Content provenance attribution and verification via blockchain certification

Content such as images is sometimes used online without proper permission or attribution by parties other than content creators and owners. Prior to use, such parties may also alter the content as well as associated metadata. Such practices subvert rights of the content creators and owners and can mislead readers due to a lack of cues that can help determine the provenance, veracity, and credibility of the content. This disclosure describes a mechanism to track, verify, and attribute provenance to content such as images. Per techniques of this disclosure, provenance information signed with a user’s private key is included in the EXIF block of an image. With the user’s permission, the image is uploaded to a globally trusted party that uses blockchain to certify the signed provenance information. Other parties can then traverse the certified blockchain to verify provenance