LOCARD · Project

Blockchain-Secured Digital Evidence Platform for Law Enforcement and Corporate Investigations

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Imagine every piece of digital evidence in a criminal case — a screenshot, a phone backup, a server log — needs an unbreakable paper trail proving nobody tampered with it. LOCARD built a platform that uses blockchain to create exactly that: a tamper-proof record of who touched the evidence, when, and what they did with it. Think of it like a notary stamp for every step in a digital investigation, but automated and impossible to forge. The platform also includes tools to collect online evidence and even lets citizens report crimes through a crowdsourcing module.

By the numbers

EUR 6,833,385

EU funding for platform development

consortium partners across the project

countries represented in the consortium

total deliverables produced

SMEs involved in the project

43%

industry partner ratio in consortium

industry partners in the consortium

The business problem

What needed solving

Every year, digital evidence gets thrown out of court because investigators cannot prove it was not tampered with during collection, transfer, or analysis. For companies dealing with internal fraud, IP theft, or cybercrime, this means perpetrators walk free and losses go unrecovered. The problem is compounded when investigations cross borders, as different jurisdictions have different chain-of-custody requirements and no shared trust infrastructure.

The solution

What was built

LOCARD built a distributed blockchain platform for tamper-proof digital evidence chain of custody, including a crowdsourcing module for citizen crime reports, a web crawler for detecting online criminal behavior, an investigator toolkit for collecting online and offline evidence, and an identity management system using Trusted Execution Environments. The project delivered 28 total outputs including a published source code and datasets repository.

Audience

Who needs this

Digital forensics companies that need court-admissible evidence handlingLaw enforcement technology vendors building investigation platformsLaw firms handling cybercrime and corporate fraud casesInsurance companies with fraud investigation departmentsLarge enterprises with internal cybersecurity incident response teams

Business applications

Who can put this to work

Cybersecurity & Digital Forensics

SME

Target: Digital forensics firms and managed security service providers

If you are a digital forensics company struggling to prove chain of custody for digital evidence in court — this project developed a blockchain-based platform that creates an immutable audit trail for every piece of evidence handled. With 23 partners across 10 countries testing the system, it was designed to meet cross-border legal requirements. This could reduce evidence dismissal rates and strengthen your expert testimony.

Legal Services & Compliance

any

Target: Law firms specializing in cybercrime, IP theft, and corporate fraud

If you are a law firm handling cases involving digital evidence — from financial fraud to intellectual property theft — this project built tools that guarantee evidence integrity from collection to courtroom. The platform uses Trusted Execution Environments to protect privacy while allowing authorized parties to verify evidence authenticity. With 7 SMEs in the consortium, the tools were designed with practical commercial deployment in mind.

Insurance & Financial Services

enterprise

Target: Insurance companies and banks with internal fraud investigation units

If you are a financial institution investigating internal fraud or cyberattacks — this project created a modular toolkit for collecting both online and offline digital evidence with legally defensible chain of custody. The crawler module can detect and correlate suspicious online behavior, while the blockchain layer ensures no investigator can be accused of tampering with findings. The platform was developed with EUR 6,833,385 in EU funding across 28 deliverables.

Frequently asked

Quick answers

What would it cost to deploy this platform in our organization?

The project was funded with EUR 6,833,385 across 23 partners, indicating significant development investment. As the project is now closed, licensing or deployment costs would need to be negotiated directly with the consortium. The modular architecture means you could potentially adopt only the components relevant to your workflow.

Can this scale to handle the volume of digital evidence our organization processes?

LOCARD was designed as a distributed platform where each node operates independently with its own permission policies. This architecture inherently supports scaling — you add nodes as your evidence volume grows. The blockchain backbone ensures integrity regardless of how many nodes participate in the network.

Who owns the intellectual property and how can we license it?

As an EU-funded Research and Innovation Action, IP ownership typically rests with the consortium partners who created specific components. The project published a source code and datasets repository as one of its deliverables, suggesting at least some components may be available as open source. Contact the coordinator at ATHINA Research Center in Greece for licensing details.

Does this meet legal standards for digital evidence admissibility in EU courts?

The entire project was designed around the legal requirement for proper chain of custody in court proceedings. With 10 countries represented in the consortium and the topic code SU-FCT02 (Fighting Crime and Terrorism), cross-jurisdictional compliance was a core design requirement. The blockchain-based immutability specifically addresses evidence tampering concerns that courts routinely raise.

How long would integration take with our existing forensic tools?

LOCARD was built with modularity as a core principle, allowing diverse actors to tailor the platform to their specific role in the forensic workflow — from preparation and collection to analysis and reporting. Based on available project data, integration complexity depends on which modules you adopt. The fine-grained permission policies suggest the platform was designed to coexist with existing systems.

Is there ongoing support or has the project ended?

The project officially closed in July 2022 after running for over 3 years. However, the consortium included 10 industry partners and 7 SMEs who have commercial incentives to continue developing the technology. The source code repository deliverable suggests the codebase is maintained and accessible. Check locard.eu for current status.

What is the project timeline and current status?

LOCARD ran from May 2019 to July 2022 and is now closed. Over that period, the consortium produced 28 deliverables including the platform, a source code repository, and datasets. The technology is past the research phase and into demonstrated capability.

Consortium

Who built it

The LOCARD consortium is unusually large at 23 partners across 10 European countries, which signals serious ambition and cross-border design thinking — critical for a digital evidence platform that must work across jurisdictions. The 43% industry ratio with 10 industry partners and 7 SMEs means this was not a purely academic exercise; nearly half the consortium had commercial skin in the game. The coordinator is a Greek research center (ATHINA), with partners spanning Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Germany, Greece, Spain, Italy, Malta, Norway, and Romania. The mix of 6 universities and 2 research organizations providing the science, backed by industry partners turning it into usable tools, suggests the platform was built with real-world deployment in mind rather than just publications.

ATHINA-EREVNITIKO KENTRO KAINOTOMIAS STIS TECHNOLOGIES TIS PLIROFORIAS, TON EPIKOINONION KAI TIS GNOSISCoordinator · EL
HOCHSCHULE FUR DEN OFFENTLICHEN DIENST IN BAYERNparticipant · DE
TELEFONICA IOT & BIG DATA TECH SAthirdparty · ES
Inspectoratul General al Politiei Romaneparticipant · RO
SOLVUS LTDparticipant · BG
VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT BRUSSELparticipant · BE
IMC DIACHIRISI PLIROFORION KAI EPIKINONION ANONYMOS ETAIRIAparticipant · EL
UNIVERSITA DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVAparticipant · IT
TECHNISCHE UNIVERSITAT BERLINparticipant · DE
TELEFONICA INNOVACION DIGITAL SLparticipant · ES
KENTRO MELETON ASFALEIASparticipant · EL
UNIVERSITA TA MALTAparticipant · MT
STAG SRLparticipant · IT
MOTIVIAN ANONYMOS ETAIREIA KAINOTOMON LYSEON PLIROFORIKISthirdparty · EL
NEUROSOFT SOFTWARE PRODUCTIONS SAparticipant · EL
FUNDACION APWG, EUROPEAN UNION FOUNDATIONparticipant · ES
NORGES TEKNISK-NATURVITENSKAPELIGE UNIVERSITET NTNUparticipant · NO
HELLENIC POLICEparticipant · EL
EUROPEAN ELECTRONIC MESSAGING ASSOCIATION AISBLparticipant · BE
INFOTREND INNOVATIONS COMPANY LIMITEDparticipant · CY

How to reach the team

ATHINA Research Center (Greece) — use Google AI Search to find the project coordinator's direct contact details

Order a report on this consortium See ATHINA-EREVNITIKO KENTRO KAINOTOMIAS STIS TECHNOLOGIES TIS PLIROFORIAS, TON EPIKOINONION KAI TIS GNOSIS profile →

Next steps

Talk to the team behind this work.

Want to explore how LOCARD's digital evidence platform could strengthen your investigation or compliance workflow? SciTransfer can connect you directly with the right consortium partner for your use case.

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