UCLA

The Rohingya Project was founded with the goal of creating self- sufficiency for the displaced and persecuted Rohingya people through creation of the R-Archive, a blockchain based initiative to help the Rohingya gain control of their own lives, documents, and history through digital preservation and archiving. This thesis examines the potential of blockchain and blockweave technologies in archives by means of a study of the R-Archive using interviews with members of the R-Archive team, as well as information studies researchers studying applications of blockchain in the field. Despite the R-Archive development being put on hold to prioritize other Rohingya community preservation projects while this thesis was being written, its progress shows that with cooperation and development of the use of blockchain -type implementations in archival practice, this technology could be an asset for community archives, minority groups facing oppression, and other non-traditional archival initiatives that could benefit from the security and authenticity the technology offers.