IOTA Notarization — IPFS Data Provenance PoC

This separate proof of concept was delivered to MyW.AI within the NEPTUNE DLT work package. Its purpose is to turn a multi-step archive process into a guided, verifiable record: a mission ZIP is hashed in the browser, pinned to a local IPFS node and notarized on the IOTA Rebase testnet with the resulting CID and mission metadata.

I implemented the complete integration across Laravel 12, Node.js, the IOTA SDKs, IPFS and a GraphQL read path. The browser computes the SHA-256 digest before upload; the Laravel API coordinates the IPFS pinning step and then starts the Node notarization script; the result returns the CID, publisher and IOTA object identifier. A verification view lists the stored records and makes the content-addressed archive and notarization data available for later checking.

The application was intentionally kept separate from the wider NEPTUNE platform so that the provenance capability could be demonstrated and evaluated on its own. It is shaped as a small upload-to-verification workflow rather than a generic blockchain layer, with the mission archive, CID and publisher remaining visible at each step.

As a POC, it also makes its boundaries explicit: the signer is custodial and development-only, the notarization round trip is synchronous, authentication is not yet implemented and the web3 storage provider remains a future integration. A production version would add queued jobs, stronger secret custody, authenticated access and retryable provider abstractions.