Abstract:
As digital data continues to grow rapidly across sectors, ensuring its integrity and authenticity presents a critical challenge—particularly in centralized cloud storage systems, which are vulnerable to unauthorized access, data tampering, and single points of failure. This project proposes a decentralized architecture that integrates Ethereum smart contracts, the InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), and a Flask-based backend to enhance file security, transparency, and traceability. By decentralizing file storage and verification, the system addresses key risks inherent in traditional cloud platforms. Each file is hashed into a unique Content Identifier (CID) via IPFS, and this CID is stored immutably using Ethereum smart contracts. Flask facilitates all backend operations between users, IPFS, and the blockchain, while Twilio is utilized for real-time WhatsApp alerts upon unauthorized access or CID mismatches. The system was rigorously tested using Ganache, Truffle, and Postman. Results demonstrated precise detection of file tampering, instant alerting, and a high level of reliability. The proposed model proves to be scalable, secure, and suitable for sensitive applications in legal, healthcare, and government data management.
