Reducing storage of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2020212932-A1
Application number	US-201816237586-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Dec 31, 2018
Priority date	Dec 31, 2018
Publication date	Jul 2, 2020
Grant date	—

Abstract

A method of reducing the storage requirements of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression includes receiving a request to add a transaction block to a blockchain. The method further includes determining an identifier (ID) of a dictionary block most recently stored on the blockchain. The method further includes compressing, by a processing device, one or more transactions of the transaction block based on the dictionary block to generate a compressed transaction block. The method further includes adding the ID of the dictionary block to the compressed transaction block. The method further includes providing the compressed transaction block, including the ID of the dictionary block, for storage on the blockchain.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1 . A method of reducing the storage requirements of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression, the method comprising:
receiving a request to add a transaction block to a blockchain; determining an identifier (ID) of a dictionary block most recently stored on the blockchain; compressing, by a processing device, one or more transactions of the transaction block based on the dictionary block to generate a compressed transaction block; adding the ID of the dictionary block to the compressed transaction block; and providing the compressed transaction block, including the ID of the dictionary block, for storage on the blockchain.

2 . The method of reducing the storage requirements of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression of claim 1 , wherein the dictionary block comprises a first dictionary corresponding to a first field of data in the transaction block, and wherein the first dictionary comprises a first key-value pair representing compressed metadata and corresponding raw metadata of the first field, respectively.

3 . The method of reducing storage of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression of claim 2 , wherein the dictionary block further comprises a second dictionary corresponding to a second field of data in the transaction block, and wherein the second dictionary comprises a second key-value pair representing compressed metadata and corresponding raw metadata of the second field, respectively.

4 . The method of reducing storage of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression of claim 3 , wherein the dictionary block further comprises a data schema identifying the first dictionary and corresponding first field of data, and the second dictionary and corresponding second field of data.

5 . The method of reducing storage of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression of claim 4 , wherein compressing the one or more transactions of the transaction block based on the dictionary block to generate the compressed transaction block comprises:
identifying raw metadata in a text field of the transaction block to be compressed; identifying the first dictionary block based on the ID of the dictionary in the transaction block; determining that the text field of the transaction block is the same as the first field of data of the transaction block; determining, based on the data schema of the first dictionary block, that the text field of the transaction block corresponds to the first field of data of the first dictionary; based on the determining, identifying compressed metadata corresponding to the raw metadata in the first dictionary; and replacing the raw metadata with the corresponding compressed metadata.

6 . The method of reducing storage of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression of claim 4 , further comprising:
identifying compressed metadata in a text field of the transaction block to be read; identifying the first dictionary block based on the ID of the dictionary in the transaction block; determining that the text field of the transaction block is the same as the first field of data of the transaction block; determining, based on the data schema of the first dictionary block, that the text field of the transaction block corresponds to the first field of data of the first dictionary; based on the determining, identifying raw metadata corresponding to the compressed metadata in the first dictionary; and providing the raw metadata to be read.

7 . The method of reducing storage of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, based on a set of transaction blocks most recently added to the blockchain, a new dictionary block; and providing the new dictionary block for storage on the blockchain.

8 . The method of reducing storage of blockchain metadata via dictionary-style compression of claim 7 , wherein raw metadata corresponding to a higher frequency value in the new dictionary block is assigned a smaller corresponding compressed metadata value than raw metadata corresponding to a lower frequency value.

9 . A blockchain compression system comprising:
a memory; and a processing device, operatively coupled to the memory, to:
receive a request to add a transaction block to a blockchain;
determine a transaction schema corresponding to the transaction block;
compress, using the transaction schema and at least one corresponding dictionary, metadata of the transaction block to generate a compressed transaction block; and
add the compressed transaction block to the blockchain.

10 . The blockchain compression system of claim 9 , wherein to determine the transaction schema corresponding to the transaction block the processing device is further to receive an indication of the transaction schema from the transaction block.

11 . The blockchain compression system of claim 9 , wherein to determine the transaction schema corresponding to the transaction block the processing device is further to:
determine whether a dictionary block exists on the blockchain; in response to determining that a dictionary block exists on the blockchain, receive an indication of the transaction schema from the dictionary block; and in response to determining that the dictionary block does not exist on the blockchain, add the dictionary block to the blockchain and receive an indication of the transaction schema from the dictionary block.

12 . The blockchain compression system of claim 11 , wherein the dictionary block is a most recently added dictionary block.

13 . The blockchain compression system of claim 9 , wherein to determine the transaction schema corresponding to the transaction block the processing device is further to receive an indication of the transaction schema from a transaction block of the blockchain.

14 . The blockchain compression system of claim 13 , the processing device further to: in response to a determination that the transaction schema is outdated, update the transaction schema before compressing the metadata of the transaction block.

15 . The blockchain compression system of claim 1 , the processing device further to:
determine that a compression level of the compressed transaction block is below a compression threshold; and in response to the determination:
generate a new dictionary; and
recompress the transaction block to generate the compressed transaction block.

16 . The blockchain compression system of claim 1 , wherein the compressed transaction block comprises: a dictionary block identifier (ID) of the corresponding dictionary and a schema ID of the transaction schema.

17 . The blockchain compression system of claim 1 , wherein the compressed transaction block comprises: a dictionary block of the corresponding dictionary.

18 . A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by a processing device, causes the processing device to:
receive a request to access a transaction block on a blockchain; determine a transaction schema corresponding to the transaction block; decompress, by a processing device, using the transaction schema and at least one corresponding dictionary, metadata of the transaction block to generate a decompressed transaction block; and provide access to the decompressed transaction block.

19 . The non-transitory computer-readable storage medium of claim 18 , wherein to determine the transaction schema corresponding to the transaction block the processi

Assignees

• Palo Alto Res Ct Inc

Inventors

• Bier Eric Allan
• Brito Alejandro
• Rane Shantanu

Classifications

• H04L9/50

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

• H03M7/42

  using table look-up for the coding or decoding process, e.g. using read-only memory {(H03M7/4006 takes precedence)} · CPC title

• H03M7/4056

  Coding table selection · CPC title

• H03M7/4031

  Fixed length to variable length coding · CPC title

• G06F16/9024

  Graphs; Linked lists (G06F16/9027 takes precedence) · CPC title