UAVs are increasingly being used in various domains, from personal and commercial applications to military operations. Ensuring the security and trustworthiness of UAV communications is crucial, and blockchain technology has been explored as a solution. However, privacy remains a challenge, especially in public blockchains. In this work, we propose a novel approach utilizing zero-knowledge proof techniques, specifically zk-SNARKs, which are non-interactive cryptographic proofs. This approach allows UAVs to prove their authenticity or location without disclosing sensitive information. We generated zk-SNARK proofs using the Zokrates tool on a Raspberry Pi, simulating a drone environment, and analyzed power consumption and CPU utilization. The results are promising, especially in the case of larger drones with higher battery capacities. Ethereum was chosen as the public blockchain platform, with smart contracts developed in Solidity and tested on the Sepolia testnet using Remix IDE. This novel proposed approach paves the way for a new path of research in the UAV area.

The management of electronic health records in modern healthcare systems is crucial. To ensure confidentiality, integrity, and accessibility, regulations such as GDPR and HIPAA have been established in several countries. Various research studies have proposed the integration of blockchains into these systems to tackle some of these security issues. However, most healthcare infrastructures rely on legacy systems that lack interoperability, and thus the fusion of these with blockchain technology for managing medical records would be ineffective and costly. In our work, we propose a blockchain-based scheme for secure authorization, action recording, and integrity perseverance that can be easily integrated into typical healthcare organizations while also being scaled and maintained effectively.