Immutable Ledger Overlay for Data Provenance and Access Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
In the context of data sharing among untrusted parties, existing technologies lack secure and auditable solutions for managing permissions, data provenance, and compliance, particularly in environments where trust is absent and data integrity is crucial, such as in machine learning training.
Innovation Solution
The use of an immutable cryptocurrency ledger to record permissions, control actions, and events within a data store, leveraging blockchain technology to ensure secure data sharing, provenance tracking, and compliance, with support for both public and private blockchains, allowing multiple parties to securely share data without trusting each other.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If traditional data sharing methods are used among untrusted parties, then data sharing can occur, but security and trustworthiness deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a blockchain-based intermediary layer that mediates between untrusted parties. This blockchain acts as a neutral, decentralized mediator that records and verifies data access permissions, provenance, and compliance information without requiring trust between the data sharing parties. The blockchain's immutable ledger provides a trusted reference that all parties can independently verify, resolving the contradiction by enabling secure data sharing without direct trust relationships while maintaining manageable system complexity through standardized protocols.
2Reliability
If immutable ledger technology is implemented for data provenance tracking, then data integrity is improved, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the data management system into distinct functional layers: the immutable blockchain layer for provenance and permission tracking, and the operational data storage layer for actual data operations. This segmentation allows the immutable ledger to handle only metadata about data provenance, permissions, and access control, while the actual data remains in traditional storage systems. By dividing responsibilities, the system achieves reliable provenance tracking without overwhelming system complexity, as each layer operates independently with optimized functionality.
3Reliability
If blockchain technology is used for access control, then security is improved, but operational efficiency deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary action by pre-recording access permissions, data provenance, and compliance rules in the blockchain before actual data access occurs. Smart contracts encode access control policies in advance, and the blockchain ledger预先 stores permission information and data metadata. When data access is requested, the system performs quick verification against these pre-established rules rather than executing complex consensus protocols for each access request. This preliminary setup enables secure access control with improved operational efficiency, as the heavy blockchain verification occurs only during permission establishment, not during routine data access operations.
Data Source
AI summary
A data management system is disclosed for data provenance and data storage that allows multiple independent parties (who may not trust each other) to securely share data, track data provenance, maintain audit logs, keep data synchronized, comply with regulations, and handle permissioning and control who can access the data. The system leverages security guarantees derived from the computer systems already trusted to control billions of dollars of Bitcoin and Ethereum cryptocurrencies to create a secure and completely auditable system of document tracking that can be shared among untrusted parties over a computer network. Certain instances work both with public blockchains like Bitcoin and Ethereum and with private blockchains.