Volt Blockchain System Outsourcing Ledger Creation

Resolve Bottlenecks,
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions

Solution Overview

Problem

Existing blockchain systems face limitations in security, privacy, performance, and cost, particularly in permissioned environments, where they struggle to balance decentralization with the need for trusted infrastructure, leading to inefficiencies and high resource usage.

Innovation Solution

The Volt system introduces a blockchain service provider (BSP) and the Caesar consensus protocol, allowing member nodes to outsource ledger creation and updates to an untrusted BSP while ensuring consensus and detecting misbehavior, enabling secure, efficient, and confidential blockchain networks that can operate on untrusted infrastructure.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If all nodes execute all smart contracts sequentially, then consistency is maintained, but performance deteriorates and resource usage increases

Engineering Contradiction:

ImproveconsistencyVSAvoidtransaction throughput

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSProductivity

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments smart contract execution by introducing orderers that specialize in ordering transactions and leaders that execute contracts. This divides the work from the sequential execution model where all nodes run all contracts, enabling parallel processing while maintaining consistency through the ordered ledger structure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Solution Approach 2:

The orderer acts as an intermediary component between transaction submission and contract execution. It receives transactions, orders them according to business logic, and feeds them to leaders for execution, eliminating the need for all nodes to process all contracts sequentially.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #24Intermediary (Mediator)

2Reliability

If trusted infrastructure is used, then security is improved, but cost and deployment complexity increase

Engineering Contradiction:

ImprovesecurityVSAvoiddeployment complexity

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSDevice complexity

Solution Approach 1:

The system enables nodes to self-verify contract execution through the ordered ledger mechanism. Each node can independently validate that contracts were executed in the correct order according to the ordered transactions, eliminating the need for complex trusted infrastructure while maintaining security.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #25Self-service

Solution Approach 2:

The system implements feedback mechanisms where nodes receive ordered ledgers and can verify execution correctness. This feedback loop allows nodes to detect and report inconsistencies, providing security without requiring fully trusted infrastructure.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #23Feedback

3Ease of manufacture

If consensus protocols are hard-coded, then implementation is simplified, but adaptability deteriorates

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveimplementation simplicityVSAvoidconsensus flexibility

Core Design Contradiction:

Ease of manufactureVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system makes the ordering logic dynamic by allowing the orderer to receive transaction orders from multiple sources (blockchain, IPFS, local database) and adaptively sequence them based on business requirements. This dynamic ordering capability provides flexibility without hard-coding specific consensus protocols.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #15Dynamics

Data Source

PatentEP3652886B1blockchain

Publication Date: 2023.07.12 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3

AI summary

This description relates to secure, efficient, confidential, and/or outsourced blockchain networks, which can enable a group of mutually distrusting participants to securely share state and then agree on a linear history of operations on that shared state.