Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based Framework
Secure Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMSs) ae crucial for law enforcement agencies, because traditional systems are prone to tampering and unauthorised access. Blockchain technology, particularly private blockchains, offers a solution by providing a centralised and tamper-proof system. This...
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2025-07-01
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| author | Butrus Mbimbi David Murray Michael Wilson |
| author_facet | Butrus Mbimbi David Murray Michael Wilson |
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| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Secure Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMSs) ae crucial for law enforcement agencies, because traditional systems are prone to tampering and unauthorised access. Blockchain technology, particularly private blockchains, offers a solution by providing a centralised and tamper-proof system. This study proposes a private blockchain using Proof of Work (PoW) to securely manage digital evidence. Miners are assigned specific nonce ranges to accelerate the mining process, called collaborative mining, to enhance the scalability challenges in DEMSs. Transaction data includes digital evidence to generate a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). Miners use NFTs to solve the puzzle according to the assigned difficulty level <i>d</i>, so as to generate a hash using SHA-256 and add it to the ledger. Users can verify the integrity and authenticity of records by re-generating the hash and comparing it with the one stored in the ledger. Our results show that the data was verified with 100% precision. The mining time was <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2.5</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> s, and the nonce iterations were as high as <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>80</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mn>3</mn></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> for <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>d</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>5</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>. This approach improves the scalability and integrity of digital evidence management by reducing the overall mining time. |
| format | Article |
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| issn | 2078-2489 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-07-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
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| spelling | doaj-art-543c024c87df485cbe036edc46cd187b2025-08-20T02:45:52ZengMDPI AGInformation2078-24892025-07-0116761610.3390/info16070616Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based FrameworkButrus Mbimbi0David Murray1Michael Wilson2School of Information Technology, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, AustraliaSchool of Information Technology, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, AustraliaSchool of Law and Criminology, Murdoch University, Perth, WA 6150, AustraliaSecure Digital Evidence Management Systems (DEMSs) ae crucial for law enforcement agencies, because traditional systems are prone to tampering and unauthorised access. Blockchain technology, particularly private blockchains, offers a solution by providing a centralised and tamper-proof system. This study proposes a private blockchain using Proof of Work (PoW) to securely manage digital evidence. Miners are assigned specific nonce ranges to accelerate the mining process, called collaborative mining, to enhance the scalability challenges in DEMSs. Transaction data includes digital evidence to generate a Non-Fungible Token (NFT). Miners use NFTs to solve the puzzle according to the assigned difficulty level <i>d</i>, so as to generate a hash using SHA-256 and add it to the ledger. Users can verify the integrity and authenticity of records by re-generating the hash and comparing it with the one stored in the ledger. Our results show that the data was verified with 100% precision. The mining time was <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>2.5</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> s, and the nonce iterations were as high as <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>80</mn><mo>×</mo><msup><mn>10</mn><mn>3</mn></msup></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula> for <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mi>d</mi><mo>=</mo><mn>5</mn></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>. This approach improves the scalability and integrity of digital evidence management by reducing the overall mining time.https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/7/616BlockchainProof of Work (PoW)Collaborative MiningDigital EvidenceNon-Fungible Token (NFT) |
| spellingShingle | Butrus Mbimbi David Murray Michael Wilson Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based Framework Information Blockchain Proof of Work (PoW) Collaborative Mining Digital Evidence Non-Fungible Token (NFT) |
| title | Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based Framework |
| title_full | Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based Framework |
| title_fullStr | Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based Framework |
| title_full_unstemmed | Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based Framework |
| title_short | Private Blockchain-Driven Digital Evidence Management Systems: A Collaborative Mining and NFT-Based Framework |
| title_sort | private blockchain driven digital evidence management systems a collaborative mining and nft based framework |
| topic | Blockchain Proof of Work (PoW) Collaborative Mining Digital Evidence Non-Fungible Token (NFT) |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2078-2489/16/7/616 |
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