Computer-implemented system and method for determining the state of a machine executable contract implemented using a blockchain

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12327241-B2
Application number	US-202418408411-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 9, 2024
Priority date	Jan 31, 2017
Publication date	Jun 10, 2025
Grant date	Jun 10, 2025

Abstract

Computer-implemented systems and methods are detailed for establishing information on states of a machine-executable contract on a blockchain, for instance in the context of unspent transaction outputs (UTXOs) and the determination of states within deterministic finite automaton (DFA) implementations of contracts. The states are determined using agent public keys, each public key having metadata for information of interest associated with codes or tags. Each of the agents provides a respective public key into a multi-signature redeem script that generates a locking script, with a hash to which a scriptPubkey is designated. ScriptPubKey values of each script may be used to provide keys for use in constructing an external database and mapping the keys from the scriptPubKey values. Upon searching the blockchain, the database is used to determine if the information of interest is present in UTXOs. A match from the search indicates, in a definitive manner, the state.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computer-implemented method for establishing information on a plurality of states of a machine-executable smart contract implemented on a blockchain, the method including:
determining information of interest and a plurality of codes or tags identifying the information of interest;
constructing metadata associated with the plurality of codes or tags;
determining one or more agents to be associated with the information of interest;
incorporating the metadata associated with the plurality of codes or tags into a public key;
combining the public key with one or more agent public keys, provided by the one or more agents, into a multi-signature redeem script to generate one or more hashed locking scripts, wherein a hash of each locking script is designated a scriptPubKey;
obtaining a value of the scriptPubKey linked to the information of interest for the one or more hashed locking scripts to provide one or more keys;
constructing a database to which the one or more keys are mappable from the one or more values of the scriptPubKey;
deriving one or more addresses from the one or more values of the scriptPubKey;
searching the blockchain for one or more matches with the one or more addresses to acquire details of unspent outputs (UTXOs) in the blockchain which match to the one or more addresses; and
determining which information of interest is present in the unspent outputs (UTXOs), when one or more matches are obtained.

2. A method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
populating a digital wallet with the one or more addresses,
wherein searching the blockchain for one or more matches with the one or more addresses comprises searching the blockchain for one or more matches with the one or more addresses from the digital wallet.

3. A method according to claim 2 , wherein populating the digital wallet with the one or more addresses comprises populating an account or folder within the digital wallet with the one or more addresses.

4. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the machine-executable smart contract is implemented using a deterministic finite automaton.

5. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more agents are assigned to execute at least one unspent output (UTXO) from the machine executable contract.

6. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the public key is designated an information public key.

7. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the multi-signature redeem script is a P2SH multi-signature redeem script.

8. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the database is external to the blockchain.

9. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the database is implemented as a hash table.

10. A method according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more addresses are script hash addresses.

Assignees

• Nchain Licensing Ag

Inventors

• Jimenez-Delgado Pedro
• Wright Craig Steven

Classifications

• H04L9/0637

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

• G06Q20/405

  Establishing or using transaction specific rules · CPC title

• G06Q20/0658

  e-cash managed locally · CPC title

• G06F16/1837

  Management specially adapted to peer-to-peer storage networks (topology management mechanisms of peer-to-peer networks H04L67/1042) · CPC title

• H04L9/50

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