Blockchain Document Certification via Hash Extraction
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic notarization systems require manual registration of transactions and have limitations in securely certifying the existence, integrity, and ownership of digital documents due to their reliance on digital signatures and certificates, which can be cumbersome and limited in scalability.
Innovation Solution
A system utilizing a blockchain or distributed ledger to facilitate the certification and verification of digital documents, enabling secure and scalable certification of digital transactions, ownership, and audit trails by hashing and publishing cryptographic structures within the blockchain's data limits, allowing for virtually unlimited file or communication certifications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If digital signatures and certificates are used for electronic notarization, then security of document certification is improved, but system complexity and manual registration requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a blockchain as an intermediary layer between document certification and verification. Instead of direct digital signature verification requiring manual registration, the system embeds cryptographic hashes of documents into blockchain blocks, which are then distributed across multiple nodes. This intermediary blockchain structure automates the certification process while maintaining security, eliminating the need for manual register keeping that plagues traditional electronic notarization systems.
2Reliability
If traditional electronic notarization systems are used, then document certification is achieved, but scalability is limited due to manual registration requirements
Solution Approach 1:
The blockchain system operates autonomously without requiring manual intervention for each certification. Documents are hashed, the hashes are embedded in blockchain transactions, and the distributed network automatically validates and propagates these certifications. This self-service mechanism allows the system to scale indefinitely as any node can verify and add certifications without centralized bottlenecks or manual registration processes.
3Productivity
If blockchain is used for certification, then scalability and security are improved, but data storage capacity in the ledger is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential cryptographic hash of each document and embeds it into the blockchain, rather than storing the entire document. This extraction approach allows the blockchain to certify virtually unlimited documents while consuming minimal storage space. The full documents remain stored externally, while the blockchain maintains only the compact hash representations needed for verification and certification tracking.
Data Source
AI summary
In some implementations, a data unit may be hashed to generate a hash. A cryptographic structure, such as a Merkle tree or other cryptographic structure, maybe generated based on the hash and published on a block chain or distributed ledger. A proof associated with the data unit may be provided. The proof may allow for independent verification that the data unit is certified. Responsive to obtaining the data unit as at least one data unit to be verified, the data unit may be hashed. The associated proof may be obtained, where the obtained proof includes an index describing a position of the hash among one or more other hashes in the published cryptographic structure. The cryptographic structure may be reconstructed based on the index of the proof. Certification of the data unit may be verified by proving that the hash belongs to a root of the published cryptographic structure.