Secure re-use of private key for dynamic group of nodes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-12580733-B2
Application number	US-202418610045-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Mar 19, 2024
Priority date	Apr 11, 2017
Publication date	Mar 17, 2026
Grant date	Mar 17, 2026

Abstract

Provided herein are a process, an apparatus, and an article of manufacture for confiscating a digital asset due to malicious members or malicious attacks. A process in the form of a computer-implemented method includes: i) detecting malicious activity by a malicious party, wherein the malicious party is one of the other members of the a congress; and ii) confiscating at least a portion of digital assets previously transferred to the a public group address by the malicious party. Security mechanisms disclosed herein for confiscating a digital asset leverage the use of a congress that is secured, in part, through distributed generation of private key share. The security mechanisms further allow a self-governing, decentralized group to be formed, with the threshold signature scheme allowing the group to control digital assets encumbered by a public key associated with the group.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A computer-implemented method of confiscating a digital asset, the method implemented by a processing resource, the computer-implemented method comprising:
i) detecting malicious activity by a malicious party, wherein the malicious party is one of other members of a congress; and ii) confiscating at least a portion of digital assets previously transferred to a public group address by the malicious party.

2 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein confiscating at least the portion of digital assets comprises transferring to an unspendable address.

3 . The computer-implemented method of claim 2 , wherein transferring to the unspendable address comprises using a private key share in cooperation with the other members of the congress to generate a valid signature for a transaction to the unspendable address.

4 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein detecting the malicious activity comprises determining that a node associated with the malicious party is in breach of a pre-defined protocol or criteria.

5 . The computer-implemented method of claim 4 , wherein the malicious activity is detected at a node that reports faulty information to other members of the congress.

6 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein confiscating the portion of digital assets comprises transferring to an unspendable address.

7 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein confiscating comprises using a private key share in cooperation with the other members of the congress to generate a valid signature for a transaction to a spendable address.

8 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein malicious behaviour is detected using verifiable secret sharing.

9 . The computer-implemented method of claim 8 , wherein detecting the malicious activity comprises determining that a node provides inconsistent key shares.

10 . The computer-implemented method of claim 1 , wherein the method further includes:
i) detecting a redistribution request; ii) collaborating with other congress members to transfer all digital assets in the public group address to a new public address associated with a new public key; and iii) generating a new private key share.

11 . A computer-readable storage medium comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed, configure a processor to perform the method of claim 1 .

12 . An electronic device comprising:
an interface device; a processor coupled to the interface device; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having stored thereon computer-executable instructions that, when executed, configure the processor to perform the method of claim 1 .

13 . The electronic device of claim 12 , wherein:
the processor includes a trusted execution environment; and the computer-executable instructions are executed within the trusted execution environment.

Assignees

• Nchain Licensing Ag

Inventors

• Fletcher John
• Trevethan Thomas
• Bardoscia Marco

Classifications

• H04L9/50

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

• H04L9/3239

  involving non-keyed hash functions, e.g. modification detection codes [MDCs], MD5, SHA or RIPEMD · CPC title

• H04L2209/463

  Electronic voting · CPC title

• H04L9/3255

  using group based signatures, e.g. ring or threshold signatures · CPC title

• H04L9/3252

  using DSA or related signature schemes, e.g. elliptic based signatures, ElGamal or Schnorr schemes · CPC title