arXiv subjects

Gabriel Fernández-Blanco

Publications and source records attributed to Gabriel Fernández-Blanco.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Design, Implementation and Practical Energy-Efficiency Evaluation of a Blockchain Based Academic Credential Verification System for Low-Power Nodes

The educational system manages extensive documentation and paperwork, which can lead to human errors and sometimes abuse or fraud, such as the falsification of diplomas, certificates or other credentials. In fact, in the last years, multiple cases of fraud have been detected, which have a significant cost to society, since they harm the trustworthiness of certificates and academic institutions. To tackle such an issue, this article proposes a solution aimed at recording and verifying academic records through a decentralized application that is supported by a smart contract deployed in the Ethereum blockchain and by a decentralized storage system based on Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS). The proposed solution is evaluated in terms of performance and energy-efficiency, comparing the results obtained with a traditional Proof-of-Work (PoW) consensus protocol and the new Proof-of-Authority (PoA) protocol. The results shown in this paper indicate that the latter is clearly greener and demands less CPU load. Moreover, this article compares the performance of a traditional computer and two SBCs (a Raspberry Pi 4 and an Orange Pi One), showing that is possible to make use of the latter low-power devices to implement blockchain nodes but at the cost of higher response latency. Furthermore, the impact of Ethereum gas limit is evaluated, demonstrating its significant influence on the blockchain network performance. Thus, this article provides guidelines, useful practical evaluations and key findings that will help the next generation of green blockchain developers and researchers.

cs.DC↗

arXiv2025

HELENE: An Open-Source High-Security Privacy-Preserving Blockchain Based System for Automating and Managing Laboratory Health Tests

In the last years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, precision medicine platforms emerged as useful tools for supporting new tests like the ones that detect the presence of antibodies and antigens with better sensitivity and specificity than traditional methods. In addition, the pandemic has also influenced the way people interact (decentralization), behave (digital world) and purchase health services (online). Moreover, there is a growing concern in the way health data are managed, especially in terms of privacy. To tackle such issues, this article presents a sustainable direct-to-consumer health-service open-source platform called HELENE that is supported by blockchain and by a novel decentralized oracle that protects patient data privacy. Specifically, HELENE enables health test providers to compete through auctions, allowing patients to bid for their services and to keep the control over their health test results. Moreover, data exchanges among the involved stakeholders can be performed in a trustworthy, transparent and standardized way to ease software integration and to avoid incompatibilities. After providing a thorough description of the platform, the proposed health platform is assessed in terms of smart contract performance. In addition, the response time of the developed oracle is evaluated and NIST SP 800-22 tests are executed to demonstrate the adequacy of the devised random number generator. Thus, this article shows the capabilities and novel propositions of HELENE for delivering health services providing an open-source platform for future researchers, who can enhance it and adapt it to their needs.

cs.CR↗