What does blockchain do in the vaccine passport?

Of course, blockchains are everywhere. Between Digital works are sold in NFT format Millions of dollars like singer Grimes or artist People and so on
Bitcoin, blockchain technology is on everyone’s lips. The chain of modules – as we say in French – allows him to have control over his personal data, in the vaccine passport, which calls itself into a very serious debate today.

The Digital tattoo certification (Other name for vaccine passport) Necessary despite controversy. As the summer holidays approach, The
European Commission Has announced its plan to facilitate travel within the EU. It offers to come into effect by June. The idea is simple, “The QR code will be linked to a pan-European database, with three types of certificates (test results, vaccine and treatment) for each citizen involved, reminding the future Senatorial Committee on March 18th. All safe thanks to Blockchain ”.

Full control of personal data

Here, the idea is based அடையாளம் Identity of self-sovereignty, A policy that gives each person complete control over their personal data. With that, digital actors can no longer rob us of our data (
Facebook,
Google And public and private operators who resell this information to advertisers for advertising target purposes). Self-sovereignty identification is based on dual key cryptography. You do not need blockchain to do this, however it does make things a lot easier.

Basically, each person creates an encryption key pair, which consists of a private key and a public key. The public key is used to send encrypted documents, verify signatures, and authenticate the user. The private key must be confidential and allow messages to be encrypted. For example, to create a bank account, a person would contact all the elements required by the bank to create his account. The bank will produce a certificate stating that the person has a bank account and, at the same time, that he is actually a French resident, without mentioning his name, address or the amount he holds in the account. From the moment a person holds this certificate, they do not have to present their identity card, their EDF bill or bank details every time they want to take an administrative procedure.

“Certifications are generated by operators (banks, public administrations, physicians, vaccination centers),” explains Primavera de Philippi, a researcher at CNRS and Harvard. It would be the same policy with a genuine interest to avoid scattering its health data to the vaccine passport. And simplifies the administration of the blockchain system. Instead of giving the person the digital document they need to store on their computer, the certificates are generated directly into a blockchain infrastructure that confirms their authenticity. “The vaccination center, for example, will issue a token [un jeton virtuel] This would be relevant to my account, the researcher continues. If I had this token, it means I got vaccinated. ”

The end of advertising goals?

Only the attending physician will have the medical data of his patient. As in the example above, the bank will only have the bank details of its customers. “The data is controlled by a single operator I trust, so I do not need to communicate this with all the operators I contact,” Primavera de Philippi continues. My doctor will keep my data, but he will only issue certificates of total information. In that case, I have to go for my vaccine or take the medicine, I do not need to show all my medical information, I have to show the certificate to the doctor confirming that I have the right to be vaccinated, or buy this medicine ”.

We can imagine the same thing for all health data (why not all personal data). With it, you no longer have to provide your personal information to register on new sites, make online purchases, and register on the streaming site. After all, this method reduces the risk of hacking, which was at the end of February. Thirty laboratories have been affected by the leak of medical data that has affected nearly 500,000 people in France.

On paper the computer seems so complicated, in practice it is not. “E-commerce security systems are very complex, but we use them every day. Instead of consolidating my credit card, I sign transactions with my personal key.” Why does it take so long for the system to establish itself? The brakes are not technical, but rather financial. Operators can no longer do the advertising target, which is not good for their wallets, and while waiting to lift the locks, they can enjoy it from June with the vaccine passport.