Analysis of ZKPs-based approaches of Multi-party blockchain-based genomic data sharing

Abstract

The secure, privacy-preserving sharing of genomic data across multiple institutions is a critical enabler for precision medicine, yet it remains fundamentally constrained by the identifiability and immutability of genomic data. While blockchain technologies have been proposed to provide decentralized governance, auditability, and tamper resistance for genomic data sharing, blockchain-only solutions are insufficient because they expose transaction metadata, access patterns, and smart-contract logic, leaving significant privacy risks unresolved. Zero-Knowledge Proofs (ZKPs) have recently emerged as a key cryptographic primitive for addressing such limitations, enabling verifiable access control, policy compliance, and computation correctness without disclosing sensitive genomic data. Although several surveys examine ZKPs or blockchain in isolation or across heterogeneous application domains, there is currently no dedicated survey that systematically analyzes their combined use in multi-party blockchain-based genomic data sharing systems. This paper addresses this gap by presenting a comprehensive, domain-specific survey of ZKP-enabled blockchain architectures for genomic data sharing. We classify existing approaches by architectural models, ZKP techniques, governance mechanisms, and threat-mitigation capabilities, and then compare their assumptions, performance characteristics, and deployment maturity. Furthermore, we identify open challenges in scalability, interoperability, proof overhead, and regulatory compliance, and outline future research directions for secure, scalable, and ethically compliant genomic data-sharing ecosystems.