Document tracking on a distributed ledger

• US 10,163,080 B2
• Filed: 08/12/2016
• Issued: 12/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 08/13/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Toronto-Dominion Bank
• Original Assignee: Toronto-Dominion Bank
• Inventors: Chow, Arthur Carroll, Chan, Paul Mon-Wah, Haldenby, Perry Aaron Jones, Lee, John Jong Suk
• Primary Examiner(s): Perungavoor, Venkat
• Application Number:
  US15/235,528
• Publication Number:
  US 20170048216A1
• Time in Patent Office: 865 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/62 Protecting access to data via a platform, e.g. using keys or access control rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/645 using a third party
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0631 Resource planning, allocation, distributing or scheduling for enterprises or organisations
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/063114 Status monitoring or status determination for a person or group
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/103 Workflow collaboration or project management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/1097 Task assignment
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/065 using e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/0655 e-cash managed centrally
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/102 Bill distribution or payments
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/367 involving electronic purses or money safes
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/3829 involving key management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/401 Transaction verification
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/4016 involving fraud or risk level assessment in transaction processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 20/405 Establishing or using transaction specific rules
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/00 Business processing using cryptography
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2220/10 Usage protection of distributed data files
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 2230/00 Voting or election arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 30/0214 Referral reward systems
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/08 Insurance
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 40/128 : Check-book balancing, updating or printing arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/08 : Construction
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/18 : Legal services
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/24 : Key scheduling, i.e. generating round keys or sub-keys for block encryption
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 : Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0435 : wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply symmetric encryption, i.e. same key used for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for symmetric key encryption H04L9/06
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0442 : wherein the sending and receiving network entities apply asymmetric encryption, i.e. different keys for encryption and decryption cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for public-key encryption H04L9/30
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/061 : for key exchange, e.g. in peer-to-peer networks cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key agreement H04L9/0838
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/062 : for key distribution, e.g. centrally by trusted party cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for key distribution involving a central third party H04L9/0819
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/08 : for authentication of entities cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for entity authentication H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/0876 : based on the identity of the terminal or configuration, e.g. MAC address, hardware or software configuration or device fingerprint
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 63/12 : Applying verification of the received information cryptographic mechanisms or cryptographic arrangements for data integrity or data verification H04L9/32
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0816 : Key establishment, i.e. cryptographic processes or cryptographic protocols whereby a shared secret becomes available to two or more parties, for subsequent use
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0861 : Generation of secret information including derivation or calculation of cryptographic keys or passwords
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0891 : Revocation or update of secret information, e.g. encryption key update or rekeying
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0894 : Escrow, recovery or storing of secret information, e.g. secret key escrow or cryptographic key storage
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3247 : involving digital signatures
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 : using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 2005/91342 : the copy protection signal being an authentication signal
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/913 : for scrambling ; for copy protection
• CPC Class Codes: Y02P 90/80 : Management or planning
• CPC Class Codes: Y04S 10/50 : Systems or methods supporting the power network operation or management, involving a certain degree of interaction with the load-side end user applications

Abstract

An apparatus for use in electronic document control includes a storage device a processor coupled to the storage device. The storage device storing software instructions for controlling the processor that when executed by the processor configure the processor to: receive a signal representing data including an original document, append a unique identifier to the original document to generate a modified document, generate a hash value of the modified document, and transmit the hash value corresponding to the modified document to an electronic distributed ledger.

Claims

1. An apparatus, comprising:

a communications unit;

a storage device; and

a processor coupled to the storage device, the storage device storing software instructions for controlling the processor that when executed by the processor configure the processor to;

receive, via the communications unit, a first signal comprising document data representing an original document;

access rules data maintained within one or more ledger blocks of a distributed ledger, the rules data being established by a centralized authority associated with the distributed ledger;

based on the accessed rules data, modify a portion of the document data to incorporate a document identifier;

generate a first hash value of the modified document data in accordance with the accessed rules data; and

generate and transmit, via the communications unit, a second signal that includes the first hash value to one or more computing systems, the second signal comprising information that instructs the one or more computing systems to perform operations that incorporate the first hash value within an additional ledger block of the distributed ledger,

wherein the first hash value is generated by a hash function including at least one of a public key and a private key, and the accessed rules data specifies the hash function.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the software instructions further configure the processor to:

receive a third signal, via the communications unit, that includes updated document data representing an updated document, wherein the updated document comprises one or more changes to the original document;

based on the accessed rules data, modify a portion of the updated document data to incorporate an additional document identifier;

generate an updated hash value of the modified updated document data in accordance with the accessed rules data; and

generate and transmit, via the communications unit, a fourth signal that includes the updated hash value to the one or more computer systems having stored thereon the distributed ledger.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein:

the software instructions further configure the processor to identify and extract the first hash value from a portion of the distributed ledger; and

the additional document identifier includes the first hash value.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the first signal further comprises information associated with the original document.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the information associated with the original document includes at least one of information identifying an ownership interest, information identifying a controlling entity, or information identifying a security interest.

6. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the document data comprises image data identifying the original document; and

the software instructions further configure the processor to apply one or more image verification functions to the image data within the original document data, the one or more image verification functions being applied prior to generating the first hash value.

7. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the software instructions further configure the processor to:

receive, via the communications unit, a third signal that includes unverified document data representative of an unverified document;

identify and extract the first hash value from the additional block of the distributed ledger;

based on the accessed rules data, modify a portion of the unverified document data to incorporate the document identifier;

generate a second hash value of the modified unverified document data; and

authenticate the unverified document based on a comparison between the first hash value and the second hash value.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the software instructions further configure the processor to:

extract, from the one or more blocks of the distributed ledger, a third hash corresponding to an earlier version of the original document; and

determine that the unverified document corresponds to the earlier version of the original document when the second hash value corresponds to the third hash value.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the software instructions further configure the processor to verify a change between the original document and the earlier version in response to the determination.

16. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the accessed rules data comprises the document identifier; and

the software instructions further configure the processor to extract the document identifier from the accessed rules data and to incorporate the extracted document identifier into the portion of the document data.

17. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein:

the accessed rules data identifies one or more processes that generate the document identifier; and

the software instructions further configure the processor to generate the document identifier based on an application of the one or more processes to the document data.

18. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the software instructions further configure the processor to:

access a master cryptographic associated with the centralized authority; and

in response to the receipt of the document data, decrypt the rules data using the master cryptographic key.

10. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, at a processor, a first signal comprising document data representing an original document;

accessing, by the processor, rules data maintained within one or more ledger blocks of a distributed ledger, the rules data being established by a centralized authority associated with the distributed ledger;

based on the accessed rules data, modifying, by the processor, a portion of the document data to include a document identifier;

generating, by the processor, a first hash value of the modified document data in accordance with the accessed rules data; and

generating and transmitting, by the processor, a second signal that includes the first hash value to one or more computing systems, the second signal comprising information that instructs the one or more computing systems to perform operations that incorporate the first hash value within an additional ledger block of the distributed ledger,

wherein the first hash value is generated by a hash function including at least one of a public key and a private key, and the accessed rules data specifies the hash function.

11. The method of claim 10, comprising:

receiving, at the processor, a third signal that includes updated document data representing an updated document, wherein the updated document comprises one or more changes to the original document;

based on the accessed rules data, modifying, by the processor, a portion of the updated document data to incorporate an additional document identifier;

generating, by the processor, an updated hash value of the modified updated document data in accordance with the accessed rules data; and

generating and transmitting, by the processor, a fourth signal that includes the updated hash value to the one or more computing systems having stored thereon the distributed ledger.

12. The method of claim 11, wherein:

the software instructions further configure the processor to identify and extract the first hash value from a portion of the distributed ledger; and

the additional document identifier includes the first hash value.

13. The method of claim 10, wherein the first signal further comprises representing data includes information identifying at least one of an ownership interest in the original document, a controlling entity of the original document, or a security interest in the original document.

14. The method of claim 10, comprising:

receiving, by the processor, a third signal that includes unverified document data representative of an unverified document;

identifying and extracting, by the processor, the first hash value from the additional block of the distributed ledger;

based on the accessed rules data, modifying, by the processor, a portion of the unverified document data to incorporate the document identifier;

generating, by the processor, a second hash value of the modified unverified document data; and

authenticating, by the processor, the unverified document based on a comparison between the first hash value and the second hash value.

15. A computer-implemented method, comprising:

receiving, by at least one processor, a first signal that includes an unverified image of a document from a device;

accessing, by the at least one processor, a ledger block of a distributed ledger, wherein the accessed ledger block comprises a first hash value of a verified image of the document and rules data established by a centralized authority associated with the distributed ledger;

modifying, by the at least one processors, a portion of the unverified image data to include a document identifier specified within the rules data;

generating, by the at least one processor, a second hash value of the modified document image in accordance with the rules data;

performing, by the at least one processor, operations that authenticate the modified document image when the first hash value corresponds to the second hash value; and

generating and transmitting, by the at least one processor, a second signal that includes an authentication message to the device, the authentication message confirming the authentication of the modified document image, and the second signal further comprising information that instructs the device to present the authentication message within a corresponding portion of an interface,

wherein the second hash value is generated by a hash function including at least one of a public key and a private key, and the rules data specifies the hash function.