Title: A survey on user privacy preserving blockchain for health insurance using Ethereum smart contract

Authors: Geethu Mary George; L.S. Jayashree

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India ' Department of Computer Science and Engineering, PSG College of Technology, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India

Abstract: Blockchain, the foundation of Ethereum, has received greater attention on recent years as a decentralised and distributed public ledger technology that offers different properties like security, privacy, scalability and immutability during online data transactions, reduces cost of transactions, and enables verification and efficient exchange of personnel information across many computers without any trusted parties. The goal of this survey is to propel some methods in preserving user privacy during data transactions using Ethereum smart contract. We analysed the privacy challenges in blockchain and figured out the existing cryptographic mechanisms in preserving the transaction privacy. We also addressed some technique for simplifying claim settlement process in healthcare insurance. By using Ethereum blockchain via smart contract, current challenges in insurance such as being time-consuming, can be avoided thereby preventing insurance frauds and thus improving transparency to all members in-network. It also helps to avoid paper-based contracts, which are prone to errors, and removes the intermediaries. Furthermore, there is still a need to examine and consider future research in order to overcome privacy attacks when using blockchain.

Keywords: blockchain; Ethereum; smart contract; distributed ledger; privacy; transparency.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIPSI.2021.120354

International Journal of Information Privacy, Security and Integrity, 2021 Vol.5 No.2, pp.111 - 137

Accepted: 17 Oct 2021
Published online: 17 Jan 2022 *

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