Hybrid blockchain

• US 10,305,875 B1
• Filed: 01/28/2019
• Issued: 05/28/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 05/23/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Accenture Global Solutions Limited (Accenture PLC), Lumen Patent Firm, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Accenture Global Solutions Limited (Accenture PLC), Lumen Patent Firm, Inc.
• Inventors: Ateniese, Giuseppe, Chiaramonte, Michael T., Treat, David, Magri, Bernardo, Venturi, Daniele
• Primary Examiner(s): Schwartz, Darren B
• Application Number:
  US16/259,310
• Publication Number:
  US 20190158475A1
• Time in Patent Office: 120 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/53 by executing in a restricted environment, e.g. sandbox or secure virtual machine
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 21/64 Protecting data integrity, e.g. using checksums, certificates or signatures
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0619 in relation to data integrity, e.g. data losses, bit errors
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0622 in relation to access
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0659 Command handling arrangements, e.g. command buffers, queues, command scheduling
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/0673 Single storage device
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/46 Secure multiparty computation, e.g. millionaire problem
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 2209/56 Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash
• 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 9/0618 Block ciphers, i.e. encrypting groups of characters of a plain text message using fixed encryption transformation
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0637 Modes of operation, e.g. cipher block chaining [CBC], electronic codebook [ECB] or Galois/counter mode [GCM]
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0643 Hash functions, e.g. MD5, SHA, HMAC or f9 MAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/0841 involving Diffie-Hellman or related key agreement protocols
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/085 Secret sharing or secret splitting, e.g. threshold schemes
• 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 9/14 using a plurality of keys or algorithms
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/30 Public key, i.e. encryption algorithm being computationally infeasible to invert or user's encryption keys not requiring secrecy
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3221 interactive zero-knowledge proofs
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3226 using a predetermined code, e.g. password, passphrase or PIN network architectures or network communication protocols for supporting authentication of entities using passwords in a packet data network H04L63/083
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3242 : involving keyed hash functions, e.g. message authentication codes [MACs], CBC-MAC or HMAC
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 : using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A system includes circuitry for performing hybrid blockchain rewrites by trusted parties. The hybrid blockchain may include blocks with multiple parts. In some cases, the blocks may include a core part and a tertiary part. The system may include conditions for validity preserving and/or non-tamper-evident rewrites to the parts of the block. The conditions to support rewrites to the core part may be more stringent than the corresponding conditions to support rewrites to the tertiary part. In some cases, the core part may be write-locked.

Claims

1. A system including:

memory configured to store a data-tamper-protected blockchain including blocks appended in series, the blocks including;

a subsequent block;

an intermediate block data-tamper-protected by the subsequent block; and

an initial block including;

a core part data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

a tertiary part also data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

rewrite circuitry configured to perform a validity-preserving rewrite to the tertiary part based on a unilateral authority of a trusted party by generating tertiary collision data to support the rewrite to the tertiary part,

the unilateral authority of the trusted party being insufficient to support generation of core collision data for performance of a validity-preserving rewrite to the core part.

2. The system of claim 1, where the validity-preserving rewrite to the tertiary part includes a non-tamper-evident rewrite.

3. The system of claim 1, where the validity-preserving rewrite to the tertiary part includes a tamper-evident rewrite.

4. The system of claim 1, where:

the tertiary part includes a secondary tertiary part and a primary tertiary part, the secondary tertiary part data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

the rewrite circuitry further configured to perform;

a tamper-evident validity-preserving rewrite to the primary tertiary part based on the unilateral authority of the trusted party

a non-tamper-evident rewrite to the secondary tertiary part based on the unilateral authority of the trusted party,

the unilateral authority of the trusted party being insufficient to support a non-tamper-evident rewrite to the primary tertiary part.

5. The system of claim 1, where the intermediate block includes:

a core integrity output to data-tamper-protect the core part; and

a tertiary integrity output to data-tamper-protect the tertiary part.

6. The system of claim 5, where the unilateral authority of the trusted party includes authority to access a tertiary key secret associated with the tertiary integrity output.

7. The system of claim 1, where a bilateral authority of the trusted party and a second trusted entity is sufficient to cause the rewrite circuitry to perform a validity-preserving rewrite to the core part.

8. The system of claim 7, where the rewrite circuitry is configured to perform a key secret exchange operation to establish the bilateral authority of the trusted party and the second trusted entity.

9. The system of claim 7, where the rewrite circuitry is configured to establish the bilateral authority of the trusted party and the second trusted entity by performing a ratification of a proposed rewrite by the trusted party.

10. The system of claim 1, where the unilateral authority of the trusted party includes a combined authority of multiple individually untrusted parties.

11. A method including:

for a data-tamper-protected blockchain including blocks appended in series, the blocks including;

a subsequent block;

an intermediate block data-tamper-protected by the subsequent block; and

an initial block including;

a core part data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

a tertiary part also data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

using rewrite circuitry, performing a validity-preserving rewrite to the tertiary part based on a unilateral authority of a trusted party by generating tertiary collision data to support the rewrite to the tertiary part,

the unilateral authority of the trusted party being insufficient to support generation of core collision data for performance of a validity-preserving rewrite to the core part.

12. The method of claim 11, where the validity-preserving rewrite to the tertiary part includes a non-tamper-evident rewrite.

13. The method of claim 11, where the validity-preserving rewrite to the tertiary part includes a tamper-evident rewrite.

14. The method of claim 11, where:

the tertiary part includes a secondary tertiary part and a primary tertiary part, the secondary tertiary part data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

the method further including;

performing a tamper-evident validity-preserving rewrite to the primary tertiary part based on the unilateral authority of the trusted party

performing a non-tamper-evident rewrite to the secondary tertiary part based on the unilateral authority of the trusted party,

the unilateral authority of the trusted party being insufficient to support a non-tamper-evident rewrite to the primary tertiary part.

15. The method of claim 11, where the intermediate block includes:

a core integrity output to data-tamper-protect the core part; and

a tertiary integrity output to data-tamper-protect the tertiary part.

16. The method of claim 15, where the unilateral authority of the trusted party includes authority to access a tertiary key secret associated with the tertiary integrity output.

17. A product including:

machine-readable media other than a transitory signal; and

instructions stored on the machine-readable media, the instructions configured to, when executed cause a machine to;

for a data-tamper-protected blockchain including blocks appended in series, the blocks including;

a subsequent block;

an intermediate block data-tamper-protected by the subsequent block; and

an initial block including;

a core part data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

a tertiary part also data-tamper-protected by the intermediate block; and

using rewrite circuitry, perform a validity-preserving rewrite to the tertiary part based on a unilateral authority of a trusted party by generating tertiary collision data to support the rewrite to the tertiary part,

the unilateral authority of the trusted party being insufficient to support generation of core collision data for performance of a validity-preserving rewrite to the core part.

18. The product of claim 17, where a bilateral authority of the trusted party and a second trusted entity is sufficient to support a validity-preserving rewrite to the core part.

19. The product of claim 18, where the instructions after further configured to cause the machine to perform a key secret exchange operation to establish the bilateral authority of the trusted party and the second trusted entity.

20. The product of claim 18, where the instructions after further configured to cause the machine to establish the bilateral authority of the trusted party and the second trusted entity by performing a ratification of a proposed rewrite by the trusted party.