Method for signing a new block in a decentralized blockchain consensus network

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11736271-B2
Application number	US-201816650389-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Sep 21, 2018
Priority date	Sep 21, 2018
Publication date	Aug 22, 2023
Grant date	Aug 22, 2023

Abstract

A method for registering a mining computing entity (MCE) with a trusted execution environment entity (TEEE) in a blockchain of a distributed blockchain consensus network (DBCN), based on a proof-of-stake protocol, includes providing public signing and corresponding secret signing information and trusted time information by the TEEE of the MCE, providing public and secret account information for a virtual wallet of the blockchain by the MCE, and generating integrity information by the TEEE. The method further includes generating attestation information by signing the integrity information, hashed public signing information and public account information, computing proving information, by an attestation providing entity (APE), by attesting the attestation information, and sending a transaction to the blockchain, signed with the secret account information, the transaction including the public signing information and the proving information.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method for mining and validating a new block in a blockchain of a distributed blockchain consensus network (DBCN) based on a proof-of-stake protocol, the method comprising:
generating, by a peer of the blockchain, a new transaction including reference information of a most recent block of the blockchain;
validating, by a mining computing entity (MCE) with a trusted execution environment entity (TEEE), the new transaction by checking whether the most recent block refers to an active blockchain branch of the MCE;
upon successful validation of the transaction, initiating, by the MCE, a request for new block generation;
comparing, by the MCE, block height information of the block saved in the TEEE from a last block generation request with the block height information of the block of the actual block generation request;
providing, by the TEEE of the MCE, trusted elapsed time;
computing, by the MCE, a block signature using secret signing information of the TEEE of the MCE;
computing, by the MCE, the new block, wherein the new block includes the block signature, the provided trusted elapsed time, and transaction information of the transaction;
validating, by the peer, the new block by computing a difference between the trusted elapsed time of the new block and an elapsed time of the new block, wherein the trusted elapsed time of the new block is determined using a trusted time provider and a registration timestamp indicating an initial time of registration of the MCE in the blockchain, and wherein the elapsed time of the new block is determined based on an interval between when the new block was received and the initial time of registration of the MCE in the blockchain;
comparing, by the peer, the computed difference with one or more predefined security parameters; and
adding, by the peer, the new block to the blockchain based on the computed difference being less than the one or more predefined security parameters.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the new transaction is validated by checking whether the new transaction includes reference information to a block belonging to the active blockchain branch of the MCE and/or by validating certificate information, the certificate information indicating integrity and authenticity of content of the new transaction.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein eligibility information of the MCE is checked prior to computing a new block based on account information and a POS-stake of the MCE.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein the eligibility information is computed by the TEEE of the MCE.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the TEEE saves block information of all confirmed blocks of a branch of the blockchain.

6. A system for mining and validating a new block in a blockchain of a distributed blockchain consensus network (DBCN), based on a proof-of-stake protocol, the system comprising:
a peer of the blockchain; and
a mining computing entity (MCE) with a trusted execution environment entity (TEEE), the MCE being configured to:
initiate a request for new block generation upon successful validation of a transaction,
compute the new block, wherein the new block includes a block signature, trusted elapsed time and transaction information of the transaction,
wherein the TEEE of the MCE is configured to:
validate a new transaction by checking whether a most recent block refers to an active blockchain branch of the MCE,
compare block height information of the block saved in the TEEE from in a last block generation request with the block height information of the block of the actual block generation request,
provide the trusted elapsed time,
compute a block signature using secret signing information of the TEEE of the MCE, and
wherein the peer is configured to:
generate the new transaction including reference information of the most recent block of the blockchain,
validate the new block by computing a difference between the trusted elapsed time of the new block and an elapsed time of the new block, wherein the trusted elapsed time of the new block is determined using a trusted time provider and a registration timestamp indicating an initial time of registration of the MCE in the blockchain, and wherein the elapsed time of the new block is determined based on an interval between when the new block was received and the initial time of registration of the MCE in the blockchain,
compare the computed difference with one or more predefined security parameters, and
add the new block to the blockchain based on the computed difference being less than the one or more predefined security parameters.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing a program configured to cause a computer to execute a method for mining a new block in a blockchain of a distributed blockchain consensus network (DBCN) based on a proof-of-stake protocol, the method comprising:
validating, by a mining computing entity (MCE) with a trusted execution environment entity (TEEE), a new transaction by checking whether the most recent block refers to an active blockchain branch of the MCE, wherein the new transaction includes reference information of the most recent block of the blockchain and is generated by a peer of the blockchain;
upon successful validation of the transaction, initiating a request for new block generation;
comparing block height information of the block saved in the TEEE from a last block generation request with the block height information of the block of the actual block generation request;
providing trusted elapsed time;
computing a block signature using secret signing information of the TEEE of the MCE; and
computing the new block, wherein the new block includes the block signature, the provided trusted elapsed time and transaction information of the transaction,
wherein a difference between the trusted elapsed time of the new block and an elapsed time of the new block are computed by the peer of the blockchain to validate the new block, wherein the trusted elapsed time of the new block is determined using a trusted time provider and a registration timestamp indicating an initial time of registration of the MCE in the blockchain, and wherein the elapsed time of the new block is determined based on an interval between when the new block was received and the initial time of registration of the MCE in the blockchain,
wherein the computed difference is compared with one or more predefined security parameters, and
wherein a new block is added to the blockchain based on the computed difference being less than the one or more predefined security parameters.

Assignees

• NEC Laboratories Europe GmbH
• Nec Corp

Inventors

• Karame Ghassan
• Li Wenting
• Marson Giorgia Azzurra
• Bohli Jens-Matthias
• Andreina Sebastien

Classifications

• H04L9/0637 Primary

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

• H04L9/3236 Primary

  using cryptographic hash functions · CPC title

• H04L9/3297

  involving time stamps, e.g. generation of time stamps · CPC title

• H04L9/50

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

• G06F21/57

  Certifying or maintaining trusted computer platforms, e.g. secure boots or power-downs, version controls, system software checks, secure updates or assessing vulnerabilities · CPC title