A Supplementary Tool for Web-archiving Using Blockchain Technology

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dc.article.end-page14en_ZA
dc.article.start-page1en_ZA
dc.citation.doihttps://doi.org/10.23962/10539/29194en_ZA
dc.contributor.authorDe Villiers, John E.
dc.contributor.authorCalitz, André P.
dc.date.accessioned2020-06-30T15:01:34Z
dc.date.available2020-06-30T15:01:34Z
dc.date.issued2020-06-30
dc.description.abstractThe usefulness of a uniform resource locator (URL) on the World Wide Web is reliant on the resource being hosted at the same URL in perpetuity. When URLs are altered or removed, this results in the resource, such as an image or document, being inaccessible. While web-archiving projects seek to prevent such a loss of online resources, providing complete backups of the web remains a formidable challenge. This article outlines the initial development and testing of a decentralised application (DApp), provisionally named Repudiation Chain, as a potential tool to help address these challenges presented by shifting URLs and uncertain web-archiving. Repudiation Chain seeks to make use of a blockchain smart contract mechanism in order to allow individual users to contribute to web-archiving. Repudiation Chain aims to offer unalterable assurance that a specific file and its URL existed at a given point in time—by generating a compact, non-reversible representation of the file at the time of its non-repudiation. If widely adopted, such a tool could contribute to decentralisation and democratisation of web-archivingen_ZA
dc.description.librarianCA2020en_ZA
dc.facultyHumanitiesen_ZA
dc.identifier.citationDe Villiers, J. E., & Calitz, A. (2020). A supplementary tool for web-archiving using blockchain technology. The African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC), 25, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.23962/10539/29194en_ZA
dc.identifier.issn2077-7213 (online version)
dc.identifier.issn2077-7205 (print version)
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10539/29194
dc.journal.issue25en_ZA
dc.journal.linkhttps://www.wits.ac.za/linkcentre/ajicen_ZA
dc.journal.titleThe African Journal of Information and Communication (AJIC)en_ZA
dc.language.isoenen_ZA
dc.orcid.idDe Villiers: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9146-8180en_ZA
dc.orcid.idCalitz: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2555-9041en_ZA
dc.publisherLINK Centre, University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), Johannesburgen_ZA
dc.rightsThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0
dc.schoolSchool of Literature, Language and Media (SLLM)en_ZA
dc.subjectweb-archiving, blockchain, trusted timestamping, non-repudiation, cryptographic hash functions, Merkle trees, DApps, smart contractsen_ZA
dc.titleA Supplementary Tool for Web-archiving Using Blockchain Technologyen_ZA
dc.typeArticleen_ZA
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AJIC Issue 25, 2020