SmartMedChain: A Blockchain-Based Privacy-Preserving Smart Healthcare Framework

Nowadays, the adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technology worldwide is accelerating the digital transformation of healthcare industry. In this context, smart healthcare (s-healthcare) solutions are ensuring better and innovative opportunities for healthcare providers to improve patients’ care. However, these solutions raise also new challenges in terms of security and privacy due to the diversity of stakeholders, the centralized data management, and the resulting lack of trustworthiness, accountability, and control. In this paper, we propose an end-to-end Blockchain-based and privacy-preserving framework called SmartMedChain for data sharing in s-healthcare environment. The Blockchain is built on Hyperledger Fabric and stores encrypted health data by using the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a distributed data storage solution with high resiliency and scalability. Indeed, compared to other propositions and based on the concept of smart contracts, our solution combines both data access control and data usage auditing measures for both Medical IoT data and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) generated by s-healthcare services. In addition, s-healthcare stakeholders can be held accountable by introducing an innovative Privacy Agreement Management scheme that monitors the execution of the service in respect of patient preferences and in accordance with relevant privacy laws. Security analysis and experimental results show that the proposed SmartMedChain is feasible and efficient for s-healthcare environments.

An Architecture for Distributed Electronic Documents Storage in Decentralized Blockchain B2B Applications

This paper investigates the problem of distributed storage of electronic documents (both metadata and files) in decentralized blockchain-based b2b systems (DApps). The need to reduce the cost of implementing such systems and the insufficient elaboration of the issue of storing big data in DLT are considered. An approach for building such systems is proposed, which allows optimizing the size of the required storage (by using Erasure coding) and simultaneously providing secure data storage in geographically distributed systems of a company, or within a consortium of companies. The novelty of this solution is that we are the first who combine enterprise DLT with distributed file storage, in which the availability of files is controlled. The results of our experiment demonstrate that the speed of the described DApp is comparable to known b2c torrent projects, and subsequently justify the choice of Hyperledger Fabric and Ethereum Enterprise for its use. Obtained test results show that public blockchain networks are not suitable for creating such a b2b system. The proposed system solves the main challenges of distributed data storage by grouping data into clusters and managing them with a load balancer, while preventing data tempering using a blockchain network. The considered DApps storage methodology easily scales horizontally in terms of distributed file storage and can be deployed on cloud computing technologies, while minimizing the required storage space. We compare this approach with known methods of file storage in distributed systems, including central storage, torrents, IPFS, and Storj. The reliability of this approach is calculated and the result is compared to traditional solutions based on full backup.

A Novel Trade Transaction Agreement Algorithm Using Blockchain Consensus Mechanism

Blockchain, the underlying technology of Bitcoin, has been deeply studied in various fields after its development in recent years. As a typical decentralized distributed data storage system, consensus reached among all participants in a blockchain system requires a consensus mechanism to be realized. In order to make blockchain applicable to different application scenarios, different consensus mechanisms have been proposed. With the further development of blockchain applications, more and more studies have been conducted on the consensus mechanism. However, some existing consensus mechanisms still have some problems in various aspects. Therefore, this paper proposes a trade deal algorithm based on the blockchain mechanism of consensus. First of all, according to PBFT, the lack of a dynamic problem in the VPBFT voting mechanism was introduced. The node system is divided into four types with different responsibilities and gives the number of relations between nodes. When the number of nodes is changed, it can be calculated according to the quantity relation, ensuring dynamic. Second, a data anonymous transaction and authentication protocol is designed. In the protocol, when the seller sells data, the mapping relationship between the real identity and the false identity of the data owner is blinded and sent to the buyer. When the buyer wants to verify their identity, the seller’s identity can only be verified with the authentication of the blockchain. The proposed algorithm is superior to the current consensus in terms of time and energy consumption, throughput, and fault tolerance methods, which is proven through experimental tests and simulation analysis.

IoT Big Data provenance scheme using blockchain on Hadoop ecosystem

The diversity and sheer increase in the number of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices have brought significant concerns associated with storing and protecting a large volume of IoT data. Storage volume requirements and computational costs are continuously rising in the conventional cloud-centric IoT structures. Besides, dependencies of the centralized server solution impose significant trust issues and make it vulnerable to security risks. In this paper, a layer-based distributed data storage design and implementation of a blockchain-enabled large-scale IoT system are proposed. It has been developed to mitigate the above-mentioned challenges by using the Hyperledger Fabric (HLF) platform for distributed ledger solutions. The need for a centralized server and a third-party auditor was eliminated by leveraging HLF peers performing transaction verifications and records audits in a big data system with the help of blockchain technology. The HLF blockchain facilitates storing the lightweight verification tags on the blockchain ledger. In contrast, the actual metadata are stored in the off-chain big data system to reduce the communication overheads and enhance data integrity. Additionally, a prototype has been implemented on embedded hardware showing the feasibility of deploying the proposed solution in IoT edge computing and big data ecosystems. Finally, experiments have been conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed scheme in terms of its throughput, latency, communication, and computation costs. The obtained results have indicated the feasibility of the proposed solution to retrieve and store the provenance of large-scale IoT data within the Big Data ecosystem using the HLF blockchain. The experimental results show the throughput of about 600 transactions, 500 ms average response time, about 2–3% of the CPU consumption at the peer process and approximately 10–20% at the client node. The minimum latency remained below 1 s however, there is an increase in the maximum latency when the sending rate reached around 200 transactions per second (TPS).

Blockchain Enabled Emperor Penguin Optimizer Based Encryption Technique for Secure Image Management System

In recent years, the electronic sharing of digital images faces a major threat to security, as the existing image transmission infrastructure is mainly based on the trust of third parties. At the same time, the available solutions are placed on the cloud based centralized data center, which is expensive, requires large storage area, and security issues regarding the transmission of data over the network. So, it is needed to develop an image management system which enables sharing and storing of digital images effectively. This paper develops novel multiple share creation schemes with block technology for secure image management (MSCCBT-SIM) systems. The MSCCBT-SIM model allows the user to create consensus with no dependencies on central authorities. It involves an MSC which involves share creation and share encryption using emperor penguin optimizer based ElGamal public key cryptosystem (EPO-EPKC). In addition, the blockchain is used as a distributed data storage mechanism to generate a ledger for permitting access to the user and prevent third party access to the encrypted shares. The application of blockchain technology and MSC techniques helps to achieve decentralization, highly reliable, inexpensive, and secure transmission and storage of digital images. In order to validate the effective performance of the MSCCBT-SIM model, a series of simulations take place and investigated the results interms of different measures. The experimental results ensured the better performance of the MSCCBT-SIM model over the state of art methods.

Methodology for Assessing the Impact of the Diffusion of blockchain Technologies on the Development of the National Economic system (illustrated by the example of the Russian Economy)

Distributed data storage technologies are becoming an integral part of the modern economy. In this regard, today it is very relevant to a search for formalized approaches to assessing the impact of blockchain technologies on key parameters of macroeconomic generations. The subject of the research is the system of relations between economic entities of the national economy, associated with the perception of blockchain technologies that permeate economic processes. The aim of the study is to develop a methodological toolkit for scenario forecasting of possible consequences for the national economy of the introduction of blockchain technologies into the economic sector. The authors apply methods of cointegration analysis, scenario modeling, substantiation of the studied patterns by methods of regression analysis, etc. The authors use works of foreign and Russian scientists, official data of the Federal State Statistics Service of the Russian Federation as an information and statistical database. The authors systematize positive and negative externalities; propose an algorithm for studying the influence of blockchain technologies on the dynamics of GDP through the transformation of the key parameters of the functioning of the financial and real sectors of the economy; build a model and assess the possible impact on GDP of the integration of blockchain technologies into the economy. As a result, the authors make the following conclusions: to the greatest extent, the integration of blockchain technologies into the business processes of the national economy affects the change in the financial results of credit institutions, an increase in capital liquidity of economic agents, as well as the acceleration of the processes of socialization of channels of access of business entities to financial markets (expanding access of economic agents to exchanges). Scenario modeling of changes in these factors made it possible to establish that the potential for additional GDP growth in the Russian economy can reach about 1% per year as part of the integration of distributed data storage technologies into the system of economic relations. The developed and approved methods for the formalized assessment of the impact of blockchain technologies on the dynamics of economic growth create the basis for clarifying methodological approaches to the study of the problem posed, open up new opportunities for holding discussion platforms on this topic.