Smart Contract Execution Hierarchy for Regulatory Conflict Resolution

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Solution Overview

Problem

The challenge lies in managing and enforcing regulatory compliance and preventing conflicts or overlaps among smart contracts deployed on various blockchains within an enterprise, as existing blockchain technologies lack mechanisms for automated, distributed regulation and standardization, leading to potential legal and regulatory violations.

Innovation Solution

Implementing a smart contract execution hierarchy on a blockchain, where a master smart contract with the highest priority governs all other contracts, ensuring compliance through validator nodes that verify and resolve conflicts or overlaps by comparing and modifying new smart contracts against the master contract's terms, thereby maintaining regulatory and legal integrity.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Productivity

If multiple smart contracts are deployed on blockchain without hierarchy enforcement, then deployment flexibility and speed are improved, but regulatory compliance and conflict prevention deteriorate

Engineering Contradiction:
Improvesmart contract deployment speedVSAvoidregulatory compliance
Core Design Contradiction:
ProductivityVSReliability

Solution Approach 1:

The master smart contract is pre-deployed on the blockchain with regulatory compliance rules and conflict resolution logic embedded before any subordinate contracts are deployed. This preliminary action establishes the hierarchy and compliance framework in advance, enabling automatic enforcement without slowing down subsequent contract deployments.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #10Preliminary action

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements automated feedback mechanisms where validator nodes continuously monitor smart contract interactions against the master contract's regulatory rules. When conflicts or compliance violations are detected, the system automatically triggers resolution processes that modify or reject transactions, ensuring ongoing regulatory compliance without manual intervention.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #23Feedback

2Reliability

If automated conflict resolution mechanisms are implemented, then regulatory compliance is improved, but system complexity increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveconflict resolution accuracyVSAvoidvalidation system complexity
Core Design Contradiction:
ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The master smart contract contains self-executing code that automatically detects conflicts with subordinate contracts and resolves them according to pre-defined regulatory rules. The system performs self-validation and self-correction without requiring complex external validation infrastructure, reducing overall system complexity while maintaining high conflict resolution accuracy.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The compliance validation logic is nested within the smart contract code itself rather than being implemented as separate external validation systems. The master contract's regulatory rules are embedded as executable code that automatically validates subordinate contracts, creating a compact hierarchical structure that reduces system complexity while maintaining comprehensive compliance checking.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #7Nested doll (Nesting)

3Measurement precision

If validator nodes perform comprehensive term comparison, then conflict detection accuracy is improved, but processing time increases

Engineering Contradiction:
Improveconflict detection accuracyVSAvoidtransaction validation time
Core Design Contradiction:
Measurement precisionVSLoss of time

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts and compares only the critical regulatory terms and conflict-relevant parameters from smart contract code, rather than performing comprehensive comparison of all contract terms. This selective extraction approach maintains high conflict detection accuracy for compliance-critical elements while significantly reducing validation processing time by ignoring non-essential contract details.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The validation system dynamically adjusts the depth and scope of term comparison based on the priority and type of smart contract being validated. High-priority contracts requiring strict regulatory compliance undergo comprehensive term comparison, while lower-priority contracts receive streamlined validation, optimizing the balance between detection accuracy and processing time across different contract types.

Inventive Principle:
Principle #35Parameter changes

Data Source

PatentUS11663609B2Method and apparatus to enforce smart contract execution hierarchy on blockchain
Publication Date: 2023.05.30 INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINE CORPORATION
  • US11663609B2 patent drawing
  • US11663609B2 patent drawing
  • US11663609B2 patent drawing

AI summary

The present disclosure relates to the enforcement of a smart contract execution hierarchy on a blockchain. A method includes receiving a submission of a first smart contract to be appended to a blockchain, comparing a priority value of the first smart contract to a priority value of a second smart contract previously appended to the blockchain, determining based on the comparison that the first smart contract has a lower priority than the second smart contract, comparing the terms of the first smart contract to the terms of the second smart contract, determining at least one of an overlap and a conflict between the terms of the first smart contract and the terms of the second smart contract, resolving any terms of the first smart contract that are determined to overlap or conflict with the terms of the second smart contract, and appending the resolved first smart contract to the blockchain.