Blockchain, a core component of digital technology, is gaining traction across various sectors due to its unique features like traceability, high data credibility, and decentralization. Applications are emerging in digital finance, healthcare, logistics, anti-counterfeiting, smart cities, public welfare, and social assistance. However, challenges remain, including high application costs, limited solutions, and difficulties in regulation and auditing. To address these, independent innovation and expanded application scenarios are essential to leverage blockchain and other digital technologies in managing major risks and modernizing national governance systems.
Enhancing Information Transparency and Data Security During Crises
Blockchain's traceable, tamper-resistant, and decentralized nature makes it ideal for sectors like supply chain finance and digital asset management, where "decentralized trust" is critical. Historically, finance has been a primary adopter, with applications in cryptocurrency, international transfers, letter of credit management, and more. Data from the "2020 Central Enterprises Blockchain Development Report" shows that financial sector enterprises led in blockchain adoption, accounting for 31.9% of central enterprises involved.
In public health crises, blockchain's potential is increasingly recognized. For instance, during the 2018 Ebola outbreak, researchers at the University of Munich developed SERIS, a blockchain system to track confirmed and suspected cases, integrating population and transportation data to support monitoring and vaccine development. This laid groundwork for blockchain's role in major risk events.
The COVID-19 pandemic, with its rapid spread and uncertainty, strained healthcare and public services. From information dissemination to复工复产 (resuming work and production), and public resource allocation, the emergency response created diverse demands for blockchain applications.
Boosting Information Transparency and Public Trust
The COVID-19 pandemic emerged in an era dominated by internet-based information dissemination. Social media and emerging platforms often amplify public opinion, leading to "square effects" where rumors spread rapidly. Initially, insufficient preparedness and chaotic responses eroded trust in traditional information channels. Blockchain's immutable data collection and transmission can mitigate such "trust crises" by enabling multiple stakeholders—medical institutions, disease control departments, experts, and governments—to collaboratively "chain" data, ensuring credibility.
Technically, blockchain can serve as a trust layer for high-interest data like infection rates and treatment progress. Using distributed ledger technologies such as "Hashgraph," it facilitates real-time interaction and synchronization across organizations, enhancing data quality for monitoring and tracing. This not only alleviates public anxiety but also supports epidemiological investigations, vaccine development, and accountability.
Protecting Privacy and Ensuring Data Security
China's effective pandemic control relied heavily on grassroots efforts and community grid management. Data on health status and travel history were collected via paper forms or digital platforms like health code apps. Paper forms are prone inaccuracies and inefficiencies, while apps risk misuse of personal data. Blockchain-based data archives overcome these issues by ensuring data integrity and confidentiality through unique transaction hashes.
Maintaining COVID-19 patients' privacy is paramount. Blockchain's encryption and distributed storage act as a "double insurance" against data breaches. In smart healthcare, blockchain has already been tested in prescription and medical record management. For instance, Shanghai Huashan Hospital introduced China's first blockchain electronic prescription in 2018, exploring data sharing and privacy protection. For sensitive cases like COVID-19, blockchain encryption prevents tampering and leaks from the source.
Innovating Supervision and Building Efficient National Emergency Systems
Revolutionizing Public Welfare Supervision
Traditional centralized operations of公益 organizations (public welfare organizations) often face efficiency and trust issues. During COVID-19, shortages in medical supplies and logistics challenges in Hubei and other regions highlighted these weaknesses. Some organizations faced criticism for inefficient distribution and opaque information, damaging public trust and dampening donation enthusiasm.
In response, tech companies developed blockchain-based donation platforms integrating the entire process—fundraising, transportation, storage, distribution, and auditing—onto a single platform. This ensures collective verification, preventing malpractice and corruption. By "flattening" organizational structures with digital tools,公益机构 (public welfare institutions) can reshape incentive mechanisms and enhance transparency, ensuring every donation is traceable and accountable.
Supporting Business Resumption
Balancing pandemic control with economic revival was a top government priority. Following national guidelines, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology emphasized using technologies like blockchain to improve smart logistics and overcome supply chain bottlenecks. Blockchain helps enterprises aggregate orders, share labor demands, and integrate logistics capabilities without contact. Its data authenticity aids in market trend prediction and production planning.
Distributed offices with blockchain's "timestamp" feature are becoming new norms, boosting efficiency in remote work. Governments can use blockchain to consolidate pandemic regulations,复工 requirements, and relief policies, enabling seamless备案 (filing) and audits between enterprises and authorities.
Strengthening National Emergency Systems
Globally, disaster management systems often suffer from fragmented投入 (investment) and short-term focus, leading to inadequate preparedness. China's infectious disease reporting system, with its hierarchical structure, faces delays and interference in data transmission, hindering effective response to novel outbreaks like COVID-19.
Blockchain's flat response mechanism can replace vertical systems, enabling real-time data sharing among hospitals, disease control centers, and decision-makers. This minimizes underreporting and facilitates early detection and monitoring.
In national reserve systems, blockchain manages物资存储 (material storage), procurement, transfer, and quality supervision. By enabling real-time sharing and monitoring of reserves nationwide, it ensures efficient allocation during emergencies.
Challenges in Blockchain Application
Despite progress in charity, logistics, and pandemic control, blockchain faces hurdles in technical feasibility and institutional constraints.
Data Authenticity Issues
While blockchain ensures data integrity on-chain, pre-chain data verification remains challenging. In multi-party blockchains, varying participant credibility and inadequate audit mechanisms may allow fraudulent data to enter the chain, exacerbating harms due to immutability.
Limited Solution Development
Many pandemic-response blockchain platforms were hastily built, lacking specificity, applicability, and scalability. Some merely repackage big data or traditional IT methods as blockchain products, misleading stakeholders and harming market expectations.
High Application Costs
Although blockchain is theoretically efficient and low-cost, its economic benefits are not yet fully realized in many fields. For example, tracing emergency supplies like food and drugs requires collaboration among producers, consumers, logistics, and regulators. While it combats counterfeiting, the high costs may not justify addressing rare quality issues, especially under effective national quality systems. This mismatch discourages long-term participation.
Moreover, blockchain's decentralization conflicts with administrative centralization, causing ideological and interest clashes. Public demand for information also shifts during crises; during heightened panic, centralized authority may be preferred over decentralization.
Technically, blockchain's scalability is limited by network latency, posing challenges in handling large-scale nodes during major events. Ultimately, robust emergency management requires top-level design and diverse technologies, talents, and systems.
Leveraging Digital Technologies for Modernizing Governance
To overcome these challenges, independent innovation and institutional reforms are needed. Governments should enhance service awareness, promote integration with big data, AI, cloud computing, and IoT, and develop reliable solutions for improving emergency management and governance modernization.
Key Recommendations
- Advance Theoretical Research: Focus on core algorithms, consensus mechanisms, key security, and cross-chain transactions to strengthen blockchain's foundation.
- Accelerate Digital Infrastructure: Invest in 5G, data centers, AI, and industrial internet to boost overall digital capability and market demand.
- Reform Data Markets: Establish norms for data trading, define digital rights, and ensure security while promoting government data openness and social data sharing.
- Foster Innovation: Guide blockchain firms to develop quality solutions for实体部门 (real sectors) and public services, shaping a healthy industry ecosystem.
- Enhance Government Services: Adopt digital tools for smarter administration through service purchases and digital transformation.
- Improve Emergency预警 (Early Warning): Study risk evolution patterns and address pain points with digital technologies.
- Ensure Security: Strengthen data security awareness, prevent illegal applications in digital currency, and avoid financial risks.
- Cultivate Talent: Attract and nurture professionals to build world-class blockchain teams.
- Promote Global Cooperation: Develop standards for blockchain in public health and emergency response, advancing its role in global governance.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is blockchain's primary advantage in crisis management?
Blockchain offers transparency, immutability, and decentralization, making it ideal for tracking resources, verifying data, and enhancing trust among stakeholders during emergencies. It ensures that information remains accurate and accessible without single-point failures.
How does blockchain protect privacy in healthcare applications?
Through encryption and distributed storage, blockchain safeguards patient data by allowing only authorized access. Each transaction is hashed, ensuring integrity and confidentiality, which is crucial for sensitive health information during pandemics.
Can blockchain be integrated with existing government systems?
Yes, but it requires adapting decentralized technologies to centralized administrative structures. Pilots in data sharing and supply chain management show promise, though challenges in scalability and cost need addressing for seamless integration.
What are the cost barriers to adopting blockchain?
Initial development and implementation costs can be high, especially for custom solutions. However, as technology matures and scales, costs are expected to decrease, making it more accessible for public and private sectors.
How does blockchain improve supply chain resilience during crises?
By providing end-to-end visibility, blockchain helps track goods from origin to destination, reducing delays and counterfeit risks. This is vital for ensuring timely delivery of essential supplies like medical equipment during emergencies.
Is blockchain suitable for all types of emergency responses?
Not always. While excellent for data integrity and transparency, blockchain's decentralization may not suit scenarios requiring rapid, centralized decision-making. Assessing specific needs and contexts is essential before implementation.
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