Immutable Data Management with Digital Signatures and Snapshots
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Solution Overview
Problem
The management of large amounts of geographic spatial data (Geodata) is challenging due to difficulties in verifying and auditing changes made by multiple parties, leading to inefficient querying and lack of traceability and auditability, with existing solutions either relying heavily on centralized management or being inefficient in terms of computing and storage resources.
Innovation Solution
A client-server model with immutable storage is implemented, using private and public key pairs for digital signing of data and metadata, along with snapshot techniques and collaborative rating mechanisms to facilitate traceability, auditability, and efficient querying of cumulative updates.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If centralized management is used to manage large amounts of geographic spatial data, then data security and control are improved, but traceability and auditability of changes made by multiple parties deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the centralized data management system into distributed nodes that each maintain local copies of the geospatial data. Each node independently validates and stores data changes with cryptographic signatures, eliminating the single-point control bottleneck while maintaining security. This segmentation allows multiple parties to contribute changes that are independently traceable to their sources.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces cryptographic hash functions and digital signatures as intermediary mechanisms that mediate between data contributors and the storage system. These intermediaries provide mathematical proof of data origin and integrity without requiring centralized verification, enabling automatic traceability of all changes while maintaining security through cryptographic validation.
2Quantity of substance
If cumulative updates are applied to geospatial data from multiple parties, then data completeness is improved, but querying efficiency deteriorates due to long wait times for merging updates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent performs preliminary actions by pre-computing and storing cryptographic hashes of all data versions and their relationships in a merkle tree structure. This preliminary organization of data allows for efficient verification and querying without requiring actual merging of all update data, significantly reducing query wait times while maintaining complete data availability.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates cryptographic copies (hashes) of the geospatial data that can be queried and verified without accessing or merging the actual large-volume geospatial datasets. These cryptographic copies serve as lightweight proxies that enable efficient querying while the complete data remains available for when actual data access is needed.
3Loss of information
If blockchain technology is used to store and verify geospatial data changes, then auditability is improved, but computing and storage resource consumption increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential audit trail information (cryptographic hashes, timestamps, and contributor identifiers) from the full geospatial data and stores these extracted elements in a blockchain-like structure. This extraction approach maintains complete auditability by preserving the cryptographic proof of all changes while avoiding the excessive resource consumption of storing entire geospatial datasets in the blockchain.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses lightweight cryptographic hash objects that are computationally inexpensive to generate and store compared to full data copies. These hash objects serve as disposable audit tokens that provide verification capability without requiring substantial computing or storage resources, making the audit trail scalable.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems and methods which provide for auditable data are described. Data management systems of embodiments facilitate storage and management of various data (e.g., information regarding transactions, customers, infrastructure, geographic locations, medical records, etc.) for supporting data creation, manipulation, storing, and/or sharing by and among different parties. Users may create new and/or update data, digitally sign the data, and store the digital signature and data on immutable storage using data structures of a data management system. A data structure in which data and associated metadata is stored on immutable storage in association with a digital signature corresponding to the data and user may be used in providing data traceability and auditability. Snapshots of merged data may be implemented with respect to data having many updates to avoid delays in merging update data for queries for that data. A collaborative rating mechanism may provide trust levels with respect to the data.