Decentralized Identity Management via Blockchain Segmentation
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Solution Overview
Problem
Centralized database systems are vulnerable to single points of failure, network dependency, data redundancy issues, and limited access, making them prone to data loss and security risks due to centralized user attribute control.
Innovation Solution
A decentralized database identity management system utilizing a blockchain network with attribute custodians, identity consumers, and smart contracts to store and manage user profile attributes across multiple external stores, ensuring data redundancy, immutability, and controlled access through blockchain transactions and metadata.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If a centralized database is used to store user profile data, then data management and control are simplified, but the system becomes vulnerable to single points of failure and data loss
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the centralized database into multiple distributed nodes across a blockchain network. Each node stores copies of user profile data, eliminating the single point of failure. The data is segmented across multiple external stores and blockchain nodes, ensuring that if one node fails, data remains accessible from other nodes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates multiple copies of user profile data stored across different nodes in the blockchain network. Each node maintains identical or redundant copies of the data, ensuring data availability even when some nodes are unavailable. This copying mechanism directly addresses the reliability issue while maintaining ease of access.
2Quantity of substance
If a centralized database stores all user profile data in one location, then data redundancy is minimized, but the system experiences bottlenecks during high traffic and limited access
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized data storage into multiple distributed nodes. Each node can independently process requests, eliminating bottlenecks during high traffic. The segmentation allows parallel access to data across multiple nodes, improving productivity while maintaining controlled redundancy through the distributed architecture.
3Stability of the object's composition
If a centralized database maintains a single copy of data, then data integrity is simplified, but multiple devices cannot access the same data simultaneously without risking data overwriting
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces blockchain technology as an intermediary layer that manages concurrent access to user profile data. The blockchain's consensus mechanism and transaction validation process ensure that multiple devices can access and modify data simultaneously without risking corruption. The intermediary layer coordinates access across distributed nodes, maintaining data integrity while enabling versatile concurrent access.
4Device complexity
If a centralized database is used for identity management, then user attribute control is simplified, but the system becomes vulnerable to tampering and security risks
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized control mechanism into distributed control across multiple blockchain nodes. Each node independently validates and stores user attribute data, eliminating the single point of vulnerability. The segmentation ensures that tampering with one node does not compromise the entire system, as other nodes maintain valid copies and can reject malicious changes.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements blockchain consensus mechanisms that provide continuous feedback on data validity. Each transaction modifying user profile data must be validated by multiple nodes before being committed to the blockchain. This feedback loop ensures that any attempted tampering is detected and rejected by the network, maintaining security while preserving a relatively simple control interface for users.
Data Source
AI summary
An example operation may include one or more of receiving, by a blockchain node or peer of a blockchain network, attribute data for a user profile, creating blockchain transactions to store attribute hashes and metadata to a shared ledger, receiving a user profile query from an identity consumer, creating blockchain transactions to retrieve attribute hashes and metadata corresponding to the query, reconstructing the user profile from the metadata, responding to the query by providing attribute data to the identity consumer, and creating and storing hashes of the attribute data and metadata to the shared ledger.