Free and Easy Weekly Review | What can the blockchain do when fears spread by the virus are spreading?

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In the face of disaster, human beings have shown their fragile side, but at the same time, we have also shown our strong side.

As the epidemic in Wuhan continues to ferment and spread, every progress related to it is affecting the hearts of people across the country and the world. In the news, the numbers we see are beating every day, and behind these numbers, It is a living life.

The sudden epidemic has magnified the existing problems, and the good and evil of human nature are also revealed at this moment.

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We were afraid, and we were looking forward to it.

Yes, the human body is still very fragile, but we can defeat ourselves by using new and evolving technologies to arm ourselves! At the moment, we already have emerging technologies such as big data, cloud computing, AI, the Internet of Things, and blockchain, and in this disaster, they will definitely play their huge role.

As part of the blockchain industry, we will think about how it can help control the epidemic?

In this regard, some people have proposed disease control and early warning programs, and some people have provided blockchain public welfare solutions. Admittedly, these proposals are very good, but I think that we actually need more programs that can help medical care.

In the news, we will see that some infected people choose to refuse to be quarantined without being diagnosed, which has brought huge trouble to the control of the epidemic.

So what exactly is causing this? The answer is actually very simple, stemming from fear.

In addition to the fear of unknown viruses, humans also have a psychological fear of privacy exposure. The massive leakage of early patient information and the characteristics of existing medical systems are magnifying this fear.

Lack of confidence, fear of embarrassment or disclosure of personal information may lead to patients' reluctance to provide accurate information, or in some cases may provide false information, which affects treatment options, raises public health concerns, and even leads to serious health complications and death.

In this issue of the sharing, we mainly recommend the research paper published in the National Institutes of Health (NIH) "How Blockchain Guarantees Digital Healthcare", hoping to help people alleviate this fear.

In the hardcore technical article selection section, we will also see private key recovery solutions, Mimblewimble non-interactive transaction proposals, MPC key management solutions, and more.

In addition, in the past month, mainstream blockchains such as Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Hyperledger have also ushered in many technological advances.

(Picture from: tuchong.com)

How to use blockchain to improve existing medical systems

Authors: Khaled from UAE University and the University of New York at Stony Brook School of Medicine Shuaib, Heba Saleous, Karim Shuaib and Nazar Zaki.

Link to original paper: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6789651/

Humans try their best to stay healthy and live to the fullest, so healthcare is an important part of everyone's life. To enable medical staff to provide appropriate medical care, patient records are kept in clinics and hospitals. These records can help doctors understand patients' past diagnoses and their current health. Until recently, many medical records were kept in physical archives. Although this may not be a major problem for a hospital or clinic, it is a burden for the patient. Other problems with paper records include data loss (for various possible reasons) and difficulties related to data recovery.

And electronic health records or electronic medical records (EHR / EMR) improve the medical infrastructure by making it easier for doctors to store, view, share and update patient records. However, as with any electronic record system, security and privacy issues have become a challenge for these systems. Another issue is the cost of the infrastructure required to maintain electronic records. The initial cost includes the hardware and software costs required to run the electronic medical system, maintenance, updates, and staff training costs. Users must have basic computer knowledge to use the system. Otherwise, without training, hospital staff will initially find it difficult to organize information and generate and format reports without help. Without knowing how to use an electronic medical system, staff may store or update records containing incorrect information. This can lead to the wrong diagnosis, the wrong sequence of medical procedures, and the wrong prescription of medicines and dosages, which can even lead to health complications and even death. This is why employee training should be included in the cost of implementing an electronic medical system.

However, even with training, the introduction of new systems can lead to initial outages.

Another problem with electronic medical record (EMR) systems is the fragmentation of patient data. Because patients may go to different clinics, scattered patient data may exist in different locations. Although digitizing patient data has alleviated the problem of electronic medical record sharing, the main problem is still to achieve interoperability between medical information systems, because clinics may use different electronic medical record systems. This means that patient data may exist in different formats, and this may expose patients to danger because reformatting the data into a readable format takes time and may also lose data. Additionally, Professionals also fill out information in the database in different ways. In a dangerous, sensitive environment, such as a hospital, a minute can be the difference between life and death for a patient. This means that medical professionals cannot waste time with fragmented records and interoperability issues!

In addition to the challenges of fragmentation and interoperability, the use of electronic medical record (EMR) systems can also cause some privacy issues because healthcare infrastructure is not patient-centric . Although patients have the information they provide to professionals, they do not control the electronic medical records themselves. It also means that patients have no control over who sees their data, and where it is sent and stored.

To address patient privacy concerns, regulations have been developed in some regions, such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) in the United States and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. Although these regulations may increase more control over patient data, they do not completely prevent the intentional or unintentional disclosure of private data, and as a result, patients may continue to feel uneasy about their data being stored and exchanged electronically.

The electronic medical records (EMR) in an organization are usually stored in the medical infrastructure as part of a database. This centralized infrastructure may have only one point of attack, and if it is successfully breached by cyber criminals, it may hinder medical services. Cybercriminals can benefit from stolen electronic medical record data and either sell it to other parties or use it for ransom, which is called "hacking ransom". In addition, cybercriminals may use patient data to try to obtain prescription drugs for themselves or others.

In addition to stealing and misusing patient information, EHR and EMR systems still have fraud issues . There are two possibilities for fraud: prescription drugs and insurance . Prescription fraud occurs when the details of a prescription are changed or repeated to receive certain medications that are usually not available. Insurance fraud occurs when an insurance company increases the price of insurance while reducing benefits, or when a medical professional makes a wrong diagnosis for a patient to submit a false insurance claim. Not only does this lead to higher healthcare costs for patients, it also allows medical professionals to take advantage of describing false information as fact.

In this regard, the academic community has proposed several methods to improve the typical medical infrastructure, and blockchain technology has also been incorporated. In recent years, some researchers have begun to propose the use of blockchain to improve electronic medical systems, especially when dealing with EMR. This is because EMR contains private information, and patients want to hide information from unauthorized persons, which can be achieved through blockchain technology.

1.1 The concept of blockchain

The blockchain was originally introduced into the world by Bitcoin created by Satoshi Nakamoto. Each user in its peer-to-peer network (P2P) is considered a node, and the transactions that occur are grouped into blocks. These blocks are then connected to each other in a chain, and each node has at least one public and private key pair. Among them, the public key is used to address the node as a sender or receiver, and the associated private key is used by the sender to sign the transaction being sent, and the receiver will redeem it. In addition to requiring the correct key to decrypt and access the data, an agreement needs to be reached between participating nodes before changes can be made. This ensures that all copies of the blockchain ledger are synchronized across the network. Whenever a change occurs on the chain, the system notifies every node in the network. Because the blocks are linked together in this way, the blockchain is difficult to tamper with, a semi-anonymous ledger with a timestamp.

The concept shown in Figure 1 describes how blocks are linked together in the form of chains and the types of data they may contain.

The decentralized and distributed nature of the blockchain also makes network attacks more difficult. Since a copy of the ledger exists on each node in the P2P network, transaction data can be recovered. Even if one of the nodes is threatened or attacked, the information and connections in the blockchain network will remain normal because it exists in all other nodes. As a result, the blockchain can also prevent unauthorized data modification.

As of now, there are three main types of blockchain: public chain, private chain, and alliance chain. The choice of blockchain type depends on the use case, because each use case has its own functional requirements.

As the name suggests, public chains are open to the public. They are blockchains that do not require permission, which means that anyone can join the blockchain network to participate in the transactions that occur. When a node attempts to perform an operation (such as modifying or adding a value), all nodes on the network are notified and participate in the decision-making process. One of the most popular examples of public chains is Bitcoin. Anyone can join the Bitcoin network and participate in blockchain management.

A private chain may be more beneficial to the organization. This type of blockchain is only applicable to employees within the organization, provided that they choose to become nodes and participate in transactions. For users outside the organization, the private chain is inaccessible, so we can also consider this blockchain system as a centralized system.

The affiliate chain is more open than the private chain, but because they have limited permissions to the public, they can also be considered as public license chains. In this type of blockchain, a selected group of entities will participate in transaction verification and blockchain management. Public users may have read permissions, but they cannot participate in the decision-making process for consensus.

Common consensus algorithms include proof of work (PoW), proof of stake (PoS), and practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT).

1.2 Application of Blockchain in Healthcare

Although the blockchain was originally used for cryptocurrency and financial transactions, there are other applications that require an unchangeable and trackable ledger system. And healthcare is one of the main areas where blockchain can have a positive impact. Integrating the blockchain with the electronic medical record system can effectively help solve some problems in the current medical infrastructure. For example, patients can have more control over who their data is transmitted to . Patients are notified when another party, such as the doctor or insurance company they are trying to share data with. Being notified, patients will be able to decide whether to agree to share their data with others and can choose who can view their medical information.

Another improvement that blockchain brings to healthcare is the ability to protect EMRs from unauthorized viewing and modification . According to the way transactions occur in the blockchain, unless the user has the credentials needed to access the data, he is not authorized to view the data. This helps improve patient privacy and security, as only authorized parties can access their data while notifying patients. Data integrity is preserved because of the immutability of transactions and the order in which transactions are stored on the blockchain. Unless the user is authorized and authorized to modify the data, the data cannot be modified. As a result, patients will be able to know more confidently who has viewed their personal and confidential health information. Depending on the implementation of the blockchain, patients may have encryption keys for their data, so they will be able to choose who has access to their medical information.

The decentralized nature of the blockchain ensures that patient data is not only protected from attacks that may cause downtime, but also restored. In traditional centralized storage environments, patient records will be stored in a database that can be accessed from anywhere in the hospital. If the database is compromised or attacked, it may reduce employees' ability to access medical records. In the event that a malicious party decides to destroy the data, EMR may not be recoverable unless the file is backed up to another system. In the blockchain, data is distributed, so they exist on all nodes in the network, so they can be recovered in the event of loss or damage.

In addition, the blockchain allows hospitals, insurance companies and pharmacies to be linked together to improve the services provided. One example that is beneficial to current medical infrastructure is drug prescription. When doctors prescribe medicines for patients, they can be viewed by authorized pharmacies and insurance companies. Pharmacists will be able to easily contact the relevant insurance company to find out if the drug is part of the patient's insurance plan. Linking these parties together can reduce the paperwork and workload currently required to prescribe patients.

Figure 2 depicts a conceptual model of how parties involved in healthcare are connected via a blockchain.

1.3 Application of Blockchain in Personalized Medicine

With the introduction of EHR and EMR, and the continuous development of medical systems, personalized medicine is becoming more and more popular. The concept of personalized medicine revolves around classifying patients based on certain common factors (such as genomic data, race, age, or gender) (for example, patients can be classified based on genomic data collected for testing). Because of genetic mutations, any health risks that patients may face can be shown through testing, and caregivers can classify patients based on these risks. Based on the characteristics of each category, treatment and health plans are provided accordingly. Because common health issues may exist among group members, patient groups may also be targeted for pharmaceutical advertising.

Although personalized medicine has paved the way for further improvements in health care, especially e-healthcare, this model may create some problems. The first concern is the general issue of patient data privacy. For example, patient data collected through genomic tests may also include family health risks. A related issue is the need to inform patients' family members about possible family health risks, and even if patients agree to be tested, they may not agree to expose their genome. Another issue related to patient privacy is that another study of the patient's health data may be needed, and the patient may disagree. These privacy issues hinder patients' confidence in the system and may prevent them from seeking medical care .

Lack of confidence, fear of embarrassment or disclosure of personal information may lead to patients' reluctance to provide accurate information, or in some cases may provide false information, which affects treatment options, raises public health concerns, and even leads to serious health complications and death.

Another issue is the availability of health data collected from patients. Labs running tests can store results and raw data on their servers. However, if the data needs to be accessed by another party for any reason, it may not be accessible. Requesting access to data and waiting for approval can take some time and cause inconvenience to caregivers and patients who need their consent.

Integrating the blockchain into a personalized medical model can solve these problems. Only authorized parties who have the key to decrypt the data can conduct encrypted transactions, which prevents others from viewing health data that is not relevant to them. This increases patients' confidence in the medical system. They can be sure that only a few people can view their private information, and the notifications received each time a transaction occurs and a record of all transactions can also help patients relax. This improved usability provides patients with the opportunity to donate or even sell their health data to researchers for future patients and experiments.

Figure 3 summarizes how to integrate blockchain into personalized medicine.

The data generated by patients and existing clinical records undergo encryption and digital signature processing before being stored in a database or data lake, because the amount of raw data is too large. Data from clinical trials can also be recorded and stored in the same way, and researchers can trace the results to discover patterns and correlations in the data. When data is requested, it is authenticated and decrypted before it is revealed to the patient or caregiver. As can be seen from Figure 3, the blockchain can be used as an index to link users to the actual location of the data they are looking for. Since raw data from multiple sources, such as images or laboratory results, can lead to large files for a single patient, data links can only be communicated on the blockchain. The actual data will be strictly stored in the off-chain data lake. The MedRec and Stony Brook Oncology projects are examples of this. Using this model, patients can choose not only who can access their data, but also to sell the data or give it directly to research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. In addition, pharmaceutical and insurance companies can find potential participants in the blockchain network by requesting and utilizing stored data. For more details, see the reference: " The Opportunities of Blockchain Technology in Medicine "

1.4 Development of Blockchain Medical Framework

Since the first introduction of blockchain and medical research in 2016, researchers have made significant progress in implementing blockchain to improve medical infrastructure.

It is believed that the first blockchain system for healthcare purposes was completed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), whose researchers developed a MedRec project whose purpose is to improve EMR processing and exchange. Initially, the authors of the proposal sought to address four main issues: data fragmentation, interoperability, patient focus, and data research. Researchers designed three contracts to process data queries and establish a connection between patients and caregivers. However, there are still problems regarding node security, scalability, and patient inference from intra-blockchain connections. In 2018, MedRec evolved into a usable system and addressed some of the issues that existed during the first iteration. MedRec 2.0 solves the problem of patients inferring from transactions by introducing the pseudonymous nature of communication, and changes the way information is stored on the blockchain to solve some scalability and privacy issues. However, patient inference is still a problem from the metadata of the Ethereum address and the security of the node or provider database.

MedRec project details link: https://medrec.media.mit.edu/technical/

At the same time, more and more blockchain medical solutions and systems are beginning to emerge, and the two topics they focus on are:

1. How to integrate blockchain with healthcare to improve services in different fields;
2. How to use blockchain to improve EHR and EMR processing;

The authors of the paper conducted a comprehensive review of 34 related literatures, and Figure 4 summarizes the types of these papers:

As shown in Figure 4, compared with other types of papers, in 2017 and 2018, we can see more model proposals related to blockchain medical infrastructure emerged. The graph also shows an increase in the literature review in 2019, which may be due to the excessive number of models and theoretical papers published by researchers in 2017 and 2018. Based on these literatures, we can review these work to determine the existing problems of blockchain research in the medical field, as well as possible future focus.

Among them, one area that these documents pay particular attention to is the use of blockchain technology to improve EHR and EMR services. Figure 5 illustrates this trend.

These models or theoretical work mainly use two platforms: Ethereum and Hyperledger Fabric.

Among them, most models and theories (19 research papers) suggest using Ethereum as the basic platform, while another 4 documents discuss the use of the Hyperledger Fabric framework.

Of the 13 practical projects, 10 projects chose to use Ethereum, while the other 3 projects used the super ledger Fabric, as shown in Figure 6:

Most of these projects try to comply with the data privacy regulations specified by HIPAA, and they have also implemented pseudonym technology to cover up the identity of patients during in-chain transactions. Although these projects address privacy and security issues, there are still some technical issues to be resolved. For example, some projects face system scalability issues. In testing, this may not cause problems, but in actual applications, the number of users needs to be considered.

The schedule of these projects can be seen in Figure 7:

1, 5 discussions

After reviewing the literature on how to use blockchain to improve current medical systems, we can try to answer these questions:

Question 1: How to use blockchain to improve healthcare information systems?

answer:

Through relevant literature, we can see that the initial exploration of using blockchain in healthcare is to solve the problems of existing EHR / EMR systems. The first problem solved by blockchain is the risk storage and sharing of EMR. At present, people are worried that patient information can be viewed by others without authorization, and researchers have proposed using blockchain as the only solution to ensure the security of EMR, or as part of existing solutions.

In addition to protecting patient data from unauthorized access, the implementation of the medical blockchain has also improved the ability to access and modify audits. Whenever any other entity on the blockchain attempts to access its data, the system notifies the patient. As the owner of the EMR, patients will be able to allow or deny any access or modification to their data, they may choose to share their data, and they may even whitelist the parties for easy access.

In addition to improving EMR security, blockchain is also used to manage the drug supply chain. This is achieved by integrating blockchain and smart contracts into IoT devices. Regarding medicines, you can also consider using blockchain to detect prescription fraud.

There is also some research literature that explores the use of blockchain with medical wearables. Nowadays, some patients wear medical equipment, which allows caregivers to collect patient physical data from a distance. Because the blockchain has the ability to process data automatically, researchers have proposed using the blockchain to improve patient monitoring over long distances, which further benefits patients and caregivers because the data can be accessed in real time at any time of day. Once certain thresholds or events occur, using smart contracts with the blockchain can allow alerts to be sent to the caregivers involved.

Finally, the system architecture around on-chain communication and data exchange has improved. The size of the data that healthcare professionals need to access (such as labs or scan results) can be large, so transferring data directly on the blockchain can be slow or even insecure. Some literature suggests storing actual data files off-chain, and only passing metadata and links to required databases on-chain. In this way, transactions through the blockchain will be faster and more secure. This will also save equipment space for participating in the blockchain, as each node will own a copy of these blocks and assets. Question 2: What are the areas of focus when implementing blockchain for healthcare systems?

answer:

When considering the integration of blockchain into modern healthcare infrastructure, the first focus area that researchers are working on is the improvement of EMR systems. Although EMR has improved greatly from physical file and paper recording systems, the systems in use still have privacy and security risks.

The security and immutability of the blockchain solves these problems because only authorized parties can view and modify patient records. Previously, the blockchain could also add access controls to separate read and write permissions. The existence of consensus algorithms and smart contracts allows patients to control who can view their data.

Another focus on implementing blockchain in healthcare is the detection of fraud attempts. The blockchain is considered a real ledger, which means that the data existing on the chain can be trusted, which can effectively combat the problem of fraud. The immutability of the blockchain enables organizations to track any type of information. For example, medical institutions can track the degrees they award and the achievements of medical students. This can help verify that the diploma that a student claims is legal. In addition, we can apply the same ideas to insurance procurement and the drug supply chain, so that we can record the prices of services and products, legal requirements, previous practices, and even track supply information.

The integration of the Internet of Things and blockchain is another key research area. Due to the existence of medical wearable devices such as heart rate or blood content monitors, caregivers can evaluate patients without having to visit the hospital often, and blockchain can secure the communication of data collected by the body sensors worn by patients To improve the system. It also limits who can access the collected data and ensures that no data is lost as the data is distributed to other nodes on the chain. The additional integration of smart contracts can warn caregivers of certain events based on real-time data collected by wearable devices.

When considering using blockchain to improve healthcare systems, researchers often focus on privacy and security. Patient records contain very sensitive personal information that can be used by malicious parties. Even with traditional systems, patients are concerned about which party their data is sent to and who has the ability to view their records. This may prevent them from undergoing certain treatments, especially when giving consent to patient data to patients for their signature.

It is imperative to improve patient privacy and the security of their data in order to give patients more confidence in the healthcare system . Question 3: What are the remaining issues?

answer:

As with any implementation, there are still some issues that need to be addressed when integrating blockchain into modern medical infrastructure. The first thing to consider is the scalability of the system. Although we can control the data to be stored in the chain, the number of patients and participants participating in the blockchain will continue to grow over time. At some point, computing resources such as processing power and storage media will become limited. This may hinder the services provided by the blockchain. As the network continues to grow, the scalability of the system and the amount of basic resources may become a problem .

This raises questions about the cost of implementing such a system. Although the blockchain can save money and resources in the long run due to automatic regulation, the cost may be very high in the early stages . For example, the way the consensus algorithm works (especially PoW) may require a lot of processing resources. Since the blockchain network in healthcare is expected to be large, it can become expensive to implement the required hardware and have the right equipment to seamlessly utilize the blockchain platform.

Another issue that may arise is the concept of "garbage in, garbage out" (GIGO) . This refers to scenarios related to user input where the user may enter incorrect or random data. The system will be forced to process this data, which may cause erroneous output. Including blockchain in healthcare may face the same problem. It is possible for patients to enter "junk" information while participating in their own health care, and the same can happen for caregivers or any other professional. This may be accidental due to unskilled computers or misunderstandings of the system, or deliberate where the user enters the data with malicious intent. Although the blockchain has a consensus algorithm, if the blockchain users do not pay attention to the data they enter into the system, "garbage in, garbage out" (GIGO) is still possible. Problems can also arise if a blockchain network is implemented by an IT professional who is not familiar with the blockchain and its configuration. This can lead to the wrong diagnosis or the wrong prescription, which can further lead to health complications, and in even more serious cases, even patient death .

In any system or service, malicious users who try to use vulnerabilities to steal data or cause damage will always exist. Even if the blockchain can resist attacks, node security will still be an issue. If end users are threatened, an attacker could disrupt the blockchain. They can infer information about other users on the chain based on the communications that occur, steal data about the victim victims, and provide false information to enter on the chain.

These issues need to be resolved for the blockchain to successfully improve the healthcare system . Question 4: Can blockchain and artificial intelligence be combined to further optimize personalized medicine?

answer:

Data science is another area that has been seeking to improve the medical industry by using artificial intelligence (AI) and its machine learning algorithms. Similar to blockchain, these decisions are made using special algorithms. The difference is that when the blockchain uses the collected data to try to protect the integrity of the data, artificial intelligence seeks to make predictions and make informed decisions. Some examples of decisions to be made in the healthcare field are medical diagnoses, such as which drugs or procedures patients may need.

As mentioned earlier in this article, blockchain has been integrated with cloud computing and IoT to improve existing services and systems. Combining blockchain with AI can further improve several important parts of healthcare infrastructure, such as:

1. Ensure data integrity and validity;
2. Prevention and mitigation of malicious activities;
3. Predictive analysis
4. Real-time data analysis;
5. Manage data sharing;

The blockchain system has solved the problems of improving data integrity and preventing traditional attacks. However, without affecting system performance and certain data security, it is not possible to directly transfer large amounts of data through the blockchain.

However, integrating AI algorithms into the system will allow the data to be processed in advance, thereby only passing results and information through the blockchain. Because the blockchain reviews all transactions, medical professionals can still understand how the data is processed and why they made an informed decision.

The ability of artificial intelligence to make informed decisions may also help block mining and reduce the amount of computing resources required. Compared to using traditional methods, mining blocks using machine learning algorithms can save time and resources. For example, if a health provider has the appropriate permissions to access trusted and highly reliable patient data, then using artificial intelligence will make it possible to group patients based on molecular atlases, chemical reactions, genetic mutations, genetic diseases, or any other atlas This is of great help in advancing personalized medicine.

1.6 Conclusion

In order for patients to have greater confidence in medical professionals and their clinics, we need to address the security and privacy issues that currently exist in healthcare systems. While EMR management is a major area to focus on, digital medical records simplify their storage and sharing. However, this still has the following problems: unauthorized access and disclosure, a centralized system that can be considered as a single point of attack, and the fragmentation of patient medical information in the case of visiting multiple medical professionals.

In order to solve these problems, researchers are turning to blockchain. Over time, the original blockchain infrastructure has evolved, so it can be used not only for cryptocurrencies and financial transactions. A blockchain method that can be used to improve current medical systems. Because the blockchain is immutable, transparent, and decentralized, it can be used as a digital ledger to simplify communication between patients, caregivers, and insurance companies.

Nonetheless, existing medical blockchain solutions also face some issues that need to be addressed, such as scalability issues and node security issues (although the blockchain is secure, a single node that is compromised may also Affect the entire chain). Due to the risk of node damage, the problem of key generation and replacement needs to be solved so that users can resume using the blockchain as soon as possible.

Overall, the integration of blockchain into medical infrastructure shows great potential. Ongoing research in this area will benefit healthcare providers, patients and other interested parties (such as research institutions and insurance companies). Once the remaining problems of the blockchain are overcome, the medical system can be effectively developed to benefit everyone.

Second, hard core technical articles in January selection

2.1 Reflections on Fault Proof (1)

Generally speaking, we will consider Fault Proof to be a concept related to Layer-2, which is the mode that Layer-2 uses when reporting its status to Layer-1. But in this article, the author uses the general concept of erroneous proof, and considers how to design a erroneous proof mode to make SPV nodes (approximately so-called "light nodes") obtain higher security.

Author: Paul Sztorc, translator: IAN LIU & A sword

Article link: https://www.8btc.com/article/547929

Can I recover my private key if I lost it? Five minutes to understand V's secret multi-signature recovery scheme

Losing wallet passwords or private keys is a common problem encountered by cryptocurrency users. Is there a way to recover lost keys while minimizing trust? This is exactly the direction that Ethereum co-founder vitalik and others are exploring, and they have written a new EIP (Ethereum Improvement Proposal) and named it the Secret Multisig Recovery scheme.

Author: Vitalik Buterin et al.

Article link: https://www.8btc.com/article/548303

2, 3 Mimblewimble can realize non-interactive transactions, Litecoin, Grin, etc. will benefit

In the current Mimblewimble protocol, the transaction requires the sender and receiver to interact online at the same time, which hinders the large-scale application of related projects. Recently, Grin ++ wallet developer David Burkett has proposed a proposal to support Mimblewimble non-interactive transactions, which can be applied to blockchain projects such as Litecoin and Grin.

Author: David Burkett

Article link: https://www.8btc.com/article/551018

2.4 How to manage the MPC when the secure multi-party calculates the MPC is hot?

Key management is a concept that is becoming more and more important and has become an important infrastructure in the field of blockchain. When digital currencies or tokens are more traded and used, not just stored once and for all, the way of using assets through private keys or wallet passwords is neither secure nor friendly, and it is more difficult to meet the needs of many application scenarios.

Threshold signature method and multi-signature method based on MPC (Secure Multiparty Computing) are two different key management methods. In this article, Dr. Xie Xiang, a PlatON algorithm scientist, introduces MPC-based key management, and this method. The essential difference from the multi-signature method.

Written by: Li Hua

Article link: https://www.8btc.com/media/551767

Technical Progress of Mainstream Blockchain Projects

3.1 Development progress of Ethereum

Ethereum 1.X updates:

1. The latest progress of stateless Ethereum client research ;
2. Parity v2.7.1 client released ;
3. Nethermind v1.5.8 version client released ;

Ethereum 2.0 research and development update content:

1. Lighthouse client update: large block processing and synchronization acceleration ;
2. Prysmatic client update: 10 times faster synchronization
3. The latest Eth2 web developer conference content ;
4. Stateless EE and delayed block inclusion ;

3.2 Bitcoin Development Update

1. LND upgraded to 0.9.0-beta: This new major version improves the access control list mechanism (“macaroons”), supports receiving multi-path payments, etc.
2. Bitcoin Core 0.19.1rc1 enters beta period: The upcoming maintenance release of the core software includes several bug fixes ;
3. Pieter Wuille releases Schnorr signature and Taproot proposal BIP: Schnorr / Taproot proposal is now assigned as BIP 340, BIP341 and BIP342 ;

More updates: https://bitcoinops.org/en/newsletters/2020/01/29/

3, 3 Super Ledger Fabric 2.0 is officially released

The Hyperledger Alliance has officially released version 2.0 of its enterprise distributed ledger (DLT) platform, Hyperledger Fabric. It is reported that this version adds several major features and improves the way of communication between different participants.

Article link: https://www.8btc.com/article/550790

That's it for this issue, see you next week ~

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