A Traditional Chinese Medicine Traceability System Based on Lightweight Blockchain

Area of Science:

• Pharmaceutical Sciences
• Computer Science
• Information Technology

Background:

• Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) safety and counterfeit drug prevention are global concerns.
• Traditional drug traceability systems lack tamper-proof features and risk sensitive data disclosure.
• Existing blockchain solutions face challenges like information overload, data leakage, and scalability issues.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose a novel, lightweight blockchain framework to address the limitations of current drug traceability systems.
• To mitigate the inherent risks of blockchain technology in pharmaceutical applications.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a framework with horizontal and vertical block segmentation strategies.
• Separated blockchain headers and bodies, storing bodies in the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS).
• Utilized time or size-based vertical segmentation and a consensus mechanism for block addition.

Main Results:

• Significantly reduced the overall size of the blockchain.
• Enhanced the efficiency of blockchain verification processes.
• Demonstrated improved performance in block addition and data retrieval compared to existing systems.

Conclusions:

• The proposed lightweight blockchain framework offers a more reliable and efficient solution for drug traceability.
• This approach effectively addresses the scalability and security concerns of blockchain in pharmaceutical supply chains.