Technical and Legal Challenges for Healthcare Blockchains and Smart Contracts

Abstract

The paper considers the technical and legal challenges impacting recent proposals for healthcare applications of blockchain and smart contracts. Healthcare blockchain data and actors are rather different to cryptocurrency data and actors, resulting in a different emphasis on blockchain features. Technical issues with healthcare blockchain implementation and trust are considered, as well as a variety of potential legal issues. Conclusions and recommendations are proposed for open source and standardization efforts to reduce technical and legal risks for healthcare blockchains and smart contracts.