Proof-of-concept blockchain application for access controlled file transfer

Abstract

Tokenizing assets onto the blockchain has been a common practice in recent years. The supply chain industry is filled with innovations and multiple attempts at digitizing the Bill of Lading. However, few implementations have focused on providing an access control layer on top of the blockchain for users to manage their Tokens and to delegate finer points of control for their digital assets. In this paper, we introduce different Token mechanisms and explore the most feasible way to build an access control layer on top of a blockchain for file management. To provide real-world context and business relevance, the POC will be modelled after the supply chain industry to depict how a digital file can be tokenized on the blockchain and have its access rights managed by another layer just atop the blockchain. With privacy and data optimization being a huge point of interest in the blockchain space, having an efficient way to manage permissions would be of great benefit to future developing applications. In this paper, we show the feasibility and effectiveness of such a solution, as well as how it can be extended as a middle layer for distributed apps in the future, as it was designed with extensibility in mind.