IoT Smart Device Imposing Trust at Blockchain Edge
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Blockchains lack security at their edge interfaces, allowing for potential tampering and corruption of input product data, as they do not enforce trust and cannot prevent counterfeiting or alteration of digital identifiers associated with physical products.
Innovation Solution
Implementing an Internet of Things Smart Device (IoTSD) with cryptographic processors and sensors that tracks the provenance and state of physical products, which communicates securely with a blockchain through an interrogator to establish and verify transactions, ensuring tamper-proof data integrity.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If blockchain is used to maintain product records, then data integrity and traceability are improved, but security at the edge interface is worsened due to potential tampering and corruption of input product data
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by implementing cryptographic verification and digital signature validation at the blockchain edge interface before data is committed to the chain. This pre-verification mechanism ensures that product data integrity is established prior to blockchain recording, preventing tampering at the entry point and resolving the security vulnerability at the edge interface while maintaining data integrity throughout the supply chain
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary component in the form of a cryptographic processor or trusted execution environment that acts as a mediator between physical product sensors and the blockchain network. This intermediary verifies and cryptographically signs data before it reaches the blockchain, creating a trusted layer that prevents edge interface tampering while preserving the reliability benefits of blockchain immutability
2Reliability
If cryptographic processors and sensors are added to IoTSD, then security and trust are improved, but device complexity is worsened
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the cryptographic processor, sensors, and communication interfaces into a single integrated Internet of Things Smart Device (IoTSD) unit. This consolidation reduces overall system complexity by eliminating separate components and interfaces, while still providing the full functionality needed for secure data collection, cryptographic processing, and blockchain interaction, thus improving trust without proportionally increasing complexity
Solution Approach 2:
The IoTSD device is designed as a universal multi-functional unit that combines provenance tracking sensors, state monitoring capabilities, cryptographic processing, and blockchain communication in a single device. This multi-functionality reduces the need for multiple separate devices and interfaces, simplifying the overall system architecture while maintaining high security and trust levels at the blockchain edge
Data Source
AI summary
A processor-implemented method imposes trust at the edge of a blockchain. A hardware interrogator in a terminal interrogates an Internet of Things Smart Device (IoTSD). The IoTSD is an off-line device that is associated with a physical product. The IoTSD includes a cryptographic processor and one or more state sensors that monitor a state of the physical product. The hardware interrogator detects an event that is described by an encrypted entry in the IoTSD. The terminal transmits, to a blockchain, a transaction that describes the event that is detected by the hardware interrogator, such that the blockchain adds the transaction to a blockchain that is dedicated to the physical product, and the blockchain establishes a state of the physical product.