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Journal ArticleDOI

Blockchain and Its Applications – A Detailed Survey

15 Dec 2017-International Journal of Computer Applications (Foundation of Computer Science (FCS), NY, USA)-Vol. 180, Iss: 3, pp 29-35
TL;DR: This paper will explore the various domains where blockchain has had an impact and where future implementations may be expected and will bring together all the key developments so far in terms of putting blockchain to practice.
Abstract: Blockchain is being termed as the fifth disruptive innovation in computing. In simplest words, it is a distributed ledger of records that is immutable and verifiable. Since its advent in 2008, blockchain as a concept has been used in various ways. The largest impact or application is seen as a multitude of cryptocurrencies that have sprung up. However, with time, it has become clear that blockchain as a technology is likely to have an impact much wider than just the cryptocurrency domain and much deeper than simple distributed ledger storage. This detailed survey intends to bring together all the key developments so far in terms of putting blockchain to practice. While the most common adoption of blockchain is in finance and banking domain, there are experiments being conducted by many big players in various other domains. This paper will explore the various domains where blockchain has had an impact and where future implementations may be expected.

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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The paper explores the significant applications which already benefited from the smart contracts and highlights the future potential of the blockchain based smart contracts in these applications perspective.

189 citations


Cites background from "Blockchain and Its Applications – A..."

  • ...[28] Blockchain and Its Applications – A Detailed Survey : A high level discussion on blockchain and its applicability on different contexts....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article looks at how blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies are evolving and interconnected, creating a token economy through different business models.

144 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, an overview of blockchain, analysis of existing public key infrastructure for blockchain and key management for blockchain wallet are discussed and a group key management scheme for secure group communication is also proposed.

60 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI
01 Feb 2020
TL;DR: This document aims to provide a set of design patterns and tips to help gas saving in developing Smart Contracts on Ethereum, divided into five main categories, based on their features.
Abstract: Blockchain technology is an emerging technology that allows new forms of decentralized architectures, designed to generate trust among users, without the intervention of mediators or knowledge between the parties. Since 2015, thanks to the introduction of Smart Contracts by Ethereum, it is possible to run programs on the blockchain, greatly extending the potential of this technology. The programming of Smart Contract, through the Solidity language is different from the traditional one. First of all, any action that requires to modify the blockchain costs gas, which corresponds to a fraction of the currency used by that given blockchain, and therefore to real money. Gas optimization is a unique challenge in this context and has obvious implications. This document aims to provide a set of design patterns and tips to help gas saving in developing Smart Contracts on Ethereum. The provided patterns are presented divided into five main categories, based on their features.

51 citations


Cites background from "Blockchain and Its Applications – A..."

  • ...It is enjoying an increasing popularity, and several applications in the real world have already been developed [18] [19] [20]....

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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Issues regarding the management and protection of health data exchanged through new medical or diagnostic devices and Blockchain technology can be an important turning point in the development of personal health records are discussed.
Abstract: New types of patient health records aim to help physicians shift from a medical practice, often based on their personal experience, towards one of evidence based medicine, thus improving the communication among patients and care providers and increasing the availability of personal medical information. These new records, allowing patients and care providers to share medical data and clinical information, and access them whenever they need, can be considered enabling Ambient Assisted Living technologies. Furthermore, new personal disease monitoring tools support specialists in their tasks, as an example allowing acquisition, transmission and analysis of medical images. The growing interest around these new technologies poses serious questions regarding data integrity and transaction security. The huge amount of sensitive data stored in these new records surely attracts the interest of malicious hackers, therefore it is necessary to guarantee the integrity and the maximum security of servers and transactions. Blockchain technology can be an important turning point in the development of personal health records. This paper discusses some issues regarding the management and protection of health data exchanged through new medical or diagnostic devices.

42 citations

References
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Book
24 Jan 2015
TL;DR: Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Crypto-Currencies introduces Bitcoin and describes the technology behind Bitcoin and the blockchain, and Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy considers theoretical, philosophical, and societal impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.
Abstract: Bitcoin is starting to come into its own as a digital currency, but the blockchain technology behind it could prove to be much more significant. This book takes you beyond the currency ("Blockchain 1.0") and smart contracts ("Blockchain 2.0") to demonstrate how the blockchain is in position to become the fifth disruptive computing paradigm after mainframes, PCs, the Internet, and mobile/social networking. Author Melanie Swan, Founder of the Institute for Blockchain Studies, explains that the blockchain is essentially a public ledger with potential as a worldwide, decentralized record for the registration, inventory, and transfer of all assetsnot just finances, but property and intangible assets such as votes, software, health data, and ideas. Topics include:Concepts, features, and functionality of Bitcoin and the blockchain Using the blockchain for automated tracking of all digital endeavors Enabling censorship? resistant organizational modelsCreating a decentralized digital repository to verify identity Possibility of cheaper, more efficient services traditionally provided by nations Blockchain for science: making better use of the data-mining network Personal health record storage, including access to ones own genomic dataOpen access academic publishing on the blockchain This book is part of an ongoing OReilly series. Mastering Bitcoin: Unlocking Digital Crypto-Currencies introduces Bitcoin and describes the technology behind Bitcoin and the blockchain. Blockchain: Blueprint for a New Economy considers theoretical, philosophical, and societal impact of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technologies.

2,277 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI
21 May 2015
TL;DR: A decentralized personal data management system that ensures users own and control their data is described, and a protocol that turns a block chain into an automated access-control manager that does not require trust in a third party is implemented.
Abstract: The recent increase in reported incidents of surveillance and security breaches compromising users' privacy call into question the current model, in which third-parties collect and control massive amounts of personal data. Bit coin has demonstrated in the financial space that trusted, auditable computing is possible using a decentralized network of peers accompanied by a public ledger. In this paper, we describe a decentralized personal data management system that ensures users own and control their data. We implement a protocol that turns a block chain into an automated access-control manager that does not require trust in a third party. Unlike Bit coin, transactions in our system are not strictly financial -- they are used to carry instructions, such as storing, querying and sharing data. Finally, we discuss possible future extensions to block chains that could harness them into a well-rounded solution for trusted computing problems in society.

1,953 citations

Proceedings ArticleDOI
19 Dec 2013
TL;DR: This paper analyzes how Bitcoin uses a multi-hop broadcast to propagate transactions and blocks through the network to update the ledger replicas, and verifies the conjecture that the propagation delay in the network is the primary cause for blockchain forks.
Abstract: Bitcoin is a digital currency that unlike traditional currencies does not rely on a centralized authority. Instead Bitcoin relies on a network of volunteers that collectively implement a replicated ledger and verify transactions. In this paper we analyze how Bitcoin uses a multi-hop broadcast to propagate transactions and blocks through the network to update the ledger replicas. We then use the gathered information to verify the conjecture that the propagation delay in the network is the primary cause for blockchain forks. Blockchain forks should be avoided as they are symptomatic for inconsistencies among the replicas in the network. We then show what can be achieved by pushing the current protocol to its limit with unilateral changes to the client's behavior.

1,116 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: An App (called Healthcare Data Gateway (HGD) architecture based on blockchain is proposed to enable patient to own, control and share their own data easily and securely without violating privacy, which provides a new potential way to improve the intelligence of healthcare systems while keeping patient data private.
Abstract: Healthcare data are a valuable source of healthcare intelligence. Sharing of healthcare data is one essential step to make healthcare system smarter and improve the quality of healthcare service. Healthcare data, one personal asset of patient, should be owned and controlled by patient, instead of being scattered in different healthcare systems, which prevents data sharing and puts patient privacy at risks. Blockchain is demonstrated in the financial field that trusted, auditable computing is possible using a decentralized network of peers accompanied by a public ledger. In this paper, we proposed an App (called Healthcare Data Gateway (HGD)) architecture based on blockchain to enable patient to own, control and share their own data easily and securely without violating privacy, which provides a new potential way to improve the intelligence of healthcare systems while keeping patient data private. Our proposed purpose-centric access model ensures patient own and control their healthcare data; simple unified Indicator-Centric Schema (ICS) makes it possible to organize all kinds of personal healthcare data practically and easily. We also point out that MPC (Secure Multi-Party Computing) is one promising solution to enable untrusted third-party to conduct computation over patient data without violating privacy.

884 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The proposed MeDShare system is blockchain-based and provides data provenance, auditing, and control for shared medical data in cloud repositories among big data entities and employs smart contracts and an access control mechanism to effectively track the behavior of the data.
Abstract: The dissemination of patients’ medical records results in diverse risks to patients’ privacy as malicious activities on these records cause severe damage to the reputation, finances, and so on of all parties related directly or indirectly to the data. Current methods to effectively manage and protect medical records have been proved to be insufficient. In this paper, we propose MeDShare, a system that addresses the issue of medical data sharing among medical big data custodians in a trust-less environment. The system is blockchain-based and provides data provenance, auditing, and control for shared medical data in cloud repositories among big data entities. MeDShare monitors entities that access data for malicious use from a data custodian system. In MeDShare, data transitions and sharing from one entity to the other, along with all actions performed on the MeDShare system, are recorded in a tamper-proof manner. The design employs smart contracts and an access control mechanism to effectively track the behavior of the data and revoke access to offending entities on detection of violation of permissions on data. The performance of MeDShare is comparable to current cutting edge solutions to data sharing among cloud service providers. By implementing MeDShare, cloud service providers and other data guardians will be able to achieve data provenance and auditing while sharing medical data with entities such as research and medical institutions with minimal risk to data privacy.

819 citations