Proxy-based Verification of Smart Contracts for Healthcare Domain in Blockchain Environment

Abstract

In various privacy-preserving applications, for instance, healthcare, military operations, and control systems data security and integrity are primary concerns. Malicious users attempt to modify the existing original data to falsify data jeopardizing the application. A viable solution is to utilize blockchain technology that offers essential benefits, such as immutability, transparency, trust, decentralization, and robust security. However, certain loopholes of blockchain, especially in smart contracts, make it possible for an attacker to manoeuvre critical application data. Encouraged by the aforesaid facts, we proposed a blockchain-based framework where a proxy smart contract validates the legitimacy of the smart contract used for healthcare applications. For a given public-blockchain network, many entities are willing to deploy their smart contracts. To filter out malevolent users, w e u sed a proxy smart contract as an additional security layer. It verifies all smart contracts before deploying them on the blockchain, ensuring the entry of only valid and authentic data in the blockchain. The proxy layer also eliminates the immutablity issue of smart contracts and facilitates the deployment of a new smart contract as and when required. For that, we used Remix development environment and Solidity for implementing the proxy smart contract. The potential of the proposed framework is shown by considering the blockchain's transaction and execution costs.