Health Information Management Through Blockchain and NFTs: Experimental Evaluation of Data Sharing Performance

Abstract

With the increasing demand for secure and scalable medical data sharing, blockchain-based solutions have attracted significant attention. This study proposes a novel data sharing framework that integrates Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs), the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), and the Lit Protocol to enable encrypted file storage, decentralized access control, and patient-driven data governance. The system adopts a dual-token structure, consisting of Ownership NFTs and Usage NFTs to separate and manage data ownership and usage rights. To verify the feasibility of the proposed method, we developed a prototype and measured the execution time of various processing steps using files ranging from 100 KiB to 100 MiB. The results showed that AES-based encryption and decryption were completed rapidly, with each operation taking less than one second. NFT issuance and key management via the Lit Protocol were unaffected by file size but exhibited variability likely due to network conditions. In contrast, file transfer processes involving S3 and IPFS were strongly dependent on file size, with significant delays observed for large files. In particular, IPFS uploads experienced delays of over 40 seconds. Furthermore, gas consumption remained constant across all file sizes, indicating stable blockchain-related costs. These findings suggest that the proposed system serves as a promising foundation for secure and scalable sharing of sensitive medical data.