Deploying metadata on blockchain technologies

Abstract

Metadata repositories and services support the key functions required by the curation of digital resources, including description, management and provenance. They typically use conventional databases owned and managed by different kinds of organizations that are trusted by their users. Blockchains have emerged as a means to deploy decentralized databases secured from tampering and revision, opening the doors for a new way of deploying that kind of digital archival systems. In this paper we review and evaluate the functions of metadata in that new light and propose an approach in which a blockchain combined with other related technologies can be arranged in a particular way to obtain a decentralized solution for metadata supporting key functions. We discuss how the approach overcomes some weaknesses of current digital archives, along with its important implications for the management and sustainability of digital archives.