Patent Issued for Systems and methods for controlled access to blockchain data (USPTO 11514176): State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company

2022 DEC 20 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Daily News -- From Alexandria, Virginia, NewsRx journalists report that a patent by the inventors Bellas, Eric (Bloomington, IL, US), Breitweiser, Edward W. (Bloomington, IL, US), Call, Shawn M. (Bloomington, IL, US), Chapman, Corin Rebekah (Bloomington, IL, US), Floyd, Burton J. (Mackinaw, IL, US), Gomez, Robert (Bloomington, IL, US), King, Vicki (Bloomington, IL, US), Magerkurth, Melinda Teresa (Utica, IL, US), Moore, Eric R. (Heyworth, IL, US), Olson, Steven T. (Bloomington, IL, US), Skaggs, Jaime (Chenoa, IL, US), Smith, Shelia Cummings (Bloomington, IL, US), Turrentine, David (Normal, IL, US), Wells, Timothy Caleb (Bloomington, IL, US), filed on June 29, 2020, was published online on November 29, 2022.

The patent’s assignee for patent number 11514176 is State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company (Bloomington, Illinois, United States).

News editors obtained the following quote from the background information supplied by the inventors: “In the world of business an interaction between a business and a customer, or the business and another business, typically requires validation of one or more pieces of information before a transaction can take place. This validation is often achieved by the participants involved in the interaction contacting a central authority that is a trusted source of truth for the particular piece of information. The central authority may then validate, or not validate, the particular piece of information and communicate its findings to the participants. Based upon the validation, or lack of validation, a consensus among the participants is formed and assuming the information is valid the transaction between the participants may take place, and subsequently be recorded.

“Traditionally, businesses, customers, and central authorities have stored information related to transactions, and records of transactions, in databases, or ledgers which have been used in accounting to track transactions and information related to those transactions. Often these databases or ledgers held by the participants must be reconciled to achieve consensus as to the validity of the information stored in the databases and ledgers. Alternatively, as described above the central authority may be responsible for determining the validity of information stored in a database or a ledger and functioning as an arbiter of consensus for interested parties.

“A blockchain is a new way of achieving a distributed consensus on the validity or invalidity of information. As opposed to using a central authority, a blockchain is a distributed database or ledger, in which a transactional record is maintained at each node of a peer to peer network. Commonly, the distributed ledger is comprised of groupings of transactions bundled together into a “block.” When a change to the distributed ledger is made (e.g., when a new transaction and/or block is created), each node must form a consensus as to how the change is integrated into the distributed ledger. Upon consensus, the agreed upon change is pushed out to each node so that each node maintains an identical copy of the updated distributed ledger. Any change that does not achieve a consensus is ignored. Accordingly, unlike a traditional system which uses a central authority, a single party cannot unilaterally alter the distributed ledger. This inability to modify past transactions lead to blockchains being generally described as trusted, secure, and/or immutable.

“Blockchains are typically deployed in an open, decentralized, and permissionless manner meaning that any party may view information, submit new information, or join the blockchain as a node responsible for confirming information. This open, decentralized, and permissionless approach to a blockchain has limitations. As an example, these traditional blockchains may not be good candidates for interactions that require information to be kept private, for interactions that require all participants to be vetted prior to their participation, or for interactions that may only be performed by a subset of all participants.”

As a supplement to the background information on this patent, NewsRx correspondents also obtained the inventors’ summary information for this patent: “The present embodiments may be related to blockchain technology, including modifying blocking technology to be able to store confidential and/or personal information in a blockchain and maintain data privacy. The embodiments described herein relate particularly to various aspects of maintaining data security of data stored in a blockchain. In some embodiments, cryptography techniques are applied to ensure that only authorized parties are able to view the confidential and/or personal information stored in the blockchain. These data security safeguards enable participation in the blockchain by any number of nodes, regardless of their respective permissions.

“In one aspect, a computer-implemented method of providing access to confidential data stored in a blockchain relating to a plurality of smart contracts may be provided. The method may include (1) detecting, by one or more processors, that a new smart contract has been created; (2) generating, by the one or more processors, a public key and a private key for the new smart contract; (3) encrypting, by the one or more processors, data associated with the new smart contract using the public key of the smart contract; (4) compiling, by the one or more processors, the data associated with the new smart contract into a first block of the blockchain; (5) distributing, by the one or more processors, the first block to a plurality of nodes to form a consensus on a first update to the blockchain; (6) detecting, by the one or more processors, a request to provide access to the data associated with the new smart contract to a particular node of the blockchain, the request indicating the particular node; and/or (7) transmitting, by the one or more processors, the private key for the new smart contract to the particular node. The method may include additional, less, or alternate actions, including those discussed elsewhere herein.

“For instance, in some embodiments, generating the transaction may include applying, by the one or more processors, a digital signature to the transaction. The digital signature may be generated based upon the private key for a node associated with the one or more processors.

“In some embodiments, the method may include receiving, at the one or more processors, a request from the particular node to become a node of the blockchain. Additionally or alternatively, the method may include generating, by the one or more processors, the public key and a private key for the particular node and/or assigning, by the one or more processors, permission for the particular node. The permissions may be associated with one or more types of data the particular node is permitted to access. The method may further include sending, to the particular node, the private key for the particular node via a communication channel other than the blockchain.

“In further embodiments, detecting the request to provide access to the data further may include (1) receiving, at the one or more processors, the request from a requesting node; (2) determining, by the one or more processors, permissions associated with the requesting node; and/or (3) generating, by the one or more processors, the transaction when the permissions indicate that the requesting node is permitted to request that other nodes receive access to the data associated with the new smart contract. Additionally or alternatively, detecting the request to provide access to the data further may include generating, by the one or more processors, the request to provide access to the data associated upon being directed by the new smart contract.”

The claims supplied by the inventors are:

“1. A computer-implemented method of providing access to encrypted data stored in a blockchain relating to a plurality of smart contracts, the method comprising: detecting, by one or more processors, that a new smart contract has been created for inclusion in the plurality of smart contracts; receiving, from a requesting node, a request to provide access to encrypted data associated with the new smart contract to a particular node of the blockchain; determining, by the one or more processors, that permissions associated with the requesting node indicate that the requesting node is permitted to request access to the encrypted data associated with the new smart contract; determining, by the one or more processors, that an access level associated with the particular node indicates that the particular node is permitted to access the encrypted data associated with the new smart contract; and in response to the determinations, transmitting, by the one or more processors, a private key for the new smart contract to the particular node via a communication channel other than the blockchain.

“2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining the permissions associated with the requesting node comprises: decrypting, using a public key for the requesting node, a digital signature included in the request by the requesting node to verify authenticity of the digital signature.

“3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, at the one or more processors, a request from the particular node to become a node of the blockchain.

“4. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising: generating, by the one or more processors, a public key and a private key for the particular node.

“5. The computer-implemented method of claim 4, further comprising: sending, to the particular node, the private key for the particular node via a communication channel other than the blockchain.

“6. The computer-implemented method of claim 3, further comprising: assigning, by the one or more processors, permissions for the particular node, the permissions being associated with one or more types of data the particular node is permitted to access.

“7. The computer-implemented method of claim 1, wherein receiving the request to provide access to the data further comprises: receiving, by the one or more processors, the request to provide access to the encrypted data upon being directed by the new smart contract.

“8. A computer system for providing access to encrypted data stored in a blockchain relating to a plurality of smart contracts, the computer system comprising: one or more processors; one or more transceivers adapted to communicate with a plurality of nodes; a non-transitory program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to: detect that a new smart contract has been created for inclusion in the plurality of smart contracts; receive, from a requesting node, a request to provide access to encrypted data associated with the new smart contract to a particular node of the blockchain; determine that permissions associated with the requesting node indicate that the requesting node is permitted to request access to the encrypted data associated with the new smart contract; determine that an access level associated with the particular node indicates that the particular node is permitted to access the encrypted data associated with the new smart contract; and in response to the determinations, transmit, via the one or more transceivers, the private key for the new smart contract to the particular node via a communication channel other than the blockchain.

“9. The computer system of claim 8, wherein to determine the permissions associated with the requesting node, the instructions, when executed, cause the computer system to: decrypt, using a public key for the requesting node, a digital signature included in the request by the requesting node to verify authenticity of the digital signature.

“10. The computer system of claim 9, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the computer system to: receive a request from the particular node to become a node of the blockchain.

“11. The computer system of claim 10, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the computer system to: generate a public key and a private key for the particular node.

“12. The computer system of claim 11, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the computer system to: send, to the particular node, the private key for the particular node via a communication channel other than the blockchain.

“13. The computer system of claim 12, wherein the instructions, when executed, cause the computer system to: assign permissions for the particular node, the permissions being associated with one or more types of data the particular node is permitted to access.

“14. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions, that, when executed, cause one or more processors to: detect that a new smart contract has been created; receive, from a requesting node, a request to provide access to encrypted data associated with the new smart contract to a particular node of a blockchain; determine that permissions associated with the requesting node indicate that the requesting node is permitted to request access to the encrypted data associated with the new smart contract; determine that an access level associated with the particular node indicates that the particular node is permitted to access the encrypted data associated with the new smart contract; and in response to the determinations, transmit the private key for the new smart contract to the particular node via a communication channel other than the blockchain.”

For additional information on this patent, see: Bellas, Eric. Systems and methods for controlled access to blockchain data. U.S. Patent Number 11514176, filed June 29, 2020, and published online on November 29, 2022. Patent URL (for desktop use only): https://ppubs.uspto.gov/pubwebapp/external.html?q=(11514176)&db=USPAT&type=ids

(Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.)