Separating hashing from proof-of-work in blockchain environments
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Publication Number
US-11943334-B2
Publication Date
2024-03-26
Expiration Date
Abstract
Blockchain environments may mix-and-match different encryption, difficulty, and/or proof-of-work schemes when mining blockchain transactions. Each encryption, difficulty, and/or proof-of-work scheme may be separate, stand-alone programs, files, or third-party services. Blockchain miners may be agnostic to a particular coin's or network's encryption, difficulty, and/or proof-of-work schemes, thus allowing any blockchain miner to process or mine data in multiple blockchains. GPUs, ASICs, and other specialized processing hardware components may be deterred by forcing cache misses, cache latencies, and processor stalls. Hashing, difficulty, and/or proof-of-work schemes require less programming code, consume less storage space/usage in bytes, and execute faster. Blockchain mining schemes may further randomize byte or memory block access, further improve cryptographic security.
Core Innovation
The invention relates to proof-of-work in a blockchain environment by separating hashing/encryption, difficulty, and proof-of-work into distinct, selectable modules or services. A proof-of-work target scheme associated with the blockchain environment is received, and electronic data comprising at least one blockchain transaction is used to generate a hash value via a hashing algorithm. The hash value is then used as an input to a proof-of-work algorithm to generate a proof-of-work result, where mining is agnostic to different blockchain schemes through selection of required algorithms, tables, and services.
A time delay in generating the proof-of-work result is achieved mostly by the proof-of-work algorithm causing a cache miss. The proof-of-work execution uses a randomized database table whose byte size exceeds processor cache capacity, so execution waits on RAM and lookup-table memory access. The proof-of-work algorithm identifies a database table location corresponding to a random value, obtains a table entry at that location, and uses the obtained table entry to generate a randomized hash value for proof-of-work processing.
The invention further describes that a randomized hash value can be generated using a bit shuffle operation driven by table entries to randomize hash-derived values. The architecture can optionally bind mining to network, party, or machine identifiers, and can be implemented with a miner node, a network server, a proof-of-work service provider, a difficulty service provider, and an encryption server or service provider, including table-identifier mechanisms for dynamically selecting required algorithms, tables, and tables.
Claims Coverage
The independent claims are clm-00001, clm-00009, and clm-00016. Each independent claim covers the same core proof-of-work flow with the distinguishing limitation that the proof-of-work execution achieves a time delay mostly by causing a cache miss, implemented respectively as a proof-of-work method, a miner system, and a non-transitory memory storing instructions.
Cache-miss-based proof-of-work time delay with target scheme input
A proof-of-work target scheme associated with the blockchain environment is received; an electronic data item comprising at least one blockchain transaction is used to generate a hash value via a hashing algorithm; the hash value is used as an input to a proof-of-work algorithm to generate a proof-of-work result, where a time delay in generating the proof-of-work result is achieved mostly by the proof-of-work algorithm causing a cache miss.
Cache-miss-based proof-of-work execution in a miner system
A miner system comprises a hardware processor and memory instructions that receive a proof-of-work target scheme associated with the blockchain environment; use electronic data comprising at least one blockchain transaction to generate a hash value via a hashing algorithm; use the hash value as an input to a proof-of-work algorithm to generate a proof-of-work result, where a time delay in generating the proof-of-work result is achieved mostly by the proof-of-work algorithm causing a cache miss.
Cache-miss-based proof-of-work instructions in non-transitory memory
Non-transitory memory stores instructions executed by a hardware processor that receive a proof-of-work target scheme associated with the blockchain environment; generate a hash value via a hashing algorithm from electronic data comprising at least one blockchain transaction; and execute a proof-of-work algorithm using the hash value as an input to generate a proof-of-work result, where a time delay in generating the proof-of-work result is achieved mostly by the proof-of-work algorithm causing a cache miss.
Across the independent claims, the inventive coverage centers on generating a hash value from electronic data including blockchain transactions and using it as input to a proof-of-work algorithm, while achieving most of the proof-of-work time delay by the proof-of-work algorithm causing cache misses; the same logic is claimed as a method, a miner system, and non-transitory memory instructions.
Stated Advantages
Not explicitly described in patent.
Documented Applications
Not explicitly described in patent.
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