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Publication
EXPOSURE TRACKER LEDGER
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| 1.78 MB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Abstract(s)
On March 11, 2020, the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) was declared a global
pandemic. With no treatment or vaccine available at the time, it was necessary to
rely on non-pharmaceutical methods for case identification and contact tracing. This
kind of approach has good results in detecting and preventing tuberculosis, sexually
transmitted infections, and vaccine-preventable diseases. Contact tracing and keeping
safe distances are crucial to containing the spread of COVID-19. Nonetheless, contact
tracing is a complex intervention, it involves quarantining and investigating close
contacts. Manual contact tracing methods are slow, require a large amount of effort,
and, more often than not, rely on the memory or assumptions of individuals. To
combat these downsides, contact tracing applications were developed, resulting in
quicker and more reliable recognition of infected individuals. However, because of the
complex nature of these applications and their lack of transparency, a large portion
of the population started doubting the privacy of the data collected. On the other
hand, one of the beacons of privacy we saw appear over the years was Distributed
Ledgers. More accurately, the appearance of blockchain technology. By merging
both contact tracing with a Distributed Ledger we hope to solve many of the issue
faced by other applications. That being said, conventional Blockchain technologies,
such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, cannot support a large amount of transactions in any
meaningful way. At least for a use case like contact tracing, that may require the
interaction of millions of users. However, Blockchain is not limited to only Bitcoin
or Ethereum, and one of the most prominent projects launched in the past five years
is actually Hyperledger. Hyperledger is an umbrella project focused on developing
tools, frameworks, and libraries for enterprise-level blockchain implementations.
Hyperledger is really interesting, but if we want to support a large amount of
transaction, we have to choose which one of his underlying project is the most
resilient for our use case. That’s how we got to Hyperledger Sawtooth, a project that
seeks to remain distributed while offering a secure environment for Smart Contracts.
Perfect for building an application focused on data privacy and transparency. With
that said, the development applied throughout the project was the combination of
a lot of research both regarding contact tracing, as well as regarding Hyperledger
Sawtooth. Despite many challenges, the development of a contact tracing application
focused on data privacy was achieved.
Description
Keywords
Internet Recolha de dados Registo de dados Megadados Ledger distribuído Tecnologia Blockchain Hyperledger Sawtooth Smart Contracts