A consortium chain cross-chain method based on asynchronous consensus and relay chain mechanism

Abstract

The application relates to a cross-chain method of a consortium chain based on an asynchronous consensus and a relay chain mechanism and belongs to the technical field of blockchains. A cross-chain request is first generated, and the cross-chain request comprises necessary information required for completing a cross-chain transaction. The cross-chain request is first captured by a speaker node in a source application chain. The speaker node encapsulates, signs and encrypts the cross-chain request to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the cross-chain transaction. Then, the speaker node sends a cross-chain request package to a corresponding postman node in a relay chain through a specific communication tunnel. After receiving the cross-chain request package sent by the speaker node in the source application chain, the relay chain first analyzes and verifies the request package, and when the request package is correctly analyzed and verified, consensus and endorsement are performed on the cross-chain request. Finally, cross-chain response generation and return are realized. The application has good scalability and stability, and effectively avoids the problem of sudden performance reduction of a cross-chain system caused by too many blockchains being added to the system.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The application relates to a consortium chain cross-chain method based on an asynchronous consensus and relay chain mechanism and belongs to the technical field of computer system information interaction. BACKGROUND

[0002] A blockchain is a decentralized transparent ledger with transaction records. Each node connected to the system can update and monitor the data, and in fact, no one owns or controls the entire system. At the same time, the blockchain can also be regarded as a new type of decentralized architecture and distributed computing scheme, which uses encrypted block-like data structures to verify and store data.

[0003] As a new technology system and infrastructure, the blockchain technology has been widely applied in many fields of social production and life. However, due to the differences in architecture, consensus, network, etc. of the blockchain system, it is difficult to realize information exchange or value transfer between different blockchains, which greatly limits the application and development of the blockchain technology. In particular, in the financial and information fields, isolated blockchain systems hinder the smooth circulation of value and information between various subjects. In addition, different blockchain systems are used in different application scenarios. These chains may be applied in different fields and may have different operating mechanisms, and the isolation between the block information stored by different blockchains inevitably causes the value "island" effect of the blockchain.

[0004] At present, two pain points of the blockchain system include:

[0005] 1. Interoperability. It refers to the transmission of values between different blockchain systems and the verification of their status or events. The existing cross-chain technology basically realizes interoperability through cross-chain smart contracts.

[0006] 2. Scalability. The interaction of different blockchains improves the scalability of the blockchain system, but as the cross-chain scale expands, the system performance may decrease.

[0007] To solve the above problems, cross-chain technology emerges as the times require. This technology is a choice for building an interactive multi-blockchain system. The existing cross-chain methods mainly include the following:

[0008] 1. Notary mechanism. That is, a trusted centralized entity is introduced to do credit endorsement for cross-chain mechanism. The notary mechanism is the simplest cross-chain mechanism that can be realized technically. Most early cross-chain projects adopt this way. The obvious advantage of this mechanism is that it can realize cross-chain in a simple way and support cross-chain of blockchains with different structures, requiring only that the notary can access the information on both chains.

[0009] However, since the notary mechanism needs to have enough trust in the notary, there is a great centralization risk for the single-node notary mechanism.

[0010] 2. Hash locking mechanism. This mechanism takes advantage of the low collision characteristics of the hash function and the delayed execution of the blockchain transaction, and realizes the cross-chain mechanism by setting the hash puzzle by the transaction parties. At the same time, with the help of the characteristics of the hash function, the authenticity of the transaction information can be guaranteed.

[0011] However, due to the design principle of the mechanism, it can only be used in a few chains and a few businesses, limiting its wide application.

[0012] 3. Relay chain mechanism. That is, by introducing other blockchain systems to be responsible for transaction collection, endorsement and forwarding. Since the intermediate chain system also uses a blockchain system as a transaction center, it uses its decentralized and tamper-proof characteristics to avoid the centralization risk that is prone to occur in the notary mechanism. The verification and endorsement of the transaction can also be delegated to the relay chain for processing, which helps to improve the overall performance and throughput of the blockchain system. At the same time, since the relay chain mechanism is mostly implemented using smart contracts, it provides more flexibility than the hash locking mechanism and can be applied in a variety of different scenarios.

[0013] However, this cross-chain implementation is complex, difficult to develop, and to some extent depends on its own cross-chain protocol, making it difficult to access heterogeneous chains.

[0014] In the traditional relay chain cross-chain mechanism, the consensus mechanism used in most cases is a synchronous consensus mechanism based on the evolution of practical Byzantine fault tolerance. Such a consensus mechanism has high maturity and stability and has been widely applied to various blockchain platforms, which can guarantee the correctness and effectiveness of the system. However, due to the synchronization time assumption of the synchronous consensus mechanism, and in most cases, the actual network environment cannot guarantee complete synchronization. Therefore, in order to ensure the normal operation of the synchronous consensus mechanism, the existing blockchain system needs to be designed specifically for the system's time assumption and timeout control. However, under the influence of the synchronization assumption and other restrictions, the stability and scalability of the existing relay chain cross-chain system have been greatly challenged, and its performance and scalability cannot be significantly improved in a large-scale asynchronous network environment. SUMMARY

[0015] The purpose of the present application is to address the problem of the stability and scalability of the existing cross-chain system, which cannot meet the growing demand for cross-chain applications, and to innovatively propose a consortium chain cross-chain method based on asynchronous consensus and relay chain mechanism.

[0016] First, the contents involved in the present application are described.

[0017] Application chains refer to various consortium blockchain systems where users participate as service users, fulfilling their cross-chain needs by calling services provided by a relay chain. This includes source application chains and destination application chains.

[0018] Relay chain: refers to the core blockchain system that serves as a service provider guarantee system. It accepts service requests from application chains and completes cross-chain services to the corresponding blockchains through its internal consensus and routing.

[0019] Speaker nodes are special application chain nodes located within the application chain, elected or authorized by the application chain itself. They accept cross-chain requests from within the application chain, package the requests according to predefined rules, and send them to the corresponding node in the relay chain, thus completing the cross-chain request transmission. Simultaneously, they receive the cross-chain responses returned by the corresponding nodes in the relay chain, unpack them according to corresponding rules, and then send them back to the corresponding node in the application chain, completing the cross-chain operation.

[0020] Postman nodes are special relay chain nodes located within the relay chain, assigned or authorized by the application chain. They receive cross-chain requests from the source application chain, parse the request content, and after verification and consensus, forward the cross-chain request to the target application chain via the postman node corresponding to the target application chain. Simultaneously, they receive cross-chain responses from the target application chain, parse the response content, and after verification and consensus, return the cross-chain response to the source application chain via the postman node corresponding to the source application chain.

[0021] A communication tunnel is a logical communication channel between a speaker node and a mail carrier node. This tunnel can be implemented using various technologies to ensure smooth message transmission between the two nodes.

[0022] Asynchronous consensus refers to an asynchronous consensus protocol deployed on a relay chain and implemented through a randomization algorithm. It can verify and endorse cross-chain requests and responses generated on the relay chain to ensure the system's key characteristics such as decentralization, immutability, and trustworthiness.

[0023] To achieve the above objectives, the present invention adopts the following technical solution.

[0024] A cross-chain method for consortium blockchains based on asynchronous consensus and relay chain mechanism is proposed, which is implemented using relay chain mechanism and asynchronous consensus mechanism.

[0025] Firstly, cross-chain request is generated and sent. The cross-chain request includes all necessary information required to complete the cross-chain transaction. The cross-chain request is first captured by the spokesperson node in the source application chain. The spokesperson node encapsulates, signs and encrypts the cross-chain request to ensure the privacy and integrity of the cross-chain transaction. Then, the spokesperson node sends the cross-chain request package to the corresponding postman node in the relay chain through a specific communication tunnel.

[0026] Then, cross-chain request verification and endorsement. After the relay chain receives the cross-chain request package sent by the spokesperson node in the source application chain, it first parses and verifies the request package. After the request package is correctly parsed and verified, the cross-chain request is consensus and endorsed.

[0027] Finally, cross-chain response is generated and returned.

[0028] Advantages

[0029] Compared with the prior art, the present application has the following advantages:

[0030] 1. The present application has good scalability. Compared with the cross-chain means using notary mechanism or hash locking mechanism, the present application uses relay chain mechanism, which can maximize the number of blockchain systems joining the cross-chain system and then performing cross-chain transactions.

[0031] 2. The present application has good stability. Compared with the traditional cross-chain means using synchronous consensus mechanism, the present application uses asynchronous consensus mechanism, which can provide good stability in complex, asynchronous and large-scale network environment, effectively avoiding the problems of system blocking or transaction failure caused by the destruction of synchronous assumption in traditional means.

[0032] 3. The present application has good performance. Compared with the traditional cross-chain means using synchronous consensus mechanism, the present application uses asynchronous consensus mechanism, which can ensure that the performance will not decrease significantly after a large number of blockchain systems join the cross-chain system, effectively avoiding the problem of sudden performance decrease of cross-chain system caused by too many blockchain systems joining. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

[0033] Figure 1 is a schematic diagram of the method of the present application. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0034] The specific implementation process of the method of the present application will be described in detail below in combination with the drawings and examples. The described examples are only a part of the examples of the present application, not all examples. Based on the examples in the present application, all other examples obtained by those skilled in the art without creative labor are within the scope of protection of the present application.

[0035] AsFigure 1 As shown, a cross-chain method of a consortium chain based on an asynchronous consensus and a relay chain mechanism includes the following steps:

[0036] Step 1: Cross-chain request generation and sending.

[0037] The source application chain initiates the required cross-chain request by calling a smart contract.

[0038] The cross-chain request includes all necessary information required to complete the cross-chain transaction. The cross-chain request is first captured by a speaker node in the source application chain. The speaker node encapsulates, signs, and encrypts the cross-chain request to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the cross-chain transaction. Then, the speaker node sends the cross-chain request package to the corresponding postman node in the relay chain through a specific communication tunnel.

[0039] Step 2: Cross-chain request verification and endorsement.

[0040] Specifically, it includes the following steps:

[0041] Step 2.1: After receiving the cross-chain request package sent by the speaker node of the source application chain, the relay chain first parses and verifies the request package.

[0042] The parsing is to deserialize the serialized content in the package according to the predetermined rules (if the request package is encrypted, a decryption process is also required), and extract the content of each field in the package. At the same time, after deserialization, the digital signature contained in the package is verified to ensure the correctness and legality of the request package.

[0043] Step 2.2: After the request package is correctly parsed and verified, the cross-chain request is consensus and endorsed.

[0044] This process is carried out among all postman nodes in the relay chain, which jointly complete the asynchronous consensus protocol to endorse and chain the cross-chain request.

[0045] When performing the endorsement process, the postman node verifies the correctness of the cross-chain request through the verification interface provided by the source application chain, and then verifies the consistency and legality of the transaction data contained in the cross-chain request.

[0046] Step 3: Cross-chain response generation and return.

[0047] When the relay chain completes the verification and endorsement of the cross-chain request, the cross-chain request after endorsement is packaged and sent to the spokesperson node of the destination application chain. The spokesperson node of the destination application chain will verify the endorsement state of the request, and if it is legal, it will execute the corresponding cross-chain transaction in the request and generate a corresponding cross-chain response according to the transaction result. The destination application chain will package the cross-chain response into a package through a similar process and send the response package to the corresponding mailman node of the destination application chain on the relay chain through the corresponding spokesperson node of the destination application chain. The mailman node will perform the same process as the cross-chain request package after receiving the cross-chain response package, and finally return the cross-chain response to the source application chain, completing a cross-chain operation.

[0048] Embodiments

[0049] Specifically, the present embodiment elaborates the identity issuance, interaction and authentication process in the blockchain-driven digital identity scenario, and describes the common business requirement of transfer and authentication of degree information between different schools and institutions in the education field.

[0050] Suppose there is a university A and a university B in the education system, and both of them use a decentralized digital degree certificate system based on a blockchain system, but there are great differences between the two systems in the blockchain infrastructure.

[0051] In order to realize the mutual recognition of degrees and credits between the two schools and facilitate the exchange of learning and further education between the two schools, the two schools implement the cross-chain method of alliance chain based on asynchronous consensus and relay chain mechanism described in the present application, thereby realizing the above requirement.

[0052] Suppose student Zhang San is an undergraduate student who graduated from university A, and he hopes to apply for a postgraduate course in university B, then Zhang San needs to provide the graduation certificate and diploma of university A.

[0053] First of all, the two schools need to elect or appoint spokesperson nodes and mailman nodes representing themselves in their respective blockchain systems and relay chain systems for subsequent cross-chain information transmission.

[0054] Among them, the decentralized digital degree certificate system of university A will package and package the degree authentication information of Zhang San through the corresponding spokesperson node of university A, generate a cross-chain request package, and send it to the corresponding mailman node in the relay chain through the communication tunnel established with the relay chain.

[0055] After receiving the cross-chain request package, the mailman node will parse the request package and verify its integrity through cryptographic means. After parsing is completed, the cross-chain request will be verified and endorsed among all mailman nodes in the entire relay chain through an asynchronous consensus algorithm to verify the correctness and validity of the degree authentication information.

[0056] After the endorsement is completed, the corresponding postman node of University B will send the endorsed cross-chain request to the spokesperson node of University B through the corresponding communication tunnel.

[0057] After receiving the cross-chain request, University B will verify whether the degree information has been endorsed by the relay chain. If the verification is successful, University B will recognize Zhang San's undergraduate diploma in University A, and send a receipt to University A in a similar manner.

Claims

1. A cross-chain method for consortium blockchains based on asynchronous consensus and relay chain mechanism, characterized in that, Includes the following steps: Step 1: Generate and send cross-chain requests; The source application chain initiates the required cross-chain request by calling a smart contract. The cross-chain request includes all the necessary information to complete the cross-chain transaction. The cross-chain request is first captured by the speaker node in the source application chain. The speaker node encapsulates, signs, and encrypts the cross-chain request to ensure the confidentiality and integrity of the cross-chain transaction. Then, the speaker node sends the cross-chain request packet to the corresponding mail carrier node in the relay chain through a pre-set communication tunnel. Step 2: Cross-chain request verification and endorsement; Step 2.1: After receiving the cross-chain request packet sent by the speaker node of the source application chain, the relay chain first parses and verifies the request packet; The parsing process involves deserializing the serialized content in the packet according to predetermined rules and extracting the content of each field in the packet; if the request packet is encrypted, a decryption process is also required. After deserialization, the digital signature contained in the packet must be verified to ensure the correctness and legitimacy of the request packet; Step 2.2: After the request packet is correctly parsed and verified, consensus and endorsement are performed on the cross-chain request; Consensus and endorsement for cross-chain requests are carried out among all the mail carrier nodes of the relay chain. These nodes jointly complete the asynchronous consensus protocol to endorse and put the cross-chain request on the chain. During the endorsement process, the postman node verifies the correctness of the cross-chain request through the verification interface provided by the source application chain, thereby verifying the consistency and legality of the transaction data contained in the cross-chain request. Step 3: Cross-chain response generation and return; Once the relay chain has completed the verification and endorsement of the cross-chain request, it repackages and encapsulates the endorsed cross-chain request and sends it to the speaker node of the destination application chain. The spokesperson node of the target application chain will verify the endorsement status of the request. If it is valid, it will execute the corresponding cross-chain transaction in the request and generate the corresponding cross-chain response based on the transaction result. The destination application chain encapsulates the cross-chain response into a packet and sends the response packet to the postman node corresponding to the destination application chain on the relay chain through the speaker node corresponding to the destination application chain. After receiving the cross-chain response packet, the mail carrier node performs the same process as the cross-chain request packet, and finally returns the cross-chain response to the source application chain, completing a cross-chain operation.

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