Correlation-Based Hash Tree Verification for Blockchain

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current blockchain systems face performance bottlenecks when updating Merkle tree hashes due to the random and uniform mapping of key-values to buckets, which does not utilize the correlation between data values, leading to unnecessary hash computations.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a key-bucket map that correlates key-value pairs and maps them to the same or adjacent buckets in the hash tree, reducing the number of buckets that need to be updated during hash verification, thereby improving processing speed by minimizing hash computations.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Device complexity

If key-values are mapped uniformly and randomly to buckets in the Merkle tree, then data distribution is simplified, but the number of hash computations increases during updates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata distribution complexityVSAvoidhash computation efficiency

Core Design Contradiction:

Device complexityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system pre-computes and stores a mapping between key-values and their corresponding bucket locations in the Merkle tree before actual data updates occur. This preliminary mapping allows the system to quickly identify which specific buckets need updating during transactions, avoiding the need to compute hashes for all buckets and significantly improving update efficiency

Inventive Principle:

Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The invention divides the Merkle tree into distinct buckets and creates a separate mapping structure that tracks which key-values belong to which buckets. This segmentation allows independent updating of individual buckets without affecting the entire tree, reducing the computational scope during hash updates from O(n) to O(1) or O(log n) depending on the tree structure

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

2Reliability

If all buckets are updated during hash verification, then data consistency is ensured, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvedata consistencyVSAvoidverification processing time

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts and isolates only the specific buckets that contain updated key-values from the entire Merkle tree structure. By using the pre-computed mapping, the verification process can focus exclusively on these extracted buckets rather than re-verifying all buckets, maintaining data consistency while dramatically reducing verification time from O(n) to O(k) where k is the number of updated buckets

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

Instead of performing complete verification of all buckets in the Merkle tree, the system performs partial verification only on the specific buckets that contain updated data. This partial action is sufficient to ensure data consistency for the updated portions while avoiding the excessive time cost of verifying unchanged data

Inventive Principle:

Principle #16Partial or excessive action

Data Source

PatentUS11489663B2Correlation-based hash tree verification

Publication Date: 2022.11.01 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION

AI summary

An example operation may include one or more of receiving a request to verify a data store which stores key-value pairs, mapping values of key-value pairs of the data store to nodes of a hash tree structure based on a key-bucket map in which correlated key-value pairs are mapped to a same bucket or adjacent buckets within the hash tree structure, generating a root hash of the hash tree structure based on the values of the key-value pairs mapped to the nodes of the hash tree structure, and storing the generated root hash with a storage.