Blockchain digital forensics: technology and architecture

Issues of limited scene adaptability, inadequate evidence preservation, and low efficiency in traditional digital forensics were addressed by analyzing the feasibility of incorporating decentralized, tamper-resistant blockchain technology into digital forensic practices. Initially, a phased forensic process was proposed based on a hierarchical architecture for blockchain forensic technology, examining the advancements of blockchain at each stage of evidence acquisition, preservation, and presentation. Subsequently, limitations in existing research were analyzed, and a digital forensic framework incorporating comprehensive blockchain involvement was designed by utilizing the distributed advantages of blockchain. This framework integrated evidence information into the on-chain data structure and introduced a complementary graph analysis algorithm to standardize evidence collection across various scenarios. An off-chain distributed database was employed to achieve scalable, efficient storage, while smart contract templates enhance the reusability of contracts for similar forensic transactions. Lastly, potential future directions for the application of blockchain technology in forensic science were explored.