DATA GOVERNANCE IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR WITH LEXCHAIN: A HYBRID BLOCKCHAIN-CLOUD ARCHITECTURE PROPOSAL

As public administrations at the EU, national, regional, and municipal levels increasingly rely on digital systems to deliver public services, the need for secure, interoperable, and policy-compliant data exchange becomes critical. This paper presents LexChain, a decentralized data-sharing framework designed to address the technical and governance challenges of multi-level e-Governance. Built on a permissioned Ethereum-based blockchain, LexChain combines smart contracts, a decentralized identity system (LexID), and client-side encryption with data fragmentation to enable secure, auditable, and autonomous collaboration between institutions. By storing encrypted file fragments across public cloud providers and recording all metadata and access events on-chain, LexChain ensures that public sector entities can exchange information with full control, without relying on central intermediaries. The system supports interoperability across administrative levels while preserving compliance with privacy and audit requirements. This contribution demonstrates how blockchain-based architectures can strengthen digital trust, transparency, and coordination across multi-tier governance structures.