Tamperproof timestamped provenance ledger using blockchain technology

Organizations responsible for monitoring potentially harmful activities, including proliferation of controlled, prohibited or illegal materials, are heavily reliant on verifiably reliable information. These organizations require a robust solution for tracking chain of custody of exhibits and associated documentation. This work provides a tamperproof timestamped provenance ledger using a public pre-existing trusted blockchain, that can be adapted to any setting. This solution provides multiple levels of integrity verification, and is designed with privacy in mind. In addition, the solution is scalable and can support automation, standardization and interoperability. The implementation in this work concentrates on provenance of digital data, but the same approach can be applied to physical material in a laboratory environment, from receipt to storage or destruction. Future work will explore ways to integrate electronic tags, such as barcodes and RFID systems