Methods of electing leader nodes in a blockchain network using a role-based consensus protocol

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11503036-B2
Application number	US-201916351637-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 13, 2019
Priority date	Mar 13, 2019
Publication date	Nov 15, 2022
Grant date	Nov 15, 2022

Abstract

A method for electing a leader in a blockchain network using a role-based consensus protocol includes generating a new block by a node in the blockchain network and computing an effective resources metric for the node based on a role of the node, resources of the node and a role-based weight profile for the resources of the node. Eligibility proof of the node is generated based on eligibility information that includes a blockheader of the new block, an identity of the node, a difficulty target, T, of the blockchain network, and the effective resources metric. The new block and the eligibility proof is broadcast to the blockchain network, to enable one or more other nodes in the blockchain network to verify eligibility of the node as a leader.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for electing a leader node using a role-based consensus protocol in a blockchain network, the method comprising:
generating a new block for a blockchain by a node in the blockchain network;
computing an effective resources metric for the node based on a role of the node, multiple resources of the node and a role-based weight profile for each of the multiple resources of the node, wherein the role of the node is defined based on how one or more assets are handled by the node, wherein each of the one or more assets includes one or more asset attributes, wherein the role-based weight profile includes different roles, and for each role includes different weights for the one or more attributes of each of the one or more assets, and wherein the role of the node is stored in a ledger of the blockchain network and is accessible to all nodes in the blockchain network;
generating eligibility proof based on eligibility information, the eligibility information including a blockheader of the new block, an identity of the node, and the effective resources metric; and
broadcasting the new block and the eligibility proof to the blockchain network, wherein one or more other nodes in the blockchain network verify eligibility of the node as a leader node;
accepting the new block in response to the new block and the eligibility proof being valid; and
appending the new block to the blockchain.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the blockchain network is a permission based blockchain network, and wherein the method further includes:
sending a registration request to an identity manager entity, and
receiving account credentials for the node from the identity manager entity, the account credentials including the identity of the node and the role of the node.

3. The method according to claim 2 , wherein the eligibility information further includes the account credentials of the node.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the blockchain network is a permission-less blockchain network, and wherein the identity of the node is stored in the ledger of the blockchain network.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the effective resources metric includes an effective stake metric, and wherein the resources include an amount of stake resource of the node.

6. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the effective resources metric includes an effective mining power metric, and wherein the resources include mining resources of the node.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the effective mining power is determined according to P R =ƒ R (z, 37 , z, 31 ), where P R is the effective mining power of the node in its current role, where M is a set of one or more mining resources of the node, W R is a weight profile of the mining resources of the node according to the role of the node, and ƒ R is a function according to the role of the node.

8. A node of a blockchain network comprising one or more computational processors with a local disk space containing a copy of a blockchain of the blockchain network, the computational processors, alone or in combination, being configured to provide for execution of a method comprising:
generating a new block for the blockchain;
computing an effective resources metric for the node based on a role of the node, multiple resources of the node and a role-based weight profile for each of the multiple resources of the node, wherein the role of the node is defined based on how one or more assets are handled by the node, wherein each of the one or more assets includes one or more asset attributes, wherein the role-based weight profile includes different roles, and for each role includes different weights for the one or more attributes of each of the one or more assets, and wherein the role of the node is stored in a ledger of the blockchain network and is accessible to all nodes in the blockchain network;
generating eligibility proof based on eligibility information, the eligibility information including a blockheader of the new block, an identity of the node, and the effective resources metric;
broadcasting the new block and the eligibility proof to the blockchain network, wherein one or more other nodes in the blockchain network verify eligibility of the node as a leader node;
accepting the new block in response the new block and the eligibility proof being valid; and
appending the new block to the blockchain.

9. The node according to claim 8 , wherein the blockchain network is a permission based blockchain network, and wherein the method further includes:
sending a registration request to an identity manager entity, and
receiving account credentials for the node from the identity manager entity, the account credentials including the identity of the node and the role of the node.

10. The node according to claim 8 , wherein the blockchain network is a permission-less blockchain network, and wherein the identity of the node and the role of the node are stored in a ledger of the blockchain network.

11. A non-transitory, computer-readable medium having instructions thereon which, upon execution by one or more computational processors with a local disk space containing a copy of a blockchain of a blockchain network, cause the one or more computational processors, alone or in combination, to implement a method comprising:
generating a new block for the blockchain by a node in the blockchain network;
computing an effective resources metric for the node based on a role of the node, multiple resources of the node and a role-based weight profile for each of the multiple resources of the node, wherein the role of the node is defined based on how one or more assets are handled by the node, wherein each of the one or more assets includes one or more asset attributes, wherein the role-based weight profile includes different roles, and for each role includes different weights for the one or more attributes of each of the one or more assets, and wherein the role of the node is stored in a ledger of the blockchain network and is accessible to all nodes in the blockchain network;
generating eligibility proof based on eligibility information, the eligibility information including a blockheader of the new block, an identity of the node, and the effective resources metric;
broadcasting the new block and the eligibility proof to the blockchain network, wherein one or more other nodes in the blockchain network verify eligibility of the node as a leader node;
accepting the new block in response to the new block and the eligibility proof being valid; and
appending the new block to the blockchain.

12. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium according to claim 11 , wherein the blockchain network is a permission based blockchain network, and wherein the method further includes:
sending a registration request to an identity manager entity, and
receiving account credentials for the node from the identity manager entity, the account credentials including the identity of the node and the role of the node.

13. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium according to claim 11 , wherein the blockchain network is a permission-less based blockchain network, and wherein the role of the block creator node is obtained from a ledger of the blockchain network.

Assignees

• NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Karame Ghassan
• Li Wenting

Classifications

• H04L9/50

  using hash chains, e.g. blockchains or hash trees · CPC title

• H04L63/105 Primary

  Multiple levels of security · CPC title

• H04L9/0637

  Modes of operation, e.g. cipher block chaining [CBC], electronic codebook [ECB] or Galois/counter mode [GCM] · CPC title

• H04L2209/56

  Financial cryptography, e.g. electronic payment or e-cash · CPC title

• H04L9/3218

  using proof of knowledge, e.g. Fiat-Shamir, GQ, Schnorr, ornon-interactive zero-knowledge proofs · CPC title