Blockchain Token Tracking Data for History Search
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current blockchain systems face difficulties in efficiently tracking the history of data changes, particularly in complex scenarios like supply chain management, where materials are combined or split, due to the data structure limitations that make it hard to reference past states without brute-force searching.
Innovation Solution
A blockchain system with a user terminal and an approval terminal that includes a state database for smart contracts, where tracking data is set for each token update, including the update block number and token information, allowing for efficient history search and tracking by computing a search block number from the update block number.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If brute-force search using block number as key is used to reference past states, then any past state can be referenced, but search time and computational cost increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-computing and storing the relationship between state values and their corresponding block numbers in an external database during the blockchain data generation process. This allows historical state queries to be resolved through direct database lookup rather than brute-force searching through all blocks, significantly reducing search time while maintaining complete traceability of state changes
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an external database as an intermediary between the blockchain and query operations. This mediator stores pre-processed state-block relationships, enabling efficient historical state retrieval without requiring direct traversal of blockchain blocks. The external database acts as a caching layer that translates complex blockchain queries into simple database lookups
2Productivity
If external database is constructed to store all blockchain data with indexes, then search and tracking become efficient, but system complexity and maintenance cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential tracking information (state values and corresponding block numbers) from the complete blockchain data and stores it in an external database. This selective extraction approach provides sufficient search efficiency for historical state queries while avoiding the complexity of storing and managing entire blockchain snapshots in the external database
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by creating a specialized external database with a specific structure optimized for state-block relationship queries. Rather than attempting to replicate the entire blockchain data structure externally, the solution creates a localized, simplified database containing only the specific information needed for efficient historical state tracking
3Device complexity
If simple blockchain data structure is maintained, then system simplicity is preserved, but ability to track state changes efficiently deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses an external database as an intermediary structure that supplements the simple blockchain data structure. This mediator captures and stores state-block relationships without requiring changes to the underlying blockchain structure, thereby preserving data structure simplicity while enhancing state change tracking capability through the external indexing mechanism
Data Source
AI summary
A history of data can be tracked easily on a blockchain. In a blockchain system, a distributed ledger 11 includes a state database that stores a state of a smart contract for each token. A user terminal 1 includes a transaction issue unit 13 that issues a transaction that updates a token. An approval terminal 2 includes an update unit 154 that updates the token in the state database, and a block generation unit 153 that generates the block including the transaction and causes the block and the updated state database to be reflected in the distributed ledger 11. The update unit 154 sets tracking data in the token in the state database, the tracking data including an update block number and token information on the token.