Salted Short Hashing for Blockchain Block Compression
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Solution Overview
Problem
Blockchain ledgers grow indefinitely, requiring more efficient data storage and transmission methods to manage transactions, as existing compact block methods do not provide sufficient compression efficiency for all blockchain systems.
Innovation Solution
Implementing lossy block compression with salted short hashing, which reduces transaction representation to 40-bits, using a cryptographic salt and short hash functions like CRC32, allowing for higher compression ratios without relying on consistent mempools across full nodes, and enabling bandwidth savings by transmitting TXID-HASH lists instead of original transactions.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Quantity of substance
If compact blocks use TXID (32-byte SHA256 hash) to represent transactions, then bandwidth savings of approximately 10 times are achieved, but blockchain ledgers still grow indefinitely and compression efficiency is insufficient for some systems
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameter of hash length from the conventional 32 bytes (256 bits) to shorter lengths (e.g., 16 bytes or less), and introduces a salt value parameter to modify the hashing process. This allows achieving higher compression ratios while managing collision probabilities through the additional salt parameter rather than relying solely on longer hash values.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces a salt value as an intermediary element in the hashing process. This salt is combined with the transaction data before hashing, creating a modified hash function that reduces collision probability without requiring longer hash outputs. The salt acts as a mediator that enhances the uniqueness of hashed values while maintaining compact representation.
2Quantity of substance
If shorter hash functions are used to achieve higher compression ratios, then data size reduction is improved, but collision probability increases
Solution Approach 1:
The salt value serves as an intermediary that compensates for the information loss inherent in shorter hash functions. By combining the salt with transaction data before hashing, the system maintains higher discrimination power without requiring longer hash outputs, thus reducing collisions while preserving compression efficiency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a composite hashing approach by combining multiple elements (transaction data + salt value) through the hashing process. This composite input to the hash function increases the effective input space, allowing shorter output lengths to maintain lower collision probabilities compared to hashing transaction data alone.
3Quantity of substance
If bloom filters or IBLT are used for compression, then transaction representation size is reduced, but additional data structures are required which increase system complexity
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts and removes the complex auxiliary data structures (bloom filters, IBLT) from the compression system, replacing them with a simpler approach using only modified hashing with salt values. This extraction eliminates the need for maintaining additional probabilistic data structures while achieving similar or better compression results.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces complex, memory-intensive data structures with simple, lightweight hash values that are computationally inexpensive and require minimal storage. The salted short hashes act as disposable, lightweight representations that achieve compression without the overhead of maintaining sophisticated data structures.
Data Source
AI summary
Compression techniques by pre-sorting transactions in a consistent way. In at least one embodiment, the compression does not rely on consistent mempool across full nodes. Transactions in a block can be hashed and sorted. Ambiguity can arise from the hashes, which can be resolved using various techniques.