Blockchain File Chunking for Privacy and Reliability
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Solution Overview
Problem
Centralized databases face issues such as single points of failure, high dependency on network connectivity, limited access to data, and inefficiencies in handling large datasets, particularly in blockchain networks where consensus algorithms degrade with large data sizes, making secure sharing and implementation of smart contracts challenging.
Innovation Solution
A blockchain-based system that splits large files into chunks, transmits them to peer-to-peer data store nodes, and generates storage plans based on chunk locations, using encryption and smart contracts to ensure secure and efficient data management and access.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a centralized database is used to store and manage data, then ease of management and control is improved, but reliability deteriorates due to single point of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the centralized database into multiple distributed nodes across a network. Each node stores portions of the data, eliminating the single point of failure. The data is segmented and distributed throughout the network, allowing the system to remain operational even if individual nodes fail.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a distributed network as an intermediary layer between users and data storage. This network mediates data access and management operations, providing both the decentralization needed for reliability and the coordination necessary for ease of management through standardized protocols.
2Quantity of substance
If a centralized database is used, then data redundancy is minimized, but loss of information worsens when data is unexpectedly lost
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements different quality characteristics at different locations in the system. Data redundancy is locally managed at each distributed node, with each node storing copies or portions of data. This local redundancy ensures that if data is lost at one location, it can be recovered from other nodes without requiring system-wide duplication.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent prepares for potential data loss in advance by implementing redundant storage across multiple distributed nodes before any loss occurs. This prior cushioning ensures that data recovery is possible through automated processes without requiring manual intervention or back-up storage operations.
3Reliability
If blockchain consensus algorithms are used on large datasets, then security is improved, but productivity deteriorates due to performance degradation
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments large datasets into smaller chunks or blocks that can be processed individually by blockchain consensus algorithms. This segmentation allows the system to maintain security through cryptographic verification of each segment while improving throughput by processing multiple segments in parallel or through optimized consensus mechanisms on smaller data units.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent extracts only the essential security-critical elements (such as hashes, signatures, or consensus proofs) onto the blockchain, while keeping the bulk data storage and processing off-chain. This extraction maintains the security guarantees of blockchain consensus for critical operations while avoiding the performance degradation that would result from applying consensus to entire large datasets.
Data Source
AI summary
An example operation may include one or more of receiving, by a blockchain node, a file as a part of a blockchain transaction, splitting, by the blockchain node, the file into a plurality of chunks based on a file size, transmitting, by the blockchain node, the plurality of the chunks to at least one peer-to-peer data store node on a blockchain network, and generating a storage plan based on locations of individual chunks of the plurality of the chunks on the at least one peer-to-peer data store node.