Blockchain Transaction Clean-up via Candidate Datastore Marking
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Solution Overview
Problem
As blockchain technology is applied to larger and larger numbers of transactions, managing the volume of transactions becomes challenging, particularly in achieving throughput comparable to existing payment networks like Mastercard or Visa.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method for processing blockchain transactions involves building a candidate datastore with transaction identifiers, receiving arrays of transaction identifiers from other nodes, and identifying matching transactions to record array identifiers. During a block validation phase, transaction identifiers are marked as part of the block solution, and after validation, unmarked transaction identifiers are made available to another service for building new candidate blocks.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If blockchain nodes validate and store all transactions in the blockchain, then transaction integrity and security are improved, but system complexity and storage requirements increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the blockchain data structure by separating block headers from transaction bodies. Nodes can validate and store block headers (containing cryptographic proofs of transaction inclusion) without storing complete transaction data, thus maintaining transaction integrity through cryptographic verification while reducing storage complexity and requirements.
2Reliability
If blockchain nodes process and validate every transaction, then transaction security is improved, but processing speed and throughput decrease
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts the validation-critical information (block headers containing Merkle roots and cryptographic proofs) from the complete transaction data. Nodes validate transactions by verifying these extracted headers and cryptographic proofs rather than processing full transaction details, maintaining security while enabling faster parallel validation and higher throughput.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements preliminary action by having miners pre-compute and publish block headers with cryptographic proofs of transaction inclusion before full transaction validation is required. Other nodes can perform preliminary validation checks on these headers, enabling faster transaction verification and higher throughput while maintaining security through cryptographic guarantees.
3Loss of information
If the blockchain stores complete transaction data including user data, then data availability is improved, but storage requirements and network bandwidth increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses cryptographic copying mechanisms where block headers contain compressed representations (Merkle roots) of transaction data. Full transaction data can be reconstructed on-demand from these cryptographic copies and distributed proof structures, ensuring data availability for validation while minimizing permanent storage requirements and reducing network bandwidth for data propagation.
Data Source
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Figure 3A~3B
AI summary
Methods, devices, and data structures for processing large volumes of transactions in blockchain nodes. Solutions are provided for transaction clean-up following receipt of a block announcement from another node. In one example, transaction identifiers in a list matching the local candidate block are marked if they match transaction identifiers in the announced block and, once the block is validated, the block assembly service uses unmarked transaction identifiers to build the new candidate block. In other examples, a candidate database of transaction identifiers is built during the mining phase and TxIDs are marked with an array identifier or a node identifier as arrays are announced by other nodes on the network. This may speed clean-up once the block is announced and reduces memory footprint for carrying out the post-solution marking of TxIDs as being included in the solved block.