Using Blockchain and Smart Contracts to Ensure Genuine Media Assets

Abstract

This article introduces the key concepts of blockchain and smart contracts and proposes a design to ensure the traceability of media assets in a potentially untrustworthy environment. In this particular use case, the distributed ledger keeps track of each operation of an asset that takes place from its capture through to publication, including editing. This information can be checked against the ledger to validate the intermediate steps required to produce the resulting asset. This design ensures the integrity of media assets, including reliable chronological dating, and the validation of sources while preserving anonymity. At each stage of the workflow, manual or automated verifications are recorded, which creates chains of trust without a central authority.