COVID-19 Antibody Test/Vaccination Certification: There's an App for That

Abstract

This work addresses the issues involved in providing robust certification for COVID-19 immunity (assuming the biological premise of 'immunity' is ultimately confirmed). Methods: We developed a prototype mobile phone app and scalable distributed server architecture that facilitates instant verification of tamper-proof test results. Personally identifiable information is only stored at the user's discretion, and the app allows the end-user selectively to present only the specific test result with no other personal information revealed. Behind the scenes it relies upon (a) the 2019 World Wide Web Consortium standard called 'Verifiable Credentials', (b) Tim Berners-Lee's decentralized personal data platform 'Solid', and (c) a consortium Ethereum-based blockchain. Results: Our architecture enables verifiability and privacy in a manner derived from public/private key pairs and digital signatures, generalized to avoid restrictive ownership of sensitive digital keys and/or data. Benchmark performance tests show it to scale linearly in the worst case, as significant processing is done locally on each app. For the test certificate Holder, Issuer (e.g. doctor, pharmacy) and Verifier (e.g. employer), it is 'just another app' which takes only minutes to use. Conclusions: The app and distributed server architecture offer a prototype proof of concept that is readily scalable, widely applicable to personal health records and beyond, and in effect 'waiting in the wings' for the biological issues, plus key ethical issues raised in the discussion section, to be resolved.

Blockchain technologies to mitigate COVID-19 challenges: A scoping review

“…The most prominent use case of blockchain, which was reported in 6 included studies [20] , [21] , [22] , [23] , [24] , [25] , was contact tracing; a process wherein individuals who have been in close contact with those who have tested positive for COVID-19 are identified. Another prominent application of blockchain—proposed or developed—in 4 studies was immunity passports [26] , [27] , [28] , [29] , which show that an individual is disease risk-free because he has already been infected with COVID-19 or was given a COVID-19 vaccine; therefore, he can travel without restrictions. Two studies employed blockchain for diagnosing COVID-19 based on blood samples [30] or computed tomography (CT) images [31] .…”

“…While the blockchain technology was developed in 10 studies [ 22 , 23 , 25 , [28] , [29] , [30] , [31] , [32] , 35 , 36 ], its use was proposed in the remaining 9 studies. The type of access rights in using blockchain was public in 10 studies [ 20 , 22 , 24 , 25 , 27 , 29 , 33 , [36] , [37] , [38] ], private in 5 studies [ 23 , 26 , 30 , 31 , 34 ], hybrid in 3 studies [ 21 , 28 , 35 ], and both public as well as hybrid in 1 study [32] .…”

Blockchain and COVID-19 Pandemic: Applications and Challenges

“…Therefore, the certificate's forgery protection, high cost-effectiveness, and privacy assurance are the key requirements of the authorities to minimize traveling related frauds. Blockchain-based antibody testing and vaccine certification provides a robust and secure data management system that is easy to administer, unforgeable, and cost-effective [65][66][67][68][69]. Blockchain employs asymmetric encryption/decryption schemes [70] and digital signatures to protect antibody testing and vaccine certification data.…”

“…It can further assist the organizations to verify the legitimacy of the PCR testing kits that are used for COVID-19 testing. The key organizations or participants that could be involved in the antibody testing and vaccine certification use cases include employees, hospitals, and employers [65,69,71]. The hospitals/test centers (Immunity passport issuer) take the blood or swap sample to conduct the antibody testing.…”

“…Blockchain technology can assist authorities, governments, and medical professionals in reviewing, recording, and tracking of demand, supplies, and logistics of epidemic prevention materials. The digitization of vaccination certification through blockchain to reopen the businesses can greatly minimize the spread of COVID-19 as fake certificates cannot be created and presented (traceability feature) by the employees while returning back to work [34,65]. Lastly, digitizing commercial transactions through cryptocurrency can not only minimize the time and cost, but also assures seamless authentication of business processes.…”