What is electronic evidence preservation?
Electronic evidence preservation fixes digital material, by blockchain, trusted timestamp or notarization, to show that it existed at a given moment and has not changed since. It proves nothing about the time before it was fixed, so material is fixed as soon as it appears.
Also known as: Blockchain evidence, Digital evidence preservation, 电子存证
Web pages, screenshots, videos and chat logs are easy to delete or alter, and in a dispute the other side will often question whether they are genuine. Electronic evidence preservation answers one question: when did this material exist, and in what form. In Chinese it is 电子存证 (diànzǐ cúnzhèng).
How do Chinese courts treat blockchain evidence?
China’s Online Litigation Rules of the People’s Courts, in force since August 1, 2021, deal with blockchain evidence directly:1
- Article 16: electronic data stored on a blockchain and verified by technical checks can be accepted as unaltered since it went on the chain, unless there is sufficient evidence to the contrary;
- Article 17: where a party disputes the data after it went on the chain, the court examines the evidence platform’s qualifications, its relationship with the parties, and whether its technology meets national standards;
- Article 18: a party may challenge whether the data was genuine before it went on the chain;
- Article 19: the court may check it against expert opinion, forensic examination or other evidence.
So a blockchain record proves only that nothing changed after it was made; whether the material was genuine before that can still be challenged, which is why material is fixed the moment it appears.
What do hashes, timestamps and notaries each prove?
A hash proves only that content has not changed: the same file always gives the same hash, and changing a single byte changes it. It says nothing about when the content existed; that takes a trusted timestamp, a blockchain record or a notary.
Notarization carries legal weight: China’s Notarization Law lists the preservation of evidence among the matters a notary office handles (Article 11), and notarized facts and documents are taken as the basis for finding facts unless there is enough evidence to the contrary to overturn them (Article 36).2
Where can evidence be preserved?
Further reading
- Handling impersonation, infringement and online abuse: Reputation & risk
Notes
- 《人民法院在线诉讼规则》 (Online Litigation Rules of the People’s Courts)
- 《中华人民共和国公证法》 (Notarization Law of the People’s Republic of China)
- 天平链 (Tianping Chain)
- 杭州互联网法院司法区块链 (Hangzhou Internet Court judicial blockchain)
- 至信链 (Zhixin Chain)
- 权利卫士 (Quanli Weishi)
- 公证云 (eGongzheng)