Certified Document Lifecycle Tracking via Watermark and Distributed Ledger
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current methods for verifying the authenticity and integrity of documents are prone to human error, data leaks, and do not effectively track the lifecycle of certified documents, especially for both digital and digitalized documents, lacking robustness and universality in storage and access.
Innovation Solution
A computer-implemented method using a distributed ledger to track the lifecycle of certified documents by applying a watermark to the document, storing transaction information, and using cryptographic functions to ensure document integrity and authenticity, allowing for real-time verification and secure metadata management across multiple systems.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a document is certified with administrative reference code and emission date, then document authenticity can be verified, but integrity cannot be guaranteed and human intervention is required
Solution Approach 1:
A digital fingerprint is embedded into the document at the moment of certification, before any potential alterations. This preliminary action creates a reference copy that can be automatically compared against future versions, eliminating the need for manual intervention while ensuring both authenticity and integrity verification.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of relying on administrative reference codes, the system creates an exact digital copy of the document's essential characteristics (fingerprint) and stores it in a distributed ledger. This copying mechanism enables automatic comparison and verification, resolving the contradiction between reliability and ease of operation.
2Reliability
If the whole document is stored and provided for verification, then both authenticity and integrity can be checked, but data leak risk increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts only the essential identifying characteristics of the document (digital fingerprint) and stores them in the distributed ledger, rather than storing the entire document. This extraction principle allows integrity verification while minimizing data exposure and eliminating data leak risks associated with storing complete document copies.
Solution Approach 2:
Different parts of the verification system store different types of information: the distributed ledger stores only cryptographic fingerprints and metadata, while the original document remains with the certifying authority. This local quality differentiation ensures that even if the ledger is accessed, sensitive document content is not exposed, resolving the contradiction between verification reliability and data security.
3Reliability
If digital certificates are used for document certification, then authenticity can be guaranteed, but the solution only works for digital documents and relies on trusted third parties
Solution Approach 1:
The distributed ledger system serves multiple functions: it stores digital fingerprints for both digital and digitalized documents, provides timestamping services, enables integrity verification, and eliminates the need for trusted third parties. This multi-functionality allows the system to handle various document types universally while maintaining security and reliability.
Solution Approach 2:
The system enables documents to self-verify their authenticity and integrity through cryptographic proofs stored in the distributed ledger. Documents carry their own verification credentials (fingerprints and timestamps) that can be independently validated without requiring intervention from trusted third parties, thus resolving the contradiction between reliability and adaptability.
4Reliability
If document lifecycle tracking is implemented, then all operations can be monitored, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
A document manager is pre-configured and registered in the distributed ledger before any document operations occur. This preliminary setup establishes the tracking framework in advance, allowing all subsequent operations to be automatically recorded and traced without adding complex real-time processing requirements, thus resolving the contradiction between traceability and system complexity.
Data Source
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AI summary
The method comprises certifying with integrity and authenticity guarantees, by a second system (20), a received document (Do) by applying a watermark to the document (Do) providing a modified document. Upon the modified document (Dw) is submitted to a transaction, receiving, by a fourth system (40), an identifier of the document (Dw) and an identifier of an operation executed on the document (Dw) during said transaction; storing, by the fourth system (40), information about the transaction in a third computer system (30), the latter executing a computer program storing pairings of said identifier of the document (Dw) and a hash value of the transaction and sending the hash value to the fourth system (40). The latter storing an address of the computer program, an interface thereof and the identifier of the document (Dw) into a record of a database, usable to track future transactions executed on the document (Dw).