Hybrid Blockchain and Distributed File System Data Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional data storage systems face inefficiencies and high costs when storing important and unimportant data together, as they often require secure but expensive blockchain storage for all data, while inexpensive distributed file systems are unsuitable for critical data.
Innovation Solution
Classifying data into critical and noncritical categories, with critical data stored on a blockchain like Ethereum and noncritical data stored in a distributed file system like IPFS, using addresses on the blockchain to retrieve noncritical data from the file system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If all data is stored in a blockchain for security and persistence, then data security and reliability are improved, but storage costs and system complexity increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into two categories: critical data stored on the blockchain and noncritical data stored in distributed file systems. This segmentation allows the system to apply different storage strategies to different data types, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining security for important information.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies local quality by storing only critical data (such as transaction hashes, titles, and essential metadata) on the blockchain, while noncritical data (such as product descriptions, images, and videos) is stored in distributed file systems. This localized approach optimizes the use of expensive blockchain storage for only what is essential.
2Loss of energy
If critical data is stored on blockchain and noncritical data on distributed file system, then storage costs are reduced, but data retrieval complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-storing the relationship between critical and noncritical data in the blockchain. When data needs to be retrieved, the system first queries the blockchain for the critical data and the stored references to noncritical data, then automatically retrieves and combines the noncritical data from distributed file systems. This pre-organized structure simplifies the retrieval process despite the distributed nature of the storage system.
3Loss of energy
If noncritical data is stored in distributed file system, then storage cost efficiency is improved, but data persistence and security are reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent uses the blockchain as an intermediary that stores critical data and metadata references. This intermediary ensures that even if noncritical data in distributed file systems is lost or corrupted, the system can recover by retrieving the critical data and references from the blockchain, thereby maintaining data persistence and integrity for essential information.
Data Source
AI summary
Technologies are shown for storing data from a data object in a distributed application architecture and reassembling the data object from the stored data. A first set of data from the data object is stored on a distributed file system, and a second set of data from the data object is stored on a blockchain. In response to a request for the data object, a script from the blockchain is executed to generate a reassembled data object by: obtaining, from the blockchain, metadata to reassemble the data object, obtaining the second set of data from the blockchain and the first set of data from the distributed file system, and generating the reassembled data object using the first set of data and the second set of data based on the metadata.