Video Integrity through Blockchain Technology

Sammanfattning: The increasing capabilities of today’s smartphones enables users to live stream video directly from their mobile device. One increasing concern regarding videos found online is their authenticity and integrity. From a consumer standpoint, it is very hard to distinguish and discern whether or not a video found on online can be trusted, if it was the original version, or if has been taken out of context. This thesis will investigate a method which tries to apply video integrity to live streamed media. The main purpose of this thesis was to design and evaluate a proof of concept prototype which will apply data integrity while simultaneously recording videos through an Android device. Additionally, the prototype has an online verification platform which verifies the integrity of the recorded video. Blockchain is a technology with the inherent ability to store data in a chronological chained link of events: establishing an irrefutable database. Using cryptographic hashes together with blockchain: an Android device can generate cryptographic hashes of the data content from a video recording, and consequently transmit these hashes to a blockchain. The same video is deconstructed in the web client creating hashes that can subsequently be compared with the ones found in the blockchain. A resulting prototype system provides some of the desired functions. However, the prototype is limited in that it does not have the ability to sign the hashes produced. It has also been limited in that it does not employ HTTPS for communication, and the verification process needs to be optimized to make it usable for real applications.