Blockchain Compression Through Active-Block Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Blockchain data structures grow to unmanageable sizes, increasing processing burdens and memory consumption due to inactive blocks that remain in the system.
Innovation Solution
A method and system for compressing blockchains by identifying and segregating active and inactive blocks, creating a new blockchain containing only active block data and optionally a history blockchain with inactive block data, thereby reducing memory and processing requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If blockchain stores all historical blocks including inactive blocks, then complete historical record is maintained, but memory consumption and processing burden increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the blockchain into two distinct parts: an active blockchain containing only relevant active blocks that nodes need to process, and an inactive blockchain containing archived inactive blocks. This segmentation allows nodes to maintain a smaller, more manageable active blockchain while preserving complete historical records in the inactive blockchain, thus resolving the contradiction between record completeness and memory consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts inactive blocks from the main active blockchain and places them in a separate inactive blockchain. By taking out the inactive blocks that are no longer needed for consensus or validation, the system reduces the size of the active blockchain that nodes must store and process, while maintaining access to complete historical data when needed.
2Reliability
If blockchain includes all blocks for consensus validation, then consensus accuracy is maintained, but processing time and computational resources increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments blocks into active and inactive categories, allowing consensus mechanisms to operate only on the smaller set of active blocks. This segmentation maintains consensus accuracy for current operations while reducing processing time by excluding irrelevant inactive blocks from consensus validation processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts inactive blocks from the consensus validation process entirely, removing them from the processing pipeline. This extraction allows nodes to focus computational resources on validating only active blocks, thereby maintaining consensus accuracy while significantly reducing processing time and resource consumption.
3Reliability
If blockchain maintains all data content from every block, then data integrity is preserved, but system efficiency decreases due to handling unnecessary data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the blockchain data into active and inactive segments, allowing the system to maintain data integrity across both segments while improving efficiency by processing only active blocks. The inactive blockchain preserves historical data integrity without burdening the active processing system with unnecessary data handling.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts inactive blocks from the active processing stream, removing them from daily operations. This extraction preserves the integrity of the complete blockchain history while allowing the active blockchain to operate with higher efficiency by handling only relevant current data, thus resolving the contradiction between data integrity and system efficiency.
Data Source
AI summary
A system for compressing a blockchain. The system comprises a processor; a non-transitory memory; an inactive block evaluator function stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the processor, traverses a first blockchain stored in the non-transitory memory to identify inactive blocks on the first blockchain; a threshold evaluator function stored in the non-transitory memory that, when executed by the processor, evaluates whether a percentage of inactive blocks on the first blockchain exceeds a predefined threshold; and a compression function stored in the non-transitory memory that, when triggered by the threshold evaluator and executed by the processor, builds a second blockchain that comprises blocks built to contain a data content of each of the active blocks in the first blockchain and none of a data content of the inactive blocks in the first blockchain.