An Image Authentication Scheme Using Merkle Tree Mechanisms

• Published in: Future internet Vol. 11; no. 7; p. 149
• Main Authors: Chen, Yi-Cheng, Chou, Yueh-Peng, Chou, Yung-Chen
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.07.2019
• Subjects: Blockchain; Cryptography; Digital currencies; Digital imaging; distributed storage; hash function; image authentication; Image manipulation; Image processing; Image restoration; Image verification; Integrity; Internet; Merkle tree; Open source software
• ISSN: 1999-5903; 1999-5903
• DOI: 10.3390/fi11070149

Research on digital image processing has become quite popular and rapid in recent years, and scholars have proposed various image verification mechanisms. Similarly , blockchain technology has also become very popular in recent years. This paper proposes a new image verification mechanism based on the Merkle tree technique in the blockchain. The Merkle tree root in the blockchain mechanism provides a reliable environment for storage of image features. In image verification, the verification of each image can be performed by the Merkle tree mechanism to obtain the hash value of the Merkle tree node on the path. In addition, the method combines the Inter-Planetary File System (IPFS) to improve the availability of images. The main purpose of this paper is to achieve the goal of image integrity verification. The proposed method can not only verify the integrity of the image but also restore the tampered area in the case of image tampering. Since the proposed method employs the blockchain mechanism, the image verification mechanism does not need third party resources . The verification method is performed by each node in the blockchain network. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method successfully achieved the goal of image authentication and tampered area restoration.