An unexpected epidemic came suddenly, which not only confined the hands and feet of 1.4 billion people, but also highlighted the serious problems in current social governance. Fortunately, while the priest climbs a foot, the devil climbs ten. Human beings are still capable of overcoming these difficulties. Fintech with Blockchain as the main line will show its talents in the prevention and fighting of epidemic.

In responding to the epidemic crisis, we have witnessed the actual level of smart city construction in various regions. Objectively speaking, both big data and AI have played a role, but they have failed to form a complete closed-loop control system. The problems of separate warfare and information islands, and the ineffective connection between systems are more obvious. We believe that these problems reflect the lack of a backbone of the system, which should be the application of Blockchain technology.

In the process of monitoring epidemics and handling patients, smart big data platforms and epidemic prevention robots have a lot of application space. The gap we need to fill is to make all the data of key nodes on the chain, make full use of the features of Blockchain technology such as non-tamperability and traceability, improve the accuracy and timeliness of information submission, and open up all information islands. During the outbreak of this epidemic, severe epidemic information delays occurred in parts of Hubei, which made it impossible to identify the scope of infection and suspected patients, and even some severely ill patients could not be admitted. The epidemic could not be reached in time, misleading decision-making, delaying treatment, and causing huge losses of people's lives and property. All localities should learn from it, accept lessons, strengthen Blockchain technology application research, promote data sharing, optimize business processes, reduce operating costs, improve collaboration efficiency, build credible systems, and greatly improve social governance capabilities and levels through Blockchain technology.

Regarding the application scenarios of Blockchain technology in all aspects of epidemic prevention and anti-epidemic, we have sorted out some areas with more mature products that can yield faster results.

1. Traceability

Blockchain is used in the traceability, tracking and price monitoring of medical drugs and masks and protective clothing.

Blockchain is used in all links of charitable donations, especially in the intermediate links of the foundation's official website, third-party solicitation platforms, and online transactions to improve process efficiency and transparency.

2. Prevention

On-chain tracking and prevention of patients' personal medical records and diagnosis and treatment process. On the patient side, the database on Blockchain can accurately and efficiently record every patient’s vital signs, all medications used, information about each visit, disease, surgery and other information, which can greatly reduce the operation time, cost and risk of medical institutions. At the same time, it realizes precise strategy formulation, efficient resource utilization, and targeted product docking with effective markets, etc., to enhance patients' medical experience. It will also enable more efficient use of medical resources in times of emergency.

3. Supply chain

It can be applied in many links such as customs declaration and clearance, inspection and quarantine, cross-border transportation, overseas warehousing, procurement and distribution. Blockchain technology is used in the deployment of materials (such as medical drugs and mask protective clothing) in the epidemic area under the epidemic, which can greatly alleviate the risks of delay, loss, damage, and fake goods.

4. Information management

Public opinion monitoring and rumors identification; realize the sharing of epidemic public data and the protection of personal privacy data. In the process of preventing and controlling the epidemic, the role of Blockchain to spread data under the premise of protecting privacy has not been reflected. In fact, when this epidemic was exposed, operators, local public security departments, etc. used excel extensive copies to distribute relevant information without regard to personal privacy protection, which could have been solved by Blockchain technology. The media plays an important role in public health incidents. We can use consensus algorithms to make high-quality content more disclosed, and creators of high-quality content get more rights. At the same time, Blockchain’s survival of the fittest credit elimination mechanism is used to promptly publish problematic information nodes to help the public avoid rumors and misinformation and stabilize social sentiment.

Some of the above Blockchain technology application ideas have already been implemented. For example, Ali Health and the Tianning District Health and Family Planning Commission of Changzhou in 2017 launched the "Medical Consortium + Blockchain" pilot. The city's Health and Family Planning Commission logs the data generated by various medical institutions into the blockchain to ensure that every piece of data from each data provider is credible and cannot be tampered with. The data sharing reciprocity mechanism avoids the formation of “islands” of hospital data, forms a symbiosis ring of interests, and can accurately locate the entire flow of medical sensitive data. Just imagine, if this kind of data can be circulated throughout the country in a normal way, the chaotic scene of fighting and fundraising in hospitals after the epidemic arrives may be alleviated. But up to now, no feedback has been seen, nor has it been widely promoted, indicating that there is still a lot of work to be done in the application of Blockchain technology.

The new coronavirus has not yet found a specific drug, and vaccines need time to develop. Due to the strong spread of the virus, despite the current turning point and preliminary signs of control, there is still a high chance of a rebound, and even a chance of returning from abroad. The prominent contradiction we face is that we must not only strictly prevent and fight the epidemic, but also speed up the restoration of production. In order to solve the worries about the resumption of work and production of enterprises, we recommend that government-led enterprises and insurance companies launch the "Comprehensive Insurance for Epidemic Prevention and Control of Enterprises Resuming Work and Production" as soon as possible, combining this emergency strategy with the medium and long-term strategy to accelerate the application of blockchain technology to create a stable, strong and reliable system for epidemic prevention and economic development of the whole society.