Hash Contract Generation for Secure Electronic Transmission
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current techniques for generating and verifying electronic contracts on public networks are inefficient, insecure, and prone to fraudulent activities due to the unsecured nature of these networks, making it difficult for contracting parties to provide verifiable intent and securely transmit contract data.
Innovation Solution
A computer-generated Hash Contract system using a cryptographic hash function, such as SHA-256 or SHA-512, that creates a binding agreement in a compact format, allowing authentication and secure transmission, even if intercepted, by including metadata and using a single-use key for security.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If electronic contracts are transmitted over public networks, then contract transmission efficiency is improved, but security and authenticity are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary hashing of contract elements before transmission. A hash function is applied to contract elements (offer, acceptance, terms) to generate a hash code that serves as a digital fingerprint. This preliminary action enables later verification of authenticity without compromising transmission efficiency, as the hash code is computed once and can be verified multiple times.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a hash code as an intermediary between the original contract elements and the transmitted data. The hash code acts as a mediator that represents the contract's integrity without exposing sensitive information. When contracts are transmitted over networks, only the hash code needs to be verified, not the entire contract content, thus maintaining security while enabling efficient transmission.
2Loss of information
If contract data is transmitted in full format, then completeness is ensured, but network bandwidth consumption increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts essential verification information from the complete contract data by applying a hash function. Instead of transmitting or verifying entire contract documents, only the extracted hash code is used for authentication. This extraction process maintains the completeness verification capability while dramatically reducing the amount of data that needs to be transmitted over the network.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a compact copy of the contract's essential verification properties through hashing. The hash code serves as a condensed representation that captures the integrity of the original contract elements without requiring the transmission of the full contract text. This copying approach ensures that verification can be performed on a small data subset while maintaining confidence in the complete contract's integrity.
3Reliability
If cryptographic hash functions are used for contract verification, then security is enhanced, but computational complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes the parameter of data representation from full contract text to compact hash codes. By transforming the verification problem from comparing large text documents to comparing small hash values, the computational complexity is significantly reduced. Modern cryptographic hash functions like SHA-256 are designed to be computationally efficient, providing strong security guarantees while requiring minimal processing power compared to alternative verification methods.
Data Source
AI summary
A hash contract is disclosed herein. A hash contract may be a value generated by a device using a hash function. The hash contract itself may represent a legally enforceable contract. The hash contract may be structured in a manner such that a device operated by a contracting party can transmit a legally enforceable contract over a network using a smaller file size than is possible with conventional secure transaction techniques. In addition, the manner in which the hash contract is generated allows a receiving device to verify that the contract elements of the contract are as expected and to verify an identity of a user that allegedly accepted the contract. Thus, even if a malicious user attempts to alter contract elements or perform other fraudulent activity, the receiving device can use the hash contract to identify such activity and prevent a transaction from being completed.