Privacy-Preserving and Incentivized Contact Tracing for COVID-19 Using Blockchain

Abstract

Many countries across the world have not been entirely successful in their attempts to contain the spread of the COVID-19 virus, which has caused, quite possibly, one of the greatest disasters of the 21st century. A rich variety of contact tracing applications, each offering its own unique set of features, are currently being used to track the spread of the virus from person to person, and isolate/quarantine suspected individuals. However, existing approaches have not been very successful since they lack incentives to motivate users to use them actively. Although each solution provides some form of privacy protection and data security, loopholes do exist, and there is scope for improvement. In this context, we explore the use of blockchain to help in advancing contact tracing applications. In this article, we describe how blockchain could offer enhanced data security and functionality without compromising users' privacy. The effectiveness of contact tracing applications improves with the user base. In this regard, we explore how blockchain-based smart contracts can be used to offer incentives to users at various stages of the contact tracing process. Next, we lay down a plan for future contact tracing frameworks that provide the advantages of blockchain and user incentives, and all the best features available in current solutions.