Blockchain Batch Hashing for Machine Data Integrity

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing data management systems face challenges in ensuring data integrity and efficiency when dealing with large amounts of data on blockchains, as interactions with blockchains can be time-consuming and costly.

Innovation Solution

A machine data validation system that hashes machine data, generates batch hashes, and records them on a blockchain to ensure data integrity, using a layered approach with permissioned and permissionless blockchains for efficient and secure data management.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If large amounts of data items are recorded on a blockchain, then data integrity is ensured, but interaction time and cost increase significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata integrityVSAvoidinteraction time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments data into batches and records only batch hashes on the blockchain rather than individual data items. This segmentation approach maintains data integrity through cryptographic hashing while significantly reducing the frequency and cost of blockchain interactions, thereby resolving the contradiction between ensuring data integrity and minimizing interaction time.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Reliability

If large amounts of data items are recorded on a blockchain, then data integrity is ensured, but interaction cost increases significantly

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata integrityVSAvoidinteraction cost

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of energy

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments data into batches and records only batch hashes on the blockchain rather than individual data items. This segmentation approach maintains data integrity through cryptographic hashing while significantly reducing the frequency and cost of blockchain interactions, thereby resolving the contradiction between ensuring data integrity and minimizing interaction cost.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent creates cryptographic hashes (copies) of data batches and stores these hashes on the blockchain instead of the original data. This copying approach ensures data integrity through immutable hash storage while avoiding the high cost of storing large volumes of actual data on the blockchain, thus resolving the cost-integrity contradiction.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #26Copying

3Reliability

If data is validated by recording each data item on blockchain, then data integrity is ensured, but processing speed decreases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata integrityVSAvoidprocessing speed

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent segments data into batches and validates batches rather than individual items. This segmentation enables faster processing by reducing the number of validation operations required, while cryptographic hashing ensures that data integrity is maintained despite the reduced validation frequency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The patent performs preliminary hashing of data batches before blockchain interaction. This preliminary action prepares data in advance, allowing for faster validation processes while maintaining integrity through the cryptographic hash function that is computed once and can be verified efficiently.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Data Source

PatentUS11720549B1Data stream integrity using blockchain

Publication Date: 2023.08.08 CISCO TECHNOLOGY INC

AI summary

A machine data validation system can track and validate the integrity of machine data generated by machines. The system can generate hashes for the items and batch hashes that can be validated using an immutable data store, such as a blockchain. The system can implement a tiered blockchain structure to efficiently store and reference the hashes to validate the machine data at different times or upon request from an end-user.