Token-Based Sharing Control for IPFS

Abstract

Blockchains can now be used to distribute digital assets independent of specific organizations. One way to handle digital assets on a blockchain is through tokens. Tokens define chunks of data on a blockchain, allowing it to be distributed like virtual currency. However, storing all data related to digital assets in a token is difficult. Data is currently managed separately because storing a large amount of data in a blockchain can cause the ledger to grow large. When the management of data depends on a particular organization, the stability of the token's value depends on that particular organization. In this paper, we propose an organization-independent management method that combines a distributed content-addressable file system with a blockchain. Our proposed method places the data associated with the token and the access information to the token into the distributed content-addressable file system. As a result, the token associated with the data has the sharing control of the data stored in the distributed content-addressable file system, and a configuration independent of the specific contract is realized.