SHARD-FEMF: Adaptive Forensic Evidence Management Framework using Blockchain Sharding and IPFS

Abstract

Blockchain technology is a groundbreaking and highly secure decentralized digital ledger used to record and store transactions across a network of computers. Its primary purpose is to safeguard, monitor, and oversee digital assets, providing robust protection against unauthorized tampering, revisions, or deletions. It serves as an immutable and tamper-resistant ledger ideal for storing digital evidence, enabling the tracking of evidence’s origins while strictly controlling access to authorized individuals. Current evidence management systems lack essential functionalities, such as authenticating intermediate user access and efficiently transferring evidence access between users. These systems also rely on the Base64 algorithm, which presents challenges related to storage capacity, time delays, scalability, and transaction throughput. To address these limitations, this research introduces an innovative solution: The integration of the Base64 scheme with sharding and the Interplanetary File System (IPFS). This integration is designed to bolster transaction performance, scalability, and throughput. The Base64 scheme plays a pivotal role by encrypting image evidence, securely housing it within the blockchain network. Concurrently, IPFS decentralizes the storage of these images, thereby optimizing memory usage and enhancing transaction throughput within the blockchain environment. Experimental results showcase the efficacy of the proposed SHARD-FEMF, demonstrating a 25% improvement in memory utilization, a 21.5% reduction in gas utilization, and a 23% enhancement in transaction scalability compared to the existing Base64 scheme. Through the combined utilization of sharding and IPFS, the SHARD-FEMF framework represents a significant advancement in efficient forensic evidence management leveraging blockchain technology