Healthchain
A blockchain-powered platform that enables secure healthcare data monetization while preserving user privacy.
Created on 1st February 2025
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Healthchain
A blockchain-powered platform that enables secure healthcare data monetization while preserving user privacy.
The problem Healthchain solves
In the current healthcare ecosystem, medical data is either siloed within institutions or exploited without user consent. Patients have little control over their own data, and researchers struggle to access diverse datasets for meaningful insights. This lack of transparency and accessibility hinders medical advancements, while privacy concerns make users hesitant to share sensitive health information.
Healthchain solves these issues by introducing a decentralized, privacy-preserving data-sharing platform where:
Users can monetize their health data securely – Individuals can opt-in to share anonymized data and receive token rewards while ensuring their identity remains protected.
Institutions gain access to AI-driven insights – Instead of direct access to raw datasets, organizations can query a federated AI model trained on decentralized health data, maintaining privacy while extracting valuable trends.
Eliminates trust issues – By leveraging blockchain and smart contracts, data transactions are transparent, secure, and verifiable, reducing dependency on centralized entities.
Accelerates medical research – Researchers and organizations can gain real-time, bias-free insights without regulatory concerns over data ownership and consent.
Healthchain bridges the gap between data privacy, accessibility, and innovation, enabling a future where healthcare data benefits both individuals and the broader medical community without compromising security or ethics.
Challenges I ran into
1️⃣ Environment Variable Issues
Setting up the .env file was trickier than expected. Initially, I forgot to include all necessary variables, which led to unexpected errors when running the application. Debugging took some time because Hardhat and the frontend were failing silently. I resolved this by double-checking the .env.example file and using console.log(process.env) to verify that variables were loading correctly.
2️⃣ Hardhat Compilation Errors
When compiling smart contracts, I kept running into errors related to Solidity versions. Some dependencies required an older Solidity version, while my contracts were written in a newer one. After some trial and error, I fixed this by explicitly defining the Solidity version in hardhat.config.js and ensuring all dependencies were compatible.
3️⃣ Frontend-Blockchain Integration
Connecting the frontend with the deployed smart contracts was a challenge. The ABI file was not properly linked, causing the app to crash whenever it tried to interact with the blockchain. The fix was simple but frustrating to figure out—I had to double-check the contract address in deployedContracts.json and make sure the ABI was correctly imported in the frontend.
4️⃣ CORS Issues with API Calls
When fetching AI-driven insights from federated learning models, I encountered CORS restrictions blocking requests. After some research, I added the appropriate headers on the backend and used a proxy during development to bypass restrictions.
5️⃣ Handling Asynchronous Blockchain Transactions
One of the biggest hurdles was handling asynchronous blockchain transactions properly. Initially, the UI didn't update in real-time after a transaction was made. The problem was that I wasn't listening for transaction confirmations. I solved this by using contract.on("eventName", callback) to listen for blockchain events and update the UI accordingly.
Technologies used