{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,17]],"date-time":"2026-04-17T16:59:35Z","timestamp":1776445175301,"version":"3.51.2"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"1","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]],"date-time":"2023-03-06T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1678060800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"name":"Japan Science and Technology Agency (JST) under Strategic Basic Research Programs Precursory Research for Embryonic Science and Technology (PRESTO)","award":["JPMJPR20M6"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["JPMJPR20M6"]}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Cryptography"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccines play a crucial role in preventing the spread of the disease. However, the circulation of low-quality and counterfeit vaccines seriously affects human health and the reputation of real vaccine manufacturers (VMs) and increases the amount of fear concerning vaccination. In this study, we address this problem by developing a blockchain-based COVID-19 vaccine tracking system called \u201cVacchain\u201d. Our Vacchain allows users (USERs) to track and trace the route of vaccines. We propose three mechanisms, namely, a system manager (SYS-MAN), a mutual agreement concerning vaccine ownership, and vaccine passports, to enhance the security and reliability of data recorded in the Vacchain ledger. We develop this system on the Substrate platform with the Rust language. Our implementation, evaluation, and analysis have shown that Vacchain can trace and track vaccines smoothly. In addition, data security and reliability are enhanced by the abovementioned three mechanisms. The proposed system is expected to contribute to preventing the spread of COVID-19.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/cryptography7010013","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]],"date-time":"2023-03-06T05:18:43Z","timestamp":1678079923000},"page":"13","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["A Decentralized COVID-19 Vaccine Tracking System Using Blockchain Technology"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"7","author":[{"given":"Atsuki","family":"Koyama","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Engineering, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Van Chuong","family":"Tran","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Graduate School of Informatics, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6171-5697","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Manato","family":"Fujimoto","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Engineering, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan"},{"name":"Graduate School of Informatics, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-1791-6467","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Vo Nguyen Quoc","family":"Bao","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Telecommunications, Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology, Ho Chi Minh City 70000, Vietnam"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2744-0079","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Thi Hong","family":"Tran","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Engineering, Osaka City University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan"},{"name":"Graduate School of Informatics, Osaka Metropolitan University, Osaka 558-8585, Japan"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","unstructured":"(2022, August 21). Fighting Counterfeit Pharmaceuticals: New Defenses for an Underestimated-and Growing-Menace. Available online: https:\/\/www.strategyand.pwc.com\/gx\/en\/insights\/2017\/counterfeit-pharmaceuticals.html."},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"Sgueglia, K. (2022, August 03). 15 People Face Charges in Connection to a Conspiracy with Fake COVID-19 Vaccine Cards, DA Says. Available online: https:\/\/edition.cnn.com\/2021\/08\/31\/us\/manhattan-charges-covid-vaccine-card-scheme\/index.html."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Shuster, S. (2022, June 20). \u2018Tip Of the Iceberg\u2019: Interpol Says Fake COVID-19 Vaccines Were Smuggled Across Continents. Available online: https:\/\/time.com\/5943581\/interpol-face-covid-vaccine\/."},{"key":"ref_4","unstructured":"(2023, January 11). A Passport to Freedom? Fake COVID-19 Test Results and Vaccination Certificates Offered on Darknet and Hacking Forums. Available online: https:\/\/blog.checkpoint.com\/2021\/03\/22\/a-passport-to-freedom-fake-covid-19-test-results-and-vaccination-certificates-offered-on-darknet-and-hacking-forums\/."},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Nakamoto, S. (2008). Bitcoin: A peer-to-peer electronic cash system. Decentralized Bus. Rev., 21260."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"10495","DOI":"10.1007\/s11356-021-16376-y","article-title":"Adopting distributed ledger technology for the sustainable construction industry: Evaluating the barriers using Ordinal Priority Approach","volume":"29","author":"Sadeghi","year":"2022","journal-title":"Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Porat, A., Pratap, A., Shah, P., and Adkar, V. (2017). Blockchain Consensus: An Analysis of Proof-of-Work and Its Applications, Stanford University. Available online: https:\/\/www.scs.stanford.edu\/17au-cs244b\/labs\/projects\/porat_pratap_shah_adkar.pdf."},{"key":"ref_8","unstructured":"King, S., and Nadal, S. (2012). Ppcoin: Peer-to-peer crypto-currency with proof-of-stake. Self-Publ. Pap. August, 19."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"111","DOI":"10.23919\/JCC.2019.12.008","article-title":"T-PBFT: An EigenTrust-based practical Byzantine fault tolerance consensus algorithm","volume":"16","author":"Gao","year":"2019","journal-title":"China Commun."},{"key":"ref_10","first-page":"1","article-title":"Ethereum: A next-generation smart contract and decentralized application platform","volume":"3","author":"Buterin","year":"2014","journal-title":"White Pap."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"(2023, January 11). Substrate Documentation. Available online: https:\/\/docs.substrate.io\/."},{"key":"ref_12","first-page":"2327","article-title":"Polkadot: Vision for a heterogeneous multi-chain framework","volume":"21","author":"Wood","year":"2016","journal-title":"White Pap."},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2200","DOI":"10.1111\/cts.13077","article-title":"COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy: Race\/ethnicity, trust, and fear","volume":"14","author":"Willis","year":"2021","journal-title":"Clin. Transl. Sci."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1057\/s41599-022-01092-w","article-title":"What causes COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy? Ignorance and the lack of bliss in the United Kingdom","volume":"9","author":"Bullock","year":"2022","journal-title":"Humanit. Soc. Sci. Commun."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Manoj, M., Srivastava, G., Somayaji, S.R.K., Gadekallu, T.R., Maddikunta, P.K.R., and Bhattacharya, S. (2020, January 7\u201311). An Incentive Based Approach for COVID-19 planning using Blockchain Technology. Proceedings of the 2020 IEEE Globecom Workshops, GC Wkshps 2020-Proceedings, Taipei, Taiwan. Available online: http:\/\/xxx.lanl.gov\/abs\/arXiv:2011.01468v1.","DOI":"10.1109\/GCWkshps50303.2020.9367469"},{"key":"ref_16","unstructured":"(2022, October 13). The Aura Blockchain Consortium. Available online: https:\/\/auraluxuryblockchain.com\/."},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Malik, S., Dedeoglu, V., Kanhere, S.S., and Jurdak, R. (2019, January 14\u201317). Trustchain: Trust management in blockchain and iot supported supply chains. Proceedings of the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Blockchain (Blockchain), Atlanta, GA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/Blockchain.2019.00032"},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Ghosh, P.K., Chakraborty, A., Hasan, M., Rashid, K., and Siddique, A.H. (2023). Blockchain Application in Healthcare Systems: A Review. Systems, 11.","DOI":"10.3390\/systems11010038"},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Dwivedi, A.D., Malina, L., Dzurenda, P., and Srivastava, G. (2019, January 1\u20133). Optimized Blockchain Model for Internet of Things based Healthcare Applications. Proceedings of the 2019 42nd International Conference on Telecommunications and Signal Processing (TSP), Budapest, Hungary.","DOI":"10.1109\/TSP.2019.8769060"},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Khan, M.A., Quasim, M.T., Algarni, F., and Alharthi, A. (2020). Decentralised Internet of Things: A Blockchain Perspective, Springer International Publishing.","DOI":"10.1007\/978-3-030-38677-1"},{"key":"ref_21","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bakalos, N., Kaselimi, M., Doulamis, N., Doulamis, A., Kalogeras, D., Bimpas, M., Davradou, A., Vlachostergiou, A., Fotopoulos, A., and Plakia, M. (2022). STAMINA: Bioinformatics Platform for Monitoring and Mitigating Pandemic Outbreaks. Technologies, 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/technologies10030063"},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"102024","DOI":"10.1016\/j.ijinfomgt.2019.10.009","article-title":"An intelligent blockchain-based system for safe vaccine supply and supervision","volume":"52","author":"Yong","year":"2020","journal-title":"Int. J. Inf. Manag."},{"key":"ref_23","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Abbas, K., Afaq, M., Ahmed Khan, T., and Song, W.C. (2020). A Blockchain and Machine Learning-Based Drug Supply Chain Management and Recommendation System for Smart Pharmaceutical Industry. Electronics, 9.","DOI":"10.3390\/electronics9050852"},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"164","DOI":"10.1109\/OJCS.2021.3067450","article-title":"Blockchain Platform For COVID-19 Vaccine Supply Management","volume":"2","author":"Antal","year":"2021","journal-title":"IEEE Open J. Comput. Soc."},{"key":"ref_25","unstructured":"(2023, January 31). VXPASS Website. Available online: https:\/\/vxpass.com\/."},{"key":"ref_26","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Sim, C., Zhang, H., and Chang, M.L. (2022). Improving End-to-End Traceability and Pharma Supply Chain Resilience with Blockchain. Blockchain Healthc. Today, 5.","DOI":"10.30953\/bhty.v5.231"}],"container-title":["Cryptography"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-387X\/7\/1\/13\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T18:48:51Z","timestamp":1760122131000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2410-387X\/7\/1\/13"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]]},"references-count":26,"journal-issue":{"issue":"1","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3]]}},"alternative-id":["cryptography7010013"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/cryptography7010013","relation":{},"ISSN":["2410-387X"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2410-387X","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,6]]}}}