Additional Funding Sources

This research was supported by a National Science Foundation Computer and Information Science and Engineering (CISE) REU, Grant No. 2051127.

Abstract

Most data access and file-sharing systems use centralized solutions where the users of such systems have to put their trust in a third party. Such systems provide less transparency and traceability while a centralized entity mostly controls the decision making. As a solution, we propose a blockchain-based open-source, decentralized system where the decision making is done by consensus of the entire network while providing more transparency and traceability to the system's users. However, while dealing with large amounts of data stored in Blockchain, we have to consider the overhead of storing large files. Thus, we design a system where the encrypted data is stored off-chain in IPFS (Interplanetary File System), and the location of data (IPFS Content ID) is stored in Blockchain. The file access, update and management of a project is done decentrally in a secure environment, and the decision making is reached by consensus of the network entities.

Share

COinS
 

Secure Data Access, Sharing and Collaboration Using Blockchain and IPFS Technology

Most data access and file-sharing systems use centralized solutions where the users of such systems have to put their trust in a third party. Such systems provide less transparency and traceability while a centralized entity mostly controls the decision making. As a solution, we propose a blockchain-based open-source, decentralized system where the decision making is done by consensus of the entire network while providing more transparency and traceability to the system's users. However, while dealing with large amounts of data stored in Blockchain, we have to consider the overhead of storing large files. Thus, we design a system where the encrypted data is stored off-chain in IPFS (Interplanetary File System), and the location of data (IPFS Content ID) is stored in Blockchain. The file access, update and management of a project is done decentrally in a secure environment, and the decision making is reached by consensus of the network entities.

 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.