Abstract
Blockchain technology has the potential to revolutionize industries by offering decentralized, transparent, data provenance, auditable, reliable, and trustworthy features. However, cross-chain interoperability is one of the crucial challenges preventing widespread adoption of blockchain applications. Cross-chain interoperability represents the ability for one blockchain network to interact and share data with another blockchain network. Contemporary cross-chain interoperability solutions are centralized and require re-engineering of the core blockchain stack to enable inter-communication and data sharing among heterogeneous blockchain networks. In this paper, we propose an application-based cross-chain interoperability solution named appXchain which allows blockchain networks of any architecture type and industrial focus to inter-communicate, share data, and make requests. Our solution utilizes the decentralized applications as a distributed translation layer that is capable of communicating and understanding multiple blockchain networks, thereby delegating requests and parameters among them. The architecture uses incentivized verifier nodes that maintain the integrity of shared data facilitating them to be readable by the entities of their network. We define and describe the roles and requirements of major entities of inter-operating blockchain networks in the context of healthcare. We present a detailed explanation of the sequence of interactions needed to share an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) document from one blockchain network to another along with the required algorithms. We implement the appXchain solution with Ethereum-based smart contracts for two hospitals and also present its cost and security analysis. We have made our smart contracts code and testing scripts publicly available.
Highlights
Blockchain is a prominent Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that is inherently decentralized, transparent, and auditable, thereby enabling more trustworthy and reliable services
SEQUENCE OF INTERACTIONS We present the sequence of interactions for cross-chain interoperability in the context of healthcare from the perspective of both plaintext and encrypted Electronic Medical Record (EMR) data
Algorithm 6: Confirming document availability, performed by verifiers at Blockchain Network A 1 Function documentAvailable(RI): 2 VEA ← Transaction initiator 3 R ← RL[RI] 4 Require that R is granted by a patient, is external, and already verified 5 Require that R’s external verifier = VEA 6 Send token to VEA and R.DEA
Summary
Blockchain is a prominent Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that is inherently decentralized, transparent, and auditable, thereby enabling more trustworthy and reliable services. As highlighted by a recent study [2], blockchain has been adopted across diverse domains including finance and insurance, accommodation and food services, and healthcare and social assistance. A major challenge impeding the widespread adoption of this technology is the lack of interoperability among different blockchains [3, 4, 5]. To this end, crossblockchain interoperability is envisaged to allow different blockchain networks to interact with each other and future blockchains without having to embed a pre-defined intercommunication layer in each network
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