Symmetric Hash Operator for Journal Integrity Verification
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Solution Overview
Problem
Database management systems face challenges in providing advanced security and auditing capabilities, such as cryptographic verification of transaction history, while maintaining high transaction throughput rates.
Innovation Solution
A journaled database management system employs a cryptographic hash tree structure with threaded leaf nodes and a symmetric hash operator to support cryptographic verification features, enabling high transaction commit rates and integrity verification.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If cryptographic verification techniques are implemented to verify transaction history integrity, then security and auditing capabilities are improved, but transaction throughput rate deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the cryptographic verification process by organizing transaction history into a Merkle tree structure where only relevant hash values need to be verified. Instead of verifying entire transaction histories, the system divides verification into discrete proof units (Merkle proofs) that can be independently validated, enabling parallel processing and maintaining high throughput while ensuring integrity.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces Merkle tree hash values as intermediaries between the transaction history and verification processes. The root hash acts as a compact representative of the entire transaction history, allowing verifiers to check integrity without examining individual transactions. This intermediary layer enables efficient batch verification while maintaining security guarantees.
2Measurement precision
If detailed cryptographic proofs are provided to verify transaction history, then verification accuracy is improved, but proof complexity and knowledge required increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent extracts only the essential verification information needed for cryptographic verification. Instead of providing complete transaction history or detailed proof data, the system extracts and transmits only the necessary Merkle path hash values and root hash. This extraction maintains verification accuracy while dramatically reducing proof complexity and the knowledge required by verifiers.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements partial verification by providing only the specific portion of cryptographic proof necessary to verify transaction inclusion and integrity. The Merkle proof structure allows verifiers to obtain exactly the amount of information needed (the path from leaf to root) without receiving excessive data, achieving verification accuracy with minimal proof complexity.
Data Source
AI summary
A database management system stores an entry in a journal. The journal, upon storage of the entry, comprising a hierarchy of nodes. A node in the hierarchy comprises a hash value computed by application of a symmetric hash operator to hash values of first and second child nodes. The symmetric hash operator generates equivalent output irrespective of the order of the operands. A cryptographic proof of the entry comprises successive application of the symmetric hash operator to a list of hashes from the hierarchy.