Decentralized Data Management Research Articles

Enhancing claustrophobia exposure therapy: A blockchain and NFT-enabled metaverse approach

Claustrophobia is a widespread mental health issue that affects a significant portion of the population. Traditional approaches, such as exposure therapies, have shown efficacy but are limited by their inability to provide immersive and controlled environments for effective therapy. These methods often struggle to replicate the intensity and authenticity of claustrophobic scenarios and face challenges in data security and patient engagement. In this paper, we propose a blockchain and Non-Fungible Token (NFT)-based metaverse to create a decentralized, transparent, immersive, and secure platform for claustrophobia exposure therapy. Our approach integrates blockchain technology for decentralized data management and NFTs for incentivizing patient participation, offering a unique enhancement to traditional therapy methods. We develop four blockchain smart contracts to manage registration, access control, NFT management, progress monitoring, and incentives distribution. Our system architecture, sequence diagrams, and algorithms are presented to demonstrate the functionality of our solution. We validate our approach through functionality testing, cost evaluation, and security analysis. Specifically, we measure the gas consumption of the smart contracts, analyze transaction costs, and assess system security against vulnerabilities. Additionally, we leverage existing literature to support the effectiveness of NFTs as incentives and the role of blockchain in enhancing data security and participation. The results show improvements in therapy engagement and data security, validating the practical implications of integrating blockchain and metaverse technologies in mental health therapy. We discuss the practical implications, challenges, and limitations of our solution, along with guidelines for generalization. The source code is publicly available on GitHub.

Exploring decentralized data management: a case study of changing energy suppliers in Germany

AbstractThis paper presents an innovative approach to decentralized data management in the German energy market, focusing on the use of decentralized data management with the help of Data Spaces to facilitate the automated change of energy suppliers within 24 h. The central focus of this research is the MakoMaker Space, a demonstrator project that employs the Connector from the Eclipse Data Space Components. The MakoMaker project demonstrates the successful automation of energy supplier changes, emphasizing the preservation of customer data sovereignty. It shows an alternative approach to the process, putting the customer into the center. Customers retain control of their data, which is accessible to providers as needed. While the paper discusses the potential for further enhancements, such as the integration of an identity provider and the development of a sustainable business model for service coordination, the primary focus is on the demonstrator’s successful application in a pilot setting.

Critical success factors for implementing smart maintenance in the fourth industrial revolution era: a bibliometric analysis within the built environment

Purpose The implementation of smart maintenance (SM) has greatly benefited facility managers, construction project managers and other stakeholders within the built environment. Unfortunately, its actualization for stakeholders in the built environment in the fourth industrial revolution (4IR) era remains a challenge. To reduce the challenge, this study aims at conducting a bibliometric analysis to unearth the critical success factors supporting SM implementation. The future direction and practice of SM in the construction industry were also explored. Design/methodology/approach A bibliometric approach was adopted for reviewing articles extracted from the Scopus database. Keywords such as (“smart maintenance“) OR (“intelligent maintenance”) OR (“technological maintenance”) OR (“automated maintenance”) OR (“computerized maintenance”) were used to extract articles from the Scopus database. The studies were restricted between 2006 and 2021 to capture the 4IR era. The initial extracted papers were 1,048; however, 288 papers were selected and analysed using VOSviewer software. Findings The findings revealed that the critical success factors supporting the implementation of SM in the 4IR era are collaboration, digital twin design, energy management system and decentralized data management system. Regarding the future practice of SM in the 4IR era, it was also revealed that SM is possible to evolve into maintenance 4.0. This will support the autonomous maintenance of infrastructures in the built environment. Research limitations/implications The use of a single database contributed to the limitation of the findings from this study. Practical implications Despite the limitations, the findings of this study contributed to practice and research by providing stakeholders in the built environment with the direction of SM practice. Originality/value Stakeholders in the built environment have clamoured to implement SM in the 4IR era. This study provided the critical success factors for adopting SM, guaranteeing the 4IR era. It also provides the research trends and direction of SM practice.

Optimized blockchain network model for 6G cellular vehicle‐to‐everything communication

AbstractRoad safety of electric cars has required large and fast data flow. The six‐generation (6G) networks that provide hyper‐speed, ultra‐reliable, and minimal delay meet the requirements. Data reliability can be supported with popular blockchain technology, which is still widely accepted as a decentralized data management system. This article used an optimum path with the highest signal‐to‐noise constraints for the proposed algorithms. The essential requirement of error‐free data transmission for high‐speed and large data has been successfully implemented. Three‐stage implementations are suggested. The edge computers at the partners are used as storage to resolve the first level. A C‐V2X network solution is used to resolve the second level of economic activity. A two‐stage optimization strategy is used to consider the last level of high network transaction levels. The results of the newly introduced optimization algorithms are simulated and contrasted with those of a traditional, time‐consuming step‐by‐step calculation method. The introduced algorithms tested with real‐time experimental signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) and bit error rate (BER) values, giving successful results.

“Who Should I Trust with My Data?” Ethical and Legal Challenges for Innovation in New Decentralized Data Management Technologies

News about personal data breaches or data abusive practices, such as Cambridge Analytica, has questioned the trustworthiness of certain actors in the control of personal data. Innovations in the field of personal information management systems to address this issue have regained traction in recent years, also coinciding with the emergence of new decentralized technologies. However, only with ethically and legally responsible developments will the mistakes of the past be avoided. This contribution explores how current data management schemes are insufficient to adequately safeguard data subjects, and in particular, it focuses on making these data flows transparent to provide an adequate level of accountability. To showcase this, and with the goal of enhancing transparency to foster trust, this paper investigates solutions for standardizing machine-readable policies to express personal data processing activities and their application to decentralized personal data stores as an example of ethical, legal, and technical responsible innovation in this field.

A blockchain-enabled framework for reverse supply chain management of power batteries

The production and sales of electric vehicles in China are continuously increasing, and a massive wave of scrap batteries is about to emerge. However, there are many challenges in the power battery recycling, such as a disorganized recycling system, a lack of standards, and low efficiency. In addition, the power battery recycling supply chain faces issues such as a lack of transparency, inadequate data management, low trustworthiness, and counterfeit products. Therefore, it's crucial to establish an efficient and sustainable power battery supply chain recycling system. Blockchain technology can provide solutions in decentralized data management, privacy protection, and anti-counterfeiting traceability. It addresses existing problems and improves the Power Batteries Reverse Supply Chain (PBRSC) ecosystem. Thus, this paper proposes a blockchain-based PBRSC management integration framework. Firstly, a four-layer blockchain power battery recycling platform is designed. Secondly, based on the proposed PBRSC framework, this paper studies three key component technologies: double-chain structure and its storage mechanism, information tracing module, and smart contract enabled battery trading management. Then, the validity and feasibility of the double-chain structure was demonstrated experimentally. Finally, the above architecture and key technologies are implemented in the system, the main functional modules are displayed on the interface, and the effectiveness of the framework is explained in cooperation with related enterprises.

Big Data Provenance Using Blockchain for Qualitative Analytics via Machine Learning 

The amount of data is increasing rapidly as more and more devices are being linked to the Internet. Big data has a variety of uses and benefits, but it also has numerous challenges associated with it that are required to be resolved to raise the caliber of available services, including data integrity and security, analytics, acumen, and organization of Big data. While actively seeking the best way to manage, systemize, integrate, and affix Big data, we concluded that blockchain methodology contributes significantly. Its presented approaches for decentralized data management, digital property reconciliation, and internet of things data interchange have a massive impact on how Big data will advance. Unauthorized access to the data is very challenging due to the ciphered and decentralized data preservation in the blockchain network. This paper proposes insights related to specific Big data applications that can be analyzed by machine learning algorithms, driven by data provenance, and coupled with blockchain technology to increase data trustworthiness by giving interference-resistant information associated with the lineage and chronology of data records. The scenario of record tampering and big data provenance has been illustrated here using a diabetes prediction. The study carries out an empirical analysis on hundreds of patient records to perform the evaluation and to observe the impact of tampered records on big data analysis i.e diabetes model prediction. Through our experimentation, we may infer that under our blockchain-based system the unchangeable and tamper-proof metadata connected to the source and evolution of records produced verifiability to acquired data and thus high accuracy to our diabetes prediction model. 

An optimized device‐to‐device (D2D) blockchain network for the insurance industry

SummaryBlockchain, a popular technology, remains the decentralized data management framework approved for use by many industries. The application to the insurance industry needs to offer mobility using the wireless network. The wireless network has many limitations to overcome. This paper focuses on such problems and introduces three levels of a solution to the problem. The first level is resolved using the edge computers as storage at the agencies and the partners. The second level of economic operation is solved by introducing a D2D network solution. The third level of high transactions over the network is considered using a two‐stage optimization method. The introduced optimization algorithms are simulated, and results are compared with a classical step‐by‐step calculation method that is not feasible under real‐time application. The optimization methods successfully determine the maximum channel rate with the interferences influencing the operation of such a system.

Application of Distributed Ledger Technology in Distribution Networks

In the transition to a society with net-zero carbon emissions, high penetration of distributed renewable power generation and large-scale electrification of transportation and heat are driving the conventional distribution network operators (DNOs) to evolve into distribution system operators (DSOs) that manage distribution networks in a more active and flexible way. As a radical decentralized data management technology, distributed ledger technology (DLT) has the potential to support a trustworthy digital infrastructure facilitating the DNO–DSO transition. Based on a comprehensive review of worldwide research and practice, as well as the engagement of relevant industrial experts, the application of DLT in distribution networks is identified and analyzed in this article. The DLT features and DSO needs are first summarized, and the mapping relationship between them is identified. Detailed DSO functions are identified and classified into five categories (i.e., “planning,” “operation,” “market,” “asset,” and “connection”) with the potential of applying DLT to various DSO functions assessed. Finally, the development of seven key DSO functions with high DLT potential is analyzed and discussed from the technical, legal, and social perspectives, including peer-to-peer energy trading, flexibility market facilitation, electric vehicle charging, network pricing, distributed generation register, data access, and investment planning.

Improving blockchain security for the internet of things: challenges and solutions

<span>Due to its uniquely suited to the knowledge era, the blockchain technology has currently become highly appealing to the next generation. In addition, such technology has been recently extended to the internet of things (IoT). In essence, the blockchain concept necessitates the use of a decentralized data operation system to store as well as to distribute data and the transactions across the net. Therefore, this study examines the specific concept of the blockchain as a decentralized data management system in the face of probable protection threats. Furthermore, it discusses the present solutions that can be used to counteract those attacks. The blockchain security enhancement solutions are included in this study by summarizing the key points of these solutions. Several blockchain systems and safety devices that register security defenselessness can be developed using such key points. At last, this paper discusses the pending matters and the outlook research paths of blockchain-IoT systems.</span>

Blockchain Technology in Healthcare: An Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.

The dawn of the crypto age has highlighted the potential of blockchain technology in an array of functions for multiple industries. Blockchain technology disrupts existing architecture by offering an efficient and decentralized data management platform. It provides a potential solution to current health information technology problems. The strengths of blockchain are interoperability, data accuracy, security, and transparency. Its weaknesses include a lack of standardization, accessibility, ownership, and change management. Applications in healthcare include revenue cycle management, physician credentialing, electronic health records, and supply chain management, although potential government regulation and internal attacks pose threats to its wider adoption.

Design of a Blockchain-Enabled Traceability System Framework for Food Supply Chains.

Tracing food products along the entire supply chain is important for achieving better management of food products. Traditionally, centralized traceability systems have been developed for such purposes. One major drawback of this approach is that different users of the supply chain have their own systems with their own complexities and distinct features; thus, the interaction among them creates challenges when implementing a single centralized system. Therefore, a decentralized traceability system is favorable for tracing food products along the supply chain. In this study, we develop a supply chain traceability system framework based on blockchain and radio frequency identification (RFID) technology. The system consists of a decentralized blockchain-enabled data storage platform for data management and an RFID system at the packaging level for data collection and storage. We applied a consortium blockchain to the application. Fabric 2.0 in Hyperledger was chosen as the development platform. The proposed blockchain-enabled platform can provide decentralized data management and its underlying algorithm can guarantee data security. The system includes a creatively designed blockchain-enabled data structure in the RFID tag. When people scan the tag, the relevant information is written in the tag as a block linked to the previous blocks; simultaneously, the information is transmitted to the blockchain platform and recorded on the platform. No battery is required and the system works when there is an RFID reader nearby. The usage conditions included shipment, stocking, and storage. The RFID tag can be directly attached to paper packaging. This approach embeds the blockchain technique into the RFID tag and develops a corresponding system. The new traceability system has the potential to simplify the tracking of products and can be scaled for industrial use.

Blockchain for Transparent Data Management Toward 6G

The wealth of user data acts as a fuel for network intelligence toward the sixth generation wireless networks (6G). Due to data heterogeneity and dynamics, decentralized data management (DM) is desirable for achieving transparent data operations across network domains, and blockchain can be a promising solution. However, the increasing data volume and stringent data privacy-preservation requirements in 6G bring significantly technical challenge to balance transparency, efficiency, and privacy requirements in decentralized blockchain-based DM. In this paper, we investigate blockchain solutions to address the challenge. First, we explore the consensus protocols and scalability mechanisms in blockchains and discuss the roles of DM stakeholders in blockchain architectures. Second, we investigate the authentication and authorization requirements for DM stakeholders. Third, we categorize DM privacy requirements and study blockchain-based mechanisms for collaborative data processing. Subsequently, we present research issues and potential solutions for blockchain-based DM toward 6G from these three perspectives. Finally, we conclude this paper and discuss future research directions.

BIoMT: A State-of-the-Art Consortium Serverless Network Architecture for Healthcare System Using Blockchain Smart Contracts

Owing to the sensitive nature of healthcare data, the aforementioned approach to transferring patient data to central servers creates serious security and privacy issues. In addition, blockchain distributed ledger technology has introduced immutable storage and decentralized data management capability, which handles a large number of distributed nodes of E-Healthcare transactions via a serverless network, but in a limited manner because of blockchain-enabled resources. In this scenario, the medical industries are concerned about constituting an innovation in health information preservation and exchanging service delivery protocols without the connectivity of an untrusted third-party infrastructure. In this study, we proposed a blockchain hyperledger fabric-enabled consortium architecture called BIoMT, which provides security, integrity, transparency, and provenance to health-related transactions and exchanges sensitive clinical information in a serverless peer-to-peer (P2P) secure network environment. A consensus is designed and created to reduce the rate of blockchain resource constraints on the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT). The privacy of individual health transactions before sharing is protected using the NuCypher Re-Encryption mechanism, which increases security and provides medical ledger integrity and transparency. Smart contracts are created and deployed to automate device registration, exchange transactions, and ledger preservation in immutable storage (filecoin) after cross verification and validation. The experimental results show that the proposed BIoMT reduces the computational cost by 26.13%, and the robust medical node generation increases to 60.37%. Thus, only 31.79% and 74.21% of IoMT-related information and serverless P2P network usage are maintained and saved, respectively.

A traceability method of biofuel production and utilization based on blockchain

Biofuel is one of the hot research directions in energy field. However, the data of the production and utilization of biofuels has not been widely valued. Blockchain is a decentralized data management technology, which can provide traceable data storage for the production and utilization of biofuels. As the number of blockchain applications of biofuels grows, security, efficiency and privacy have become the main concerns of the users. In order to address the security, efficiency and privacy challenges in biofuels system, we propose an efficient blockchain model based on post-quantum cryptography. First, in order to resist quantum computer attacks in biofuels system, we present a post-quantum cryptographic scheme based on multivariate signatures. Second, in order to improve the privacy protection in biofuels system, we propose a blind signature based on the post-quantum cryptographic scheme. Third, in order to improve the efficiency in biofuels system, we propose an efficient payment model. The blockchain model based on post-quantum cryptography is evaluated and the results show that the biofuels system is efficient. Besides, the new biofuels system is secure against both traditional computer attacks and quantum computer attacks.

Control Flow Versus Data Flow in Distributed Systems Integration: Revival of Flow-Based Programming for the Industrial Internet of Things

When we consider the application layer1 of networked infrastructures, data and control flow are important concerns in distributed systems integration. Modularity is a fundamental principle in software design,2 in particular for distributed system architectures. Modularity emphasizes high cohesion of individual modules and low coupling between modules. Microservices are a recent modularization approach with the specific requirements of independent deployability and, in particular, decentralized data management.3 Cohesiveness of microservices goes hand-in-hand with loose coupling, making the development, deployment, and evolution of microservice architectures flexible and scalable.4 However, in our experience with microservice architectures, interactions and flows among microservices are usually more complex than in traditional, monolithic enterprise systems, since services tend to be smaller and only have one responsibility, causing collaboration needs. We suggest that for loose coupling among microservices, explicit control-flow modeling and execution with central workflow engines should be avoided on the application integration level. On the level of integrating microservices, data-flow modeling should be dominant. Control-flow should be secondary and preferably delegated to the microservices. We discuss coupling in distributed systems integration and reflect the history of business process modeling with respect to data and control flow. To illustrate our recommendations, we present some results for flow-based programming in our Industrial DevOps project Titan, where we employ flow-based programming for the Industrial Internet of Things.

Smart Decentralization of Personal Health Records with Physician Apps and Helper Agents on Blockchain: Platform Design and Implementation Study.

BackgroundThe Health Avatar Platform provides a mobile health environment with interconnected patient Avatars, physician apps, and intelligent agents (termed IoA3) for data privacy and participatory medicine; however, its fully decentralized architecture has come at the expense of decentralized data management and data provenance.ObjectiveThe introduction of blockchain and smart contract technologies to the legacy Health Avatar Platform with a clinical metadata registry remarkably strengthens decentralized health data integrity and immutable transaction traceability at the corresponding data-element level in a privacy-preserving fashion. A crypto-economy ecosystem was built to facilitate secure and traceable exchanges of sensitive health data.MethodsThe Health Avatar Platform decentralizes patient data in appropriate locations (ie, on patients’ smartphones and on physicians’ smart devices). We implemented an Ethereum-based hash chain for all transactions and smart contract–based processes to guarantee decentralized data integrity and to generate block data containing transaction metadata on-chain. Parameters of all types of data communications were enumerated and incorporated into 3 smart contracts, in this case, a health data transaction manager, a transaction status manager, and an application programming interface transaction manager. The actual decentralized health data are managed in an off-chain manner on appropriate smart devices and authenticated by hashed metadata on-chain.ResultsMetadata of each data transaction are captured in a Health Avatar Platform blockchain node by the smart contracts. We provide workflow diagrams each of the 3 use cases of data push (from a physician app or an intelligent agents to a patient Avatar), data pull (request to a patient Avatar by other entities), and data backup transactions. Each transaction can be finely managed at the corresponding data-element level rather than at the resource or document levels. Hash-chained metadata support data element–level verification of data integrity in subsequent transactions. Smart contracts can incentivize transactions for data sharing and intelligent digital health care services.ConclusionsHealth Avatar Platform and interconnected patient Avatars, physician apps, and intelligent agents provide a decentralized blockchain ecosystem for health data that enables trusted and finely tuned data sharing and facilitates health value-creating transactions with smart contracts.

Convergence of Blockchain and IoT for Secure Transportation Systems in Smart Cities

Smart cities provide citizens with smart and advanced services to improve their quality of life. However, it has been observed that the collection, storage, processing, and analysis of heterogeneous data that are usually borne by citizens will bear certain difficulties. The development of the Internet of Things, cloud computing, social media, and other Industry 4.0 influencers pushed technology into a smart society’s framework, bringing potential vulnerabilities to sensor data, services, and smart city applications. These vulnerabilities lead to data security problems. We propose a decentralized data management system for smart and secure transportation that uses blockchain and the Internet of Things in a sustainable smart city environment to solve the data vulnerability problem. A smart transportation mobility system demands creating an interconnected transit system to ensure flexibility and efficiency. This article introduces prior knowledge and then provides a Hyperledger Fabric-based data architecture that supports a secure, trusted, smart transportation system. The simulation results show the balance between the blockchain mining time and the number of blocks created. We also use the average transaction delay evaluation model to evaluate the model and to test the proposed system’s performance. The system will address residents’ and authorities’ security challenges of the transportation system in smart, sustainable cities and lead to better governance.

Development and assessment of blockchain‐IoT‐based traceability system for frozen aquatic product

AbstractThis study puts forward a novel frozen aquatic product traceability system (BIOT‐TS) that based on blockchain and Internet of things (IoT) technology, which can alleviate the drawbacks of current tracing management during cold chain logistic, such as the weak security performance, inefficient centralized data management as well as the easy‐tampered traceability information. The proposed system possesses the advantages of decentralization, safety, reliability, and tamper‐proofing when it compares with traditional tracking technology. It is particularly suitable for multi‐stages tracking management of cold chain logistics from aquaculture, production, logistics, and circulation to sales. In terms of such blockchain‐IoT‐based technology, the system is deployed and evaluated with the case of frozen turbot (Scophthalmus maximus) that is circulated and sold under the background of e‐commerce cold chain logistics. It can significantly improve the quality and safety of the frozen aquatic product by using smart contracts, consensus strategy, and data on‐chain verification technology. The overall involved participants can share more reliable tracing information after adopting this tracing system. Furthermore, the performance of this hybrid tracing technology has been evaluated by the operations of on‐chain process and tracing queries through the real experiments, and has testified to be effective. Therefore, the application of this system is beneficial for the improvement of the aquatic food logistics industry and ensures credit in its ecosystem.Practical ApplicationsThe blockchain‐IoT‐based frozen aquatic product traceability management is one of the most promising technologies that possess the advantages of tamper‐proof, transparent, and irrefutable transactions combined with distributed monitoring and tracking functionalities. Through the decentralized data management, smart contract, and mechanism of consensus, the traceability information is partitioned and encrypted storage, which can be used for government supervision and consumers' retroactive queries. This novel frozen aquatic food product tracing technology can fundamentally improve the reliability of quality tracing applications and make the closely related tracing management more transparent, secure, and efficient.

Business Process Engineering for Data Storing and Processing in a Collaborative Distributed Environment Based on Provenance Metadata, Smart Contracts and Blockchain Technology

We suggest a novel approach to designing totally decentralized data management systems in distributed environments with administratively unrelated or loosely related user groups and in conditions of partial or complete lack of trust between them. This approach is based on the integration of blockchain technology, smart contracts and provenance metadata driven data management. Provenance metadata (PMD) contain key information that is necessary to determine the origin, authorship and quality of relevant data, their storage and usage consistency, and for interpretation and confirmation of relevant results of data processing. Architecture, operation principles and algorithms have been developed for the system, entitled ProvHL (Provenance HyperLedger), which provides fault-tolerant, safe and reliable management of provenance metadata, control of operations with data files, as well as resource access management in collaborative distributed computing systems (CDCS). CDCS refers to distributed systems formed by combining into a single pool of computer resources of various organizations (institutions) to work together in the framework of a project. The paper also suggests a new blockchain-based method for delegation of rights within distributed computing systems which is free from shortcomings inherent in other solutions. The main goal of the work is to demonstrate the capabilities of the proposed approach and the above technologies to improve the functional properties of CDCSs.