API REQUEST AND RESPONSE BALANCING AND CONTROL ON BLOCKCHAIN

• US 20200136843A1
• Filed: 10/01/2019
• Published: 04/30/2020
• Est. Priority Date: 10/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Original Assignee: American Express Travel Related Services Company, Inc. (American Express Company)
• Inventors: Chalakudi, Shyamala, Yin, Ming
• Granted Patent: US 11,283,596 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 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 9/3236 using cryptographic hash functions
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3239 involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/3297 involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps
• CPC Class Codes: H04L 9/50 using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees

Abstract

A balancing and control (B&C) system for API transactions is disclosed. The system may write a request confirmation and a request acknowledgement to a blockchain in response to an API request being transmitted from a consumer system to a provider system, with the request confirmation and the request acknowledgement each comprising a request hash of the API request. The system may also write a response confirmation and a response acknowledgement to the blockchain in response to an API response being transmitted from the provider system to the consumer system, with the response confirmation and the response acknowledgement each comprising a response hash of the API response. The blockchain may execute a smart contract to compare the request hashes from the request confirmation and the request acknowledgement and the response hashes from the response confirmation and the response acknowledgement to identify one or more out-of-balance events.

Claims

1. A method, comprising:

writing, by a computer-based system, an application programing interface (API) transaction confirmation to a distributed database in response to a first computing device sending an API transaction to a second computing device;

writing, by the computer-based system, an API transaction acknowledgment to the distributed database in response to the second computing device receiving the API transaction from the first computing device;

comparing, by the computer-based system, a first hash associated with the API transaction confirmation with a second hash associated with the API transaction acknowledgement; and

identifying, by the computer-based system, an out-of-balance event based on the comparison of the first hash and the second hash.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the API transaction comprises at least one of an API request or an API response.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the API transaction confirmation comprises the first hash and at least one of:

a transaction identifier (ID), a first computing device address associated with the distributed database, or a second computing device address associated with the distributed database.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the API transaction acknowledgment comprises the second hash and at least one of:

a transaction identifier (ID), a first computing device address associated with the distributed database, or a second computing device address associated with the distributed database.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first computing device is associated with a first computing device address comprising a first public key corresponding to a first private key of a first asymmetric cryptography key pair, and the second computing device is associated with a second computing device address comprising a second public key corresponding to a second private key of a second asymmetric cryptography key pair.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the first hash is a result of a hash function applied to the API transaction by the first computing device.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the second hash is a result of a hash function applied to the API transaction by the second computing device.

8. A system, comprising:

a plurality of nodes configured to store data according to a consensus agreement among the plurality of nodes; and

a smart contract executable on at least one of the plurality of nodes, wherein when executed by the at least one of the plurality of nodes, the smart contract causes the at least one of the plurality of nodes to at least;

write a transaction confirmation to at least one of the plurality of nodes in response to a first computing device sending a transaction to a second computing device, the transaction confirmation including a first hash;

write a transaction acknowledgment to at least one of the plurality of nodes in response to the second computing device receiving the transaction from the first computing device, the transaction acknowledgement including a second hash; and

identify an out-of-balance event based on a comparison of the first hash and the second hash.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the transaction confirmation comprises a first timestamp and the transaction acknowledgment comprises a second timestamp.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the out-of-balance event is identified based at least in part on a comparison of the first timestamp with the second timestamp.

11. The system of claim 8, wherein the transaction comprises a first transaction, the transaction confirmation comprises a first transaction confirmation, the transaction acknowledgement comprises a first transaction acknowledgement, and when executed by the at least one of the plurality of nodes, the smart contract causes the at least one of the plurality of nodes to at least:

write a second transaction confirmation to at least one of the plurality of nodes in response to the second computing device sending a second transaction to the first computing device; and

write a second transaction acknowledgment to at least one of the plurality of nodes in response to the first computing device receiving the second transaction from the second computing device.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the first computing device is associated with a first computing device address comprising a first public key corresponding to a first private key of a first asymmetric cryptography key pair, and the second computing device is associated with a second computing device address comprising a second public key corresponding to a second private key of a second asymmetric cryptography key pair.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the transaction confirmation and the transaction acknowledgement each comprise at least one of:

a transaction identifier (ID), a first computing device address associated with the plurality of nodes, or a second computing device address associated with the plurality of nodes.

14. The system of claim 8, wherein the transaction comprises an application programming interface (API) request or an API response.

15. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising machine-readable instructions that, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to at least:

write a transaction confirmation to at least one of a plurality of nodes in response to a first computing device sending a transaction to a second computing device, the plurality of nodes configured to store data according to a consensus agreement among the plurality of nodes;

write a transaction acknowledgment to at least one of the plurality of nodes in response to the second computing device receiving the transaction from the first computing device; and

identify a transaction event associated with the transaction based on a comparison of first data included in the transaction confirmation with second data included in the transaction acknowledgement.

16. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first data and the second data comprise a transaction identifier (ID), a first computing device address associated with the plurality of nodes, a second computing device address associated with the plurality of nodes, and a respective hash.

17. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein when executed by a processor, the machine-readable instructions cause the processor to at least compare a first hash included in the first data with a second hash included in the second data, the transaction event being identified based at least in part on comparing the first hash with the second hash.

18. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein when executed by a processor, the machine-readable instructions cause the processor to at least:

register the first computing device with the plurality of nodes by assigning a first public key and a first private key of a first asymmetric cryptography key pair to the first computing device; and

register the second computing device with the plurality of nodes by assigning a second public key and a second private key of a second asymmetric cryptography key pair to the second computing device.

19. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the first computing device is associated with a service consumer and the second computing device is associated with a service provider.

20. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 15, wherein the transaction event comprises at least one of:

a request out-of-balance event, a response out-of-balance event, or a timeout out-of-balance event.