GoAT: File Geolocation via Anchor Timestamping

Deepak Maram, Mahimna Kelkar, Iddo Bentov, Ari Juels

Abstract: Decentralized storage systems are a crucial component of the rapidly growing blockchain ecosystem. They aim to achieve robustness by proving that they store multiple replicas of every file. They have a serious limitation, though: They cannot prove that file replicas are spread across distinct systems, e.g., different hard drives. Consequently, files are vulnerable to loss in a single, locally catastrophic event.