Document Management via Merkle Tree Blockchain Timestamping
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current document management systems lack efficient methods for securely tracking and verifying the existence and ownership of documents over time, particularly in digital formats, and for ensuring confidentiality and integrity of document versions.
Innovation Solution
The solution involves segmenting documents into smaller parts, performing cryptographic operations using random values, building a Merkle tree, and storing the top hash in a blockchain, which allows for secure timestamping and access control, enabling verification of document existence and ownership.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If documents are stored in digital format with version management, then document accessibility and tracking are improved, but document security and confidentiality are compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The document is divided into multiple segments, each independently hashed and stored in the blockchain. This segmentation allows selective access to specific document parts while maintaining security through cryptographic hashing, resolving the contradiction between accessibility and security.
Solution Approach 2:
A Merkle tree structure serves as an intermediary between the document segments and the blockchain. The Merkle root hash provides a secure summary that can be verified without revealing the actual document content, enabling accessibility through verification while maintaining security through cryptographic protection.
2Reliability
If cryptographic operations are performed on each document segment, then document integrity and ownership verification are improved, but computational complexity and processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
By segmenting the document and applying cryptographic operations to individual segments rather than the entire document, the computational complexity is distributed and reduced. Each segment undergoes independent hashing, making the overall process more manageable while maintaining integrity verification.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of performing cryptographic operations on the entire document for every verification, the system performs operations only on specific segments or uses pre-computed Merkle tree hashes. This partial action approach maintains document integrity verification while significantly reducing computational overhead.
3Reliability
If a Merkle tree is built from document segments with random values, then document confidentiality is improved, but storage requirements and processing overhead increase
Solution Approach 1:
The actual document content is extracted and kept separate from the blockchain storage. Only the cryptographic hashes of document segments and the Merkle root are stored in the blockchain. This extraction approach maintains confidentiality through cryptographic protection while significantly reducing storage requirements.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of storing the actual document segments in the blockchain, the system stores cryptographic copies (hashes) of the segments. These hash copies are sufficient for verification purposes while occupying minimal storage space in the distributed ledger.
4Loss of time
If timestamping is implemented in the blockchain, then proof of document existence over time is improved, but blockchain size and transaction processing time increase
Solution Approach 1:
The timestamp information is extracted and stored as a separate field in the blockchain transaction, rather than embedding the entire document or extensive metadata. This extraction approach provides proof of existence timing while keeping the blockchain transaction size minimal.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of storing the actual document content in the blockchain for timestamping purposes, the system stores a cryptographic copy (hash) of the document along with the timestamp. This copy approach provides temporal proof while maintaining efficient blockchain size and transaction processing.
Data Source
AI summary
According to an example aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processing core, at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code being configured to, with the at least one processing core, cause the apparatus at least to obtain a document, segmented into a first number of segments (510), obtain the first number of outputs of a cryptographic operation, such that for each output, a random value and a document segment are employed to generate an input to the cryptographic operation (520), build a Merkle tree based on the outputs of the cryptographic operation (530), and store a top hash of the Merkle tree in a block chain (540).