Mark Gerstein
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Query Time ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Interaction Data ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Disk Space ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Linear Query

AbstractBackgroundWith the advent of precision medicine, pharmacogenomics data is becoming increasingly critical to patient care. These data describe the relationship between a particular variant in the genome and the response to a drug by the patient. As utilizing this kind of data becomes more integral to medical treatment decisions, appropriate storage and sharing of this data will be critical. A potential way of securely storing and sharing pharmacogenomics data is a smart contract with the Ethereum blockchain. This is an open-source blockchain platform for decentralized applications. A transaction-based, state machine, the “world” of Ethereum maintains user accounts and storage in a network state. Immutable pieces of code called “smart contracts” may be deployed to the Ethereum network and run on the Ethereum Virtual Machine when called by a user or other contract. The 2019 iDASH (Integrating Data for Analysis, Anonymization, and Sharing) competition for Secure Genome Analysis challenged participants to develop time- and space-efficient smart contracts to log and query gene-drug relationship data on the Ethereum blockchain.MethodsWe designed a smart contract to store and query pharmacogenomics data (gene-drug interaction data) in Ethereum using an index-based, multi-mapping approach allowing for time and space efficient storage and query. Our solution to the IDASH competition ranked in the top three at a workshop held in Bloomington, IN in October 2019. Although our solution performed well in the challenge, we wanted to improve its scalability and query efficiency. To that end, we developed an alternate “fastQuery” solution that stores pooled rather than raw data, allowing for significantly improved query time for 0-AND queries, and constant query time for 1- and 2-AND queries.ResultsWe tested the performance of both of our solutions in Truffle (v5.0.31) using datasets ranging from 100 to 1000 entries, and inserting data at 25, 50, 100, and 200 observations at a time. On a private, proof-of-authority test network, our challenge solution requires approximately 70 seconds, 500 MB of memory, and 80 MB of disk space to insert 1000 entries (200 at a time); and 400 ms and 5 MB of memory to query a two-AND query from 1000 entries. This solution exhibits constant memory for insertion and querying, and linear query time. Our alternate fastQuery solution requires approximately 60 seconds, 500 MB of memory, and 80 MB of disk space to insert 1000 entries (200 at a time); and 83 ms and 5 MB of memory to query a two-AND query from 1000 entries. This solution exhibits constant memory for insertion and querying, linear query time for 0-AND queries, and constant query time for 1- and 2-AND queries in a database of up to 1000 entries.ConclusionIn this study we showed that pharmacogenomics data can be stored and queried efficiently on the Ethereum blockchain. Our approach has the potential to be useful for a wide range of datasets in biomedical research; while we focused on gene-drug interaction data, our solution designs could be used to store a range of clinical trial data. Moreover, our solutions could be adapted to store and query data in any field where high-integrity data storage and efficient access is required.

scholarly journals Secured Insurance Framework Using Blockchain and Smart Contract

2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Abid Hassan ◽  
Md. Iftekhar Ali ◽  
Rifat Ahammed ◽  
Mohammad Monirujjaman Khan ◽  
Nawal Alsufyani ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
Consensus Algorithm ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Insurance Policy ◽  
Security Issues ◽  
Insurance Contracts ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Transaction Process ◽  
Single Person ◽  
Contract Implementation

Traditional insurance policy settlement is a manual process that is never hassle-free. There are many issues, such as hidden conditions from the insurer or fraud claims by the insured, making the settlement process rough. This process also consumes a significant amount of time that makes the process very inefficient. This whole scenario can be disrupted by the implementation of blockchain and smart contracts in insurance. Blockchain and innovative contract technology can provide immutable data storage, security, transparency, authenticity, and security while any transaction process is triggered. With the implementation of blockchain, the whole insurance process, from authentication to claim settlement, can be done with more transparency and security. A blockchain is a virtual chain of data blocks that is a decentralized technology. Any transaction or change in the blocks is done after the decentralized validator entity, not a single person. The smart contract is a unique facility stored on the blockchain that gets executed when the predetermined conditions are met. This paper presents a framework where smart contracts are used for insurance contracts and stored on blockchain. In the case of a claim, if all the predetermined conditions are met, the transaction happens; otherwise, it is discarded. The conditions are immutable. That means there is scope for alteration from either side. This blockchain and intelligent contract-based framework are hosted on a private Ethereum network. The Solidity programming language is used to create smart contracts. The framework uses the Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus algorithm to validate the transactions. In the case of any faulty transaction request, the consensus algorithm acts according to and cancels the claim. With blockchain and smart contract implementation, this framework can solve all the trust and security issues that rely on a standard insurance policy.

scholarly journals Smart contract: from definition to certainty

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 100-122
Author(s):  
Yuriy Truntsevsky ◽  
Vyacheslav Sevalnev
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Information Support ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Legal Definition ◽  
Advantages And Disadvantages ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Definition Of

The purpose of the present article is to gain an understanding of the opportunities and difficulties created by the introduction and development of the practice of network (smart) contracts. Our research methodology is based on a holistic set of principles and methods of scholarly analysis employed by modern legal science. It uses a dialectical method involving both general approaches (structural system method, formal logical method, analysis and synthesis of individual elements, individual features of concepts, abstraction, generalization, etc.) and particular methods (legal technical, systematic, comparative, historical, and grammatical methods, method of the unity of theory and practice, etc.). We analyze the views of lawyers and other specialists from Russia and abroad, legislative innovations in the field of digital technologies, the practice of blockchain-based smart contracts, and the main risks (whether legal, technological, operational, or criminogenic) of smart contracts for economic activities with a study of their causes. In the present-day situation, it is necessary to move from the legal definition of the smart contract and its legal and technological characteristics, advantages and disadvantages to the implementation of startups in a wide range of areas, especially business, public regulation, and social relations. Scholarly and information support for such processes will contribute to the development of industry, public administration and digital technology applications to improve the life of individual citizens and society as a whole. The introduction of smart contracts does not require the adoption of new laws or regulations. Instead, one should adapt and, possibly, modify existing legal principles at the legislative and judicial levels to pave the way for the use of smart contracts and other new technologies. The system of contract law provides a sufficient framework for regulating transactions without the introduction of any new legal categories. We propose approaches to the legal definition of the smart contract and identify a set of problems that must be solved at the legislative and technical legal levels in order to implement smart contracts effectively in different spheres of life.

scholarly journals Smart Contracts as a New Technology in the Digital Economy

2018 ◽  
Vol 18(33) (4) ◽  
pp. 146-151
Author(s):  
Irina Glazkova ◽  
Dorota Kozioł-Kaczorek ◽  
Sergey Shmatko
Keyword(s):  
Business Processes ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Digital Technologies ◽  
Distributed Database ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Government Organization ◽  
Storage Devices ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Reducing Costs

Digital technologies have a number of advantages that contribute to the development of the economy and make it more transparent. Some of the main features of modern digital technologies are speeding up business processes, reducing costs, eliminating the possibility of fraud, ensuring the transparency of the system and the ability to check and analyze the system. Regardless of whether a commercial or government organization uses the technology, in any case, there is a wide range of possibilities of its application. One of these technologies is blockchain. A blockchain is a distributed database in which storage devices are not connected to a shared server. This database stores an ever-growing list of ordered records called blocks. Each block contains a timestamp and a link to the previous block. The article defines a smart contract, describes the main areas of its application and provides processes similar to smart contracts, but working outside the blockchain. We also consider some of the risks that arise when working with smart contracts.

scholarly journals A Cost Analysis of Internet of Things Sensor Data Storage on Blockchain via Smart Contracts

Electronics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 244
Author(s):  
Yeşem Kurt Peker ◽  
Xavier Rodriguez ◽  
James Ericsson ◽  
Suk Jin Lee ◽  
Alfredo J. Perez
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Simulated Data ◽  
Sensor Data ◽  
Second Phase ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Reliable Solution ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Existing Data

Blockchain is a developing technology that can be utilized for secure data storage and sharing. In this work, we examine the cost of Blockchain-based data storage for constrained Internet of Things (IoT) devices. We had two phases in the study. In the first phase, we stored data retrieved from a temperature/humidity sensor connected to an Ethereum testnet blockchain using smart contracts in two different ways: first, appending the new data to the existing data, storing all sensor data; and second, overwriting the new data onto the existing data, storing only a recent portion of the data. In the second phase, we stored simulated data from several sensors on the blockchain assuming sensor data is numeric. We proposed a method for encoding the data from the sensors in one variable and compared the costs of storing the data in an array versus storing the encoded data from all sensors in one variable. We also compared the costs of carrying out the encoding within the smart contract versus outside the smart contract. In the first phase, our results indicate that overwriting data points is more cost-efficient than appending them. In the second phase, using the proposed encoding method to store the data from several sensors costs significantly less than storing the data in an array, if the encoding is done outside the smart contract. If the encoding is carried out in the smart contract, the cost is still less than storing the data in an array, however, the difference is not significant. The study shows that even though expensive, for applications where the integrity and transparency of data are crucial, storing IoT sensor data on Ethereum could be a reliable solution.

scholarly journals Automated Payment and Contract Management in the Construction Industry by Integrating Building Information Modeling and Blockchain-Based Smart Contracts

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (16) ◽  
pp. 7653
Author(s):  
Katharina Sigalov ◽  
Xuling Ye ◽  
Markus König ◽  
Philipp Hagedorn ◽  
Florian Blum ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Construction Industry ◽  
Data Storage ◽  
Construction Projects ◽  
Data Exchange ◽  
Building Information Modeling ◽  
Information Modeling ◽  
Contract Management ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Building Information

Construction projects usually involve signing various contracts with specific billing procedures. In practice, dealing with complex contract structures causes significant problems, especially with regard to timely payment and guaranteed cash flow. Furthermore, a lack of transparency leads to a loss of trust. As a result, late or non-payment is a common problem in the construction industry. This paper presents the concept of implementing smart contracts for automated, transparent, and traceable payment processing for construction projects. Automated billing is achieved by combining Building Information Modeling (BIM) approaches with blockchain-based smart contracts. Thereby, parts of traditional construction contracts are transferred to a smart contract. The smart contract is set up using digital BIM-based tender documents and contains all of the relevant data for financial transactions. Once the contracted construction work has been accepted by the client, payments can be made automatically via authorized financial institutions. This paper describes the framework, referred to as BIMcontracts, the container-based data exchange, and the digital contract management workflow. It discusses the industry-specific requirements for blockchain and data storage and explains which technical and software architectural decisions were made. A case study is used to demonstrate the current implementation of the concept.

scholarly journals A self-sovereign identity management scheme using smart contracts

2021 ◽  
Vol 336 ◽  
pp. 08005
Author(s):  
Jianlin Niu ◽  
Zhiyu Ren
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
Programming Language ◽  
Identity Management ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Security Risks ◽  
Storage Method ◽  
Cross Domain ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Management Scheme ◽  
Management Schemes

The existing self-sovereign identity management schemes have some problems, such as weak availability and security risks. To solve these problems, we proposed a cross-domain self-sovereign identity management scheme using smart contracts. This scheme takes into account the entire lifecycle of identity, especially including the cross-domain use and recovery. To preserve the privacy data of users on the blockchain, we proposed a data storage method of anchoring on blockchain. Finally, we implemented this scheme using the Solidity programming language for smart contract. This scheme has been experimentally verified to be capable of maintaining the expenditure of resources under control and having good usability. Compared with other self-sovereign identity management schemes, this scheme has better performance in terms of controllability, security and portability.

Transcending Time and Space with Digital Emotional Support

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tyler Colasante ◽  
Lauren Lin ◽  
Kalee DeFrance ◽  
Tom Hollenstein
Keyword(s):  
Emotional Support ◽  
Negative Emotion ◽  
Negative Emotions ◽  
Good News ◽  
Social Avoidance ◽  
Time And Space ◽  
Beneficial Effects ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Socially Isolated

In the current digital age, emotional support is increasingly received through digital devices. However, virtually all studies assessing the benefits of emotional support have focused on in-person support. Using an experience sampling methodology, we assessed participants’ negative emotions, digital and in-person support for those emotions, and success in regulating them three times per day for 14 days, thus covering a wide range of digital support scenarios (N = 164 participants with 6,530 collective measurement occasions). We also considered whether participants were alone versus with others at the time of their negative emotion and higher versus lower in social avoidance as plausible moderators of when digital support was utilized and effective. We expected more pronounced use and efficacy of digital support when participants were alone and higher in trait social avoidance. However, digital support was used and perceived as effective for regulating negative emotions regardless of these factors and its beneficial effects were on par with those of traditional in-person support. The unique benefits of digital support may not be restricted to socially isolated or socially avoidant users. These findings are timely given the widespread anxiety and isolation under the current COVID-19 pandemic. If transcending time and space with digital emotional support is the new norm, the good news is that it seems to be working.

scholarly journals CioSy: A Collaborative Blockchain-Based Insurance System

Electronics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 1343
Author(s):  
Faiza Loukil ◽  
Khouloud Boukadi ◽  
Rasheed Hussain ◽  
Mourad Abed
Keyword(s):  
Data Storage ◽  
Insurance Industry ◽  
Emerging Technology ◽  
Third Party ◽  
Insurance Companies ◽  
Smart Contracts ◽  
Insurance Policy ◽  
Insurance System ◽  
Advanced Technologies ◽  
Multiple Challenges

The insurance industry is heavily dependent on several processes executed among multiple entities, such as insurer, insured, and third-party services. The increasingly competitive environment is pushing insurance companies to use advanced technologies to address multiple challenges, namely lack of trust, lack of transparency, and economic instability. To this end, blockchain is used as an emerging technology that enables transparent and secure data storage and transmission. In this paper, we propose CioSy, a collaborative blockchain-based insurance system for monitoring and processing the insurance transactions. To the best of our knowledge, the existing approaches do not consider collaborative insurance to achieve an automated, transparent, and tamper-proof solution. CioSy aims at automating the insurance policy processing, claim handling, and payment using smart contracts. For validation purposes, an experimental prototype is developed on Ethereum blockchain. Our experimental results show that the proposed approach is both feasible and economical in terms of time and cost.

Keynote

2021 ◽  
Vol 48 (4) ◽  
pp. 3-3
Author(s):  
Ingo Weber
Keyword(s):  
Cost Estimation ◽  
Estimation Method ◽  
Main Topic ◽  
System Throughput ◽  
Distributed Ledger ◽  
Smart Contract ◽  
Distributed Ledger Technology ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Cost ◽  
Application Developers

Blockchain is a novel distributed ledger technology. Through its features and smart contract capabilities, a wide range of application areas opened up for blockchain-based innovation [5]. In order to analyse how concrete blockchain systems as well as blockchain applications are used, data must be extracted from these systems. Due to various complexities inherent in blockchain, the question how to interpret such data is non-trivial. Such interpretation should often be shared among parties, e.g., if they collaborate via a blockchain. To this end, we devised an approach codify the interpretation of blockchain data, to extract data from blockchains accordingly, and to output it in suitable formats [1, 2]. This work will be the main topic of the keynote. In addition, application developers and users of blockchain applications may want to estimate the cost of using or operating a blockchain application. In the keynote, I will also discuss our cost estimation method [3, 4]. This method was designed for the Ethereum blockchain platform, where cost also relates to transaction complexity, and therefore also to system throughput.

Evaluation of Herbal–Drug Interaction Data in Tertiary Resources

2004 ◽  
Vol 39 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny R. Meyer ◽  
Joyce A. Generali ◽  
Julie L. Karpinski
Keyword(s):  
Drug Interaction ◽  
Interaction Data ◽  
Herbal Drug
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