Leveraging Polygon Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Secure Electronic Evidence Storage in Court: A Novel Framework
Research Article  ·  Published: 27 August 2026
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ICCK Journal of Software Engineering
Volume 2, Issue 3, 2026: 197-219
Research Article Open Access

Leveraging Polygon Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Secure Electronic Evidence Storage in Court: A Novel Framework

1 Department of Computer Science & Information Technology, Central University of Haryana, Haryana 123031, India
* Corresponding Author: Suraj Arya, [email protected]
Volume 2, Issue 3
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Article Information

Abstract

The increasing digitization of modern society has led to a growing volume of digital information---such as emails, photos, videos, and electronic records---being presented as evidence in legal proceedings. However, traditional storage systems are costly, slow, and prone to server failures. To address these challenges, we propose a system leveraging blockchain and IPFS to store electronic evidence securely and reliably. Existing Layer 1 blockchain-based systems face three key limitations: (1) scalability issues with slow throughput and high costs under heavy traffic; (2) privacy risks due to public visibility of transaction data; and (3) impracticality of on-chain storage for large evidentiary files. Our system utilizes Polygon, a faster and more cost-effective Layer 2 blockchain, combined with IPFS for off-chain storage of documents, images, and videos. Each file is assigned a cryptographic hash stored on-chain to ensure integrity and tamper resistance. Smart contracts enforce role-based access control, restricting actions to authorized participants such as police officers, lawyers, and judges. Experimental evaluation with 10,000 transactions achieved approximately 14.29 TPS on modest hardware, with the potential for significantly higher throughput in optimized environments. This demonstrates the system's viability for both high-volume urban courts and resource-constrained rural settings. Overall, the proposed solution offers enhanced security, controlled access, reduced storage costs, and improved efficiency for digital evidence management in judicial systems.

Graphical Abstract

Leveraging Polygon Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Secure Electronic Evidence Storage in Court: A Novel Framework

Keywords

blockchain electronic evidence management smart contracts IPFS polygon CDK zkEVM access control decentralized storage transaction per second

Data Availability Statement

Data will be made available on request.

Funding

This work was supported without any funding.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

AI Use Statement

The authors declare that no generative AI was used in the preparation of this manuscript.

Ethical Approval and Consent to Participate

Not applicable.

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Cite This Article

APA Style
Behera, S., & Arya, S. (2026). Leveraging Polygon Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Secure Electronic Evidence Storage in Court: A Novel Framework. ICCK Journal of Software Engineering, 2(3), 197-219. https://doi.org/10.62762/JSE.2026.766488
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TY  - JOUR
AU  - Behera, Sarbeswar
AU  - Arya, Suraj
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/08/27
TI  - Leveraging Polygon Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Secure Electronic Evidence Storage in Court: A Novel Framework
JO  - ICCK Journal of Software Engineering
T2  - ICCK Journal of Software Engineering
JF  - ICCK Journal of Software Engineering
VL  - 2
IS  - 3
SP  - 197
EP  - 219
DO  - 10.62762/JSE.2026.766488
UR  - https://www.icck.org/article/abs/JSE.2026.766488
KW  - blockchain
KW  - electronic evidence management
KW  - smart contracts
KW  - IPFS
KW  - polygon CDK
KW  - zkEVM
KW  - access control
KW  - decentralized storage
KW  - transaction per second
AB  - The increasing digitization of modern society has led to a growing volume of digital information---such as emails, photos, videos, and electronic records---being presented as evidence in legal proceedings. However, traditional storage systems are costly, slow, and prone to server failures. To address these challenges, we propose a system leveraging blockchain and IPFS to store electronic evidence securely and reliably. Existing Layer 1 blockchain-based systems face three key limitations: (1) scalability issues with slow throughput and high costs under heavy traffic; (2) privacy risks due to public visibility of transaction data; and (3) impracticality of on-chain storage for large evidentiary files. Our system utilizes Polygon, a faster and more cost-effective Layer 2 blockchain, combined with IPFS for off-chain storage of documents, images, and videos. Each file is assigned a cryptographic hash stored on-chain to ensure integrity and tamper resistance. Smart contracts enforce role-based access control, restricting actions to authorized participants such as police officers, lawyers, and judges. Experimental evaluation with 10,000 transactions achieved approximately 14.29 TPS on modest hardware, with the potential for significantly higher throughput in optimized environments. This demonstrates the system's viability for both high-volume urban courts and resource-constrained rural settings. Overall, the proposed solution offers enhanced security, controlled access, reduced storage costs, and improved efficiency for digital evidence management in judicial systems.
SN  - 3069-1834
PB  - Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge
LA  - English
ER  - 
BibTeX Format
Compatible with LaTeX, BibTeX, and other reference managers
@article{Behera2026Leveraging,
  author = {Sarbeswar Behera and Suraj Arya},
  title = {Leveraging Polygon Blockchain and Zero-Knowledge Proofs for Secure Electronic Evidence Storage in Court: A Novel Framework},
  journal = {ICCK Journal of Software Engineering},
  year = {2026},
  volume = {2},
  number = {3},
  pages = {197-219},
  doi = {10.62762/JSE.2026.766488},
  url = {https://www.icck.org/article/abs/JSE.2026.766488},
  abstract = {The increasing digitization of modern society has led to a growing volume of digital information---such as emails, photos, videos, and electronic records---being presented as evidence in legal proceedings. However, traditional storage systems are costly, slow, and prone to server failures. To address these challenges, we propose a system leveraging blockchain and IPFS to store electronic evidence securely and reliably. Existing Layer 1 blockchain-based systems face three key limitations: (1) scalability issues with slow throughput and high costs under heavy traffic; (2) privacy risks due to public visibility of transaction data; and (3) impracticality of on-chain storage for large evidentiary files. Our system utilizes Polygon, a faster and more cost-effective Layer 2 blockchain, combined with IPFS for off-chain storage of documents, images, and videos. Each file is assigned a cryptographic hash stored on-chain to ensure integrity and tamper resistance. Smart contracts enforce role-based access control, restricting actions to authorized participants such as police officers, lawyers, and judges. Experimental evaluation with 10,000 transactions achieved approximately 14.29 TPS on modest hardware, with the potential for significantly higher throughput in optimized environments. This demonstrates the system's viability for both high-volume urban courts and resource-constrained rural settings. Overall, the proposed solution offers enhanced security, controlled access, reduced storage costs, and improved efficiency for digital evidence management in judicial systems.},
  keywords = {blockchain, electronic evidence management, smart contracts, IPFS, polygon CDK, zkEVM, access control, decentralized storage, transaction per second},
  issn = {3069-1834},
  publisher = {Institute of Central Computation and Knowledge}
}

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