Proxy Re-Encryption Personal Data Storage
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional personal data storage services face issues with data loss due to centralized storage vulnerabilities, limited blockchain storage capacity, high transaction fees, and security risks, particularly when managing multiple encryption keys for multiple data requesters and storing sensitive data outside the blockchain network.
Innovation Solution
A method using proxy re-encryption technology to generate and manage encoded data with random keys, distributing copies of encoded data across multiple storage nodes, and using smart contracts to ensure secure access and availability, reducing the need for individual encryption keys and storage capacity for each data requester.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If conventional centralized cloud storage is used, then data storage capacity is sufficient, but data security and availability deteriorate due to single point of failure
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments data into multiple encoded fragments and distributes them across multiple storage nodes instead of storing complete data in a single centralized location. This segmentation approach enhances security (any single node compromise doesn't reveal full data) and availability (data can be reconstructed from any sufficient subset of nodes), directly resolving the technical contradiction between reliability and complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary encoding/decoding mechanism using secret sharing schemes and cryptographic protocols. The data is encoded into multiple shares before distribution, and reconstruction requires collaboration among multiple nodes. This intermediary process protects data security while maintaining manageable system complexity through standardized cryptographic operations.
2Reliability
If blockchain technology is used for distributed storage, then data security improves, but storage capacity and transaction efficiency deteriorate due to limited blockchain capacity and high gas fees
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential cryptographic hashes and access control metadata onto the blockchain, while storing the actual data fragments off-chain in distributed storage networks. This extraction approach maintains data security through blockchain's immutable ledger for verification purposes while avoiding blockchain's storage capacity limitations and high transaction fees for large data operations.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent moves data storage from the single-dimensional blockchain ledger to a multi-dimensional architecture combining blockchain (for security and verification) with off-chain distributed storage networks (for capacity and efficiency). This dimensional transition resolves the contradiction by utilizing the strengths of both systems in appropriate layers.
3Reliability
If multiple individual encryption keys are managed for each data requester, then data access security improves, but storage capacity and management complexity deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal access control mechanism where a single set of smart contract-based policies and cryptographic protocols serves multiple data requesters. Instead of managing individual encryption keys for each user, the system uses role-based access control and threshold cryptography that works universally across all requesters, reducing storage requirements while maintaining access security.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges individual access control mechanisms into a unified secret sharing system. Multiple users' access rights are combined into a single threshold scheme where any sufficient subset of authorized users can reconstruct the data together. This merging eliminates the need for separate key management for each user, reducing storage capacity requirements while preserving collective access security.
Data Source
AI summary
A method for providing a personal data storage service between a first user who is a data provider and a second user who is a data requester by using a smart contract based on a first layer and a privacy layer and a storage layer based on a second layer is provided. The method has an effect of generating encoded subject data made by encoding subject data by using a random key as an encryption key generated through a data provider terminal, to thereby prevent the personal storage service provider from decoding the subject data. Further, the method has another effect of saving the storage for use in PDS service, since there is no need to generate each of encoded encryption key and encoded subject data in line with each of data requester even if the number of data requesters increase by implementing using a proxy re-encryption technology.