Endolith: A Blockchain-Based Framework to Enhance Data Retention in Cloud Storages

Abstract

Blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum have seen significant adoption in the past few years and show promise to design applications without any centralized reliance on third parties. In this paper, we present Endolith, an auditing framework for verifying file integrity and tracking file history without third party reliance using a smart contract-based blockchain. Annotated files are continuously monitored and metadata about changes including file hashes are stored tamper-proof on the blockchain. Based on this, Endolith can prove that a file stored a long time ago has not been changed without authorization or, if it did, track when it has changed, by whom. Endolith implementation is based on Ethereum and Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). Our evaluation on a public blockchain network shows that Endolith is efficient for files that are infrequently modified but often accessed, which are common characteristics of data archives.