Blockchain Transaction Privacy via Homomorphic Encryption

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current blockchain transaction systems lack efficient methods for maintaining transaction confidentiality and privacy, as they often record sensitive asset information, making it difficult to ensure the confidentiality of transaction amounts and account balances.

Innovation Solution

The method employs homomorphic encryption and off-chain channels to encrypt transaction amounts and asset information, allowing for secure and confidential transactions by using commitments and range proofs to verify transaction validity without revealing sensitive data, ensuring that only commitments are recorded on the blockchain.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If transaction amounts and asset information are recorded on the blockchain, then transaction validity can be verified, but transaction confidentiality and privacy are compromised

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetransaction validity verificationVSAvoidtransaction confidentiality
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSLoss of information

Solution Approach 1:

The patent extracts sensitive information (transaction amounts and asset details) from the blockchain record by storing only cryptographic commitments instead of actual values. The real transaction data is kept off-chain, allowing verification of transaction validity through commitment proofs while preventing exposure of confidential information on the public ledger.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The patent introduces cryptographic commitments as an intermediary between the actual transaction data and the blockchain record. These commitments serve as verifiable proxies that enable transaction validation without revealing the underlying sensitive information, acting as a mediator that satisfies both verification and confidentiality requirements.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Loss of information

If encryption algorithms are applied to transaction amounts, then transaction confidentiality is improved, but verification complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvetransaction confidentialityVSAvoidverification complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
Loss of informationVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The patent applies preliminary action by pre-computing cryptographic commitments and inclusion proofs before transactions are submitted to the blockchain. Range proofs and other verification elements are prepared in advance, so that when transactions are verified on-chain, the complex cryptographic validation has already been partially completed, reducing the burden on network nodes.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The patent uses cryptographic commitments as copies or representations of the actual transaction amounts. Instead of storing and verifying the real values directly, the system works with these cryptographic replicas that contain all necessary verification information but reveal no sensitive data, simplifying the verification process while maintaining confidentiality.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #26Copying

Data Source

PatentEP3776429B1Method, apparatus and electronic device for blockchain transactions
Publication Date: 2024.05.01 ADVANCED NEW TECHNOLOGIES CO LTD
  • EP3776429B1 patent drawingFigure 1
  • EP3776429B1 patent drawingFigure 2
  • EP3776429B1 patent drawingFigure 3

AI summary

A method comprises: selecting one or more blockchain assets from a remitter's blockchain account according to a transaction amount of a transaction to be remitted from the remitter0s blockchain account into a receiver's blockchain account, wherein a total asset amount represented by the selected one or more blockchain assets is not less than the transaction amount, and a commitment of an individual asset amount represented by each of the selected one or more blockchain assets is recorded in a blockchain: generating a commitment of the transaction amount; and submitting to the blockchain the transaction comprising information of the selected one or more blockchain assets and the commitment of the transaction amount, for the selected one or more blockchain assets to be removed from the remitter's blockchain account and one or more blockchain assets corresponding the commitment of the transaction amount to be added to the receiver's blockchain account.