Blockchain Hierarchy for Data Isolation and Sharing
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Solution Overview
Problem
In large decentralized blockchain networks, enforcing diverse data sharing policies across mutually-distrusting parties while maintaining autonomy and data isolation is challenging, particularly in IoT networks where sensor data is collected from various entities with different policies.
Innovation Solution
A blockchain hierarchy is organized in a tree-like or channel-based structure, where a leader peer is elected to enforce data protection policies through operations like aggregation, filtering, and declassification, allowing data to be shared across levels while ensuring privacy and security, with verification by other peers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If a single flat blockchain network is used to enable data sharing among multiple parties, then connectivity and collaboration are improved, but data isolation and policy enforcement deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the flat blockchain network into a hierarchical structure with multiple levels. Each level represents a distinct organizational unit or domain with its own data sharing policies. This segmentation allows data to be shared within each segment while maintaining isolation between segments, resolving the contradiction between connectivity and data isolation.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a vertical dimension to the blockchain network by organizing blocks and chains hierarchically across multiple levels. This dimensional transformation allows the system to simultaneously achieve broad data sharing (across many horizontal peers) and strict data isolation (across vertical levels), as data propagation is controlled by level boundaries.
2Reliability
If diverse data sharing policies are enforced across all parties, then data protection is improved, but network complexity and coordination difficulty worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies local quality by allowing each blockchain level to have its own specific data sharing policies tailored to local requirements. Each level can enforce different protection rules appropriate to its context, while the hierarchical structure provides an overall framework that manages the diversity of policies without requiring global coordination of all details.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces intermediary entities (gateway blocks, level-specific validation nodes) that mediate between different policy domains. These intermediaries handle the complexity of policy translation and enforcement between levels, shielding upper levels from the complexity of lower level policies and vice versa.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If a hierarchical blockchain structure is implemented to enforce data protection policies, then data isolation and security are improved, but network structure complexity and implementation difficulty worsen
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a nested doll structure where blockchains are organized in nested hierarchies with parent-child relationships between levels. Each level contains or references data from subordinate levels, creating a nested arrangement that provides clear boundaries for data isolation while maintaining a manageable hierarchical structure that can be implemented through systematic rules.
Data Source
AI summary
A blockchain hierarchy comprises an arrangement of blockchains organized in a tree-like manner such that a blockchain at a lower level feeds data to a blockchain at a relatively higher level. At least one blockchain comprises a private autonomous group of peers that are involved in a particular task. Within that particular group of peers, preferably one of the peers is elected as a leader entity, which has the capability of also joining another private or public blockchain, e.g., one at a higher level in the hierarchy. The leader entity includes a capability to enforce a data protection policy within the blockchain that it leads. To this end, the leader filters or declassifies data based on some task-specific (or blockchain-specific) data protection policy, and it then makes that data available to one or more other blockchains in the hierarchy (directly or indirectly).