Blockchain Attachment Traceability Across Third-Party Signatures
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing processes fail to provide traceability and authenticity verification of documents processed by multiple third parties due to independent electronic signatures, varying technical standards, and compatibility issues between signature applications, making it difficult to track document life and verify processing steps, especially when attachments like translations or apostilles are added.
Innovation Solution
A blockchain-based process that includes initialisation, processing, and receiving steps to generate and store metadata and digital fingerprints, creating an audit trail through smart contracts, ensuring traceability and authenticity verification across multiple parties.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If multiple third parties perform independent electronic signatures on documents, then processing efficiency is improved, but traceability and authenticity verification become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
A blockchain-based intermediary system is introduced to coordinate and track multiple independent electronic signature operations. The smart contract acts as a mediator that records each signature event, maintains the document processing history, and ensures authenticity verification without requiring the signatories to coordinate directly with each other.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of requiring all parties to work on the original document, the system creates and manages digital copies of the document state at each signature step. Each third party signs a copy of the current document state, and the blockchain records these copies along with their metadata, enabling traceability while allowing parallel processing.
2Adaptability or versatility
If different electronic signature applications are used by various third parties, then operational flexibility is improved, but compatibility issues and signature overwriting occur
Solution Approach 1:
The signature process is segmented into distinct, recorded steps on the blockchain. Each electronic signature operation is separated into its own transaction record, including metadata about the signature application used. This segmentation allows different applications to operate independently while maintaining compatibility through standardized blockchain recording.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameter of signature recording from local file-based to blockchain-based. By transforming signatures into blockchain transactions with standardized data structures, the system maintains the flexibility of using different signature applications while ensuring compatibility through the universal blockchain protocol.
3Productivity
If physical document processing and scanning is performed, then processing capability is improved, but authentication difficulty increases
Solution Approach 1:
The mechanical process of physical document handling, scanning, and storage is replaced with a digital blockchain-based system. Documents are processed as digital objects throughout the entire workflow, eliminating the need for physical scanning while maintaining processing capabilities and improving authentication through cryptographic verification of each step.
4Reliability
If attachments are bound to source documents by third parties, then processing completeness is improved, but traceability complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The attachment binding operation is merged with the existing blockchain transaction record. When a third party attaches a document, the system creates a single blockchain transaction that records both the attachment action and its relationship to the source document, simplifying traceability while maintaining processing completeness.
Solution Approach 2:
Attachments are nested within the blockchain record structure rather than being separate external files. The attachment metadata and content are integrated into the blockchain transaction hierarchy, allowing nested document relationships to be traced through the blockchain's inherent structure without adding external complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to the traceability of an attachment (DA) generated by a third party (100) from a source document (D1). An initialisation step (S0) consists of saving and analysing the source document (D1) to obtain initialisation metadata placed in a smart contract (B1) of a blockchain system (B). A processing step (S1) performed by the third party (100) consists of generating the attachment (DA), this and the source document (D2) being signed electronically by the third party (100). A receiving step (S2) consists of saving and analysing the signed source document (D2) and the signed attachment (DA) to obtain receiving metadata, placed in the smart contract (B1). A smart contract (B1) is placed after each initialisation step (S0) and each receiving step (S2), thus enabling the creation of an audit/traceability trail for the attachment (DA) generated by the third party (100) from the source document (D1).