Bitemporal Immutable Ledger for Error Correction and Audit Queries
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current immutable databases fail to address the need for correcting errors in past events and running queries based on different parameters, limiting their effectiveness in regulated enterprises.
Innovation Solution
An immutable database architecture that utilizes a bitemporal ledger to store transactions with temporal metadata, allowing for the creation of current and alternate timelines, enabling error correction and query flexibility by preventing overwrites and supporting time-based operations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional immutable databases store each transaction as a separate entry without overwrites, then data integrity and auditability are improved, but the ability to correct errors in past events and run flexible queries is lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the immutable database into multiple independent timelines (current timeline and alternate timelines). Each timeline maintains its own sequence of transactions without overwrites, allowing error correction by creating alternate timelines that branch from points where errors occur, rather than modifying the original immutable sequence.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a temporal dimension by implementing bitemporal analysis with two distinct time parameters: transaction time (when the transaction occurred) and validation time (when the transaction is validated). This dimensional expansion allows the system to maintain immutability while enabling error correction through alternate timelines and flexible querying across different time points.
2Reliability
If immutable databases prevent data overwrites to ensure compliance, then audit readiness is improved, but query flexibility based on different parameters is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal query interface that can operate across multiple timelines and time points simultaneously. The bitemporal query engine provides multi-functionality by supporting various query types (historical queries, current state queries, alternate scenario queries) without requiring different system architectures, thus maintaining audit readiness while enhancing query flexibility.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates copies of transaction data organized by timeline and time point without modifying the original immutable entries. These copies enable flexible querying and analysis while the original immutable records remain intact for audit purposes, resolving the contradiction between immutability and query flexibility.
3Device complexity
If the database maintains a single current state, then system simplicity is improved, but the ability to evaluate proposed changes safely is reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by creating alternate timelines that represent proposed changes before they are applied to the current state. This allows the system to evaluate potential changes safely in isolated alternate timelines while maintaining the simplicity of the current state, enabling what-if analysis without compromising system structure.
Data Source
AI summary
Embodiments disclosed are directed to implementing an immutable database. Several embodiments are directed to an architecture for implementing the immutable database as a data processing system with a real-time interface for buffering a plurality of transactions and a bitemporal ledger for storing the plurality of transactions and a processor. New transactions may be appended to the transaction to the plurality of transactions and processed in a temporal order which includes identifying a sequence of transactions in the bitemporal ledger associated with the transaction and incorporating the transaction into the sequence of transactions in the bitemporal ledger according to temporal metadata associated with the transaction to form an updated sequence of transactions.