Granted Patent B2

US 12,212,965 · App. 17/609,742 · Granted Jan 28, 2025

Inventors: Craig Steven Wright (London, GB); Alexander Mackay (London, GB); Wei Zhang (London, GB); Andrew James Mee (London, GB); Steven Patrick Coughlan (London, GB)

Assignee: nChain Licensing AG

H04W12/10G06Q20/065G06Q20/3825G06Q20/3829G06Q20/4014G06Q20/38215

Abstract

Claims (76)

1. A computer-implemented method of recording work history of a mining node on a blockchain in a blockchain network, comprising:

mining, by the mining node, a first block containing a generation transaction that includes, within a registration information field, a miner identifier for the mining node, wherein the generation transaction is a coinbase transaction allocating a block reward to the mining node for mining the first block; and

mining, by the mining node, two or more additional blocks in an order, each additional block containing a respective generation transaction that includes an information field containing both the miner identifier and a reference to the generation transaction of a preceding one of the blocks in the order, wherein the first block is the earliest block in the order, and

wherein the respective generation transactions are coinbase transactions allocating a respective block reward to the mining node for mining the additional blocks, and

wherein mining includes propagating a block solution over the blockchain network to enable cryptographic verification by other nodes.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the miner identifier is a public key for which the mining node holds a private key.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the generation transaction in each of the additional blocks includes a registration reference pointing to the generation transaction of the first block and a digital signature.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the reference to the generation transaction of the preceding one of the blocks in the order includes one of a transaction identifier, a block number, or an outpoint.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising verifying, by a computing node, the work history recorded on the blockchain, wherein the verifying includes:

identifying a last block in the order;

retrieving, from the blockchain, the respective generation transactions from the additional blocks, in a reverse order, based on the reference to the generation transaction of the preceding one of the blocks contained in each of the respective generation transactions;

retrieving the generation transaction of the first block; and

verifying the registration of the miner identifier in the generation transaction of the first block,

whereby the generation transactions provide the work history of the mining node.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a reputation score for the mining node based on the recorded work history of the mining node, wherein determining includes calculating the reputation score based on count of a number of blocks in the order.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising determining a reputation score for the mining node based on the recorded work history of the mining node, wherein determining includes calculating the reputation score based on:

assigning a respective weight to each block in the order; and

calculating a sum of the respective weights.

8. The method of claim 7 , wherein assigning a respective weight to each block includes, for each block, determining a difficulty score for that block based on a difficulty threshold applied in mining that block and setting the respective weight based on the difficulty score.

9. The method of claim 7 , wherein the reputation score is calculated as:

Rep

ID

=

f

⁡

(

T

i

)

=

∑

i

B

⁢

2

2

⁢

5

⁢

6

/

T

i

wherein Rep ID is the reputation score, i is an index referring to the ith block, B is the number of blocks in the order, and T i is a target difficulty applied in mining block i.

10. The method of claim 6 , further comprising recording a weighted vote in a secure blockchain-based voting system by mining, by the mining node, a vote block, wherein the vote block contains a generation transaction that contains the miner identifier of the mining node, a reference to a most recent generation transaction of the mining node, and a vote signal.

11. The method of claim 10 , wherein the vote block generation transaction further includes the calculated reputation score for the mining node.

12. A computer-implemented method of verifying a work history of a mining node on a blockchain in a blockchain network, comprising:

identifying a block mined by the mining node and having a generation transaction that includes, in an information field, a miner identifier, and a reference to an earlier generation transaction;

retrieving, from the blockchain via the blockchain network, a plurality of earlier generation transactions, in a reverse order, each of which contains the miner identifier and a reference to a respective preceding one of the earlier generation transactions in the reverse order, until a last generation transaction that includes a registration with regard to the miner identifier, wherein each of the generation transactions is a coinbase transaction allocating a respective block reward to the mining node for mining a block associated with that generation transaction; and

verifying the registration of the miner identifier in the last generation transaction,

whereby the generation transaction and the plurality of earlier generation transactions provide the work history of the mining node.

13. A computer-implemented method of determining a reputation score for a mining node in a blockchain network based on a blockchain, comprising:

tracing a chain of linked generation transactions via the blockchain network, wherein the generation transactions each include, in an information field, a miner identifier for the mining node, and each of which, excluding a first generation transaction, includes in the information field a reference to an earlier one of linked generation transactions in the chain, wherein each generation transaction is in a respective block mined by the mining node, and wherein each generation transaction is a coinbase transaction allocating a block reward to the mining node for mining a block containing that generation transaction;

for each generation transaction of the generation transactions, determining a difficulty score for mining of the block containing that generation transaction; and

determining the reputation score for the mining node based the difficulty scores of respective blocks containing the generation transactions in the chain.

14. A computing device to manage a public key infrastructure using a blockchain network to record work history of a mining node on a blockchain in the blockchain network, the computing device including:

one or more processors;

memory; and

computer-executable instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method of:

mining, by the mining node, a first block containing a generation transaction that includes, within a registration information field, a miner identifier for the mining node, wherein the generation transaction is a coinbase transaction allocating a block reward to the mining node for mining the first block; and

mining, by the mining node, two or more additional blocks in an order, each additional block containing a respective generation transaction that includes an information field containing both the miner identifier and a reference to the generation transaction of a preceding one of the blocks in the order, wherein the first block is the earliest block in the order, and

wherein the respective generation transactions are coinbase transactions allocating a respective block reward to the mining node for mining the additional blocks, and

wherein mining includes propagating a block solution over the blockchain network to enable cryptographic verification by other nodes.

15. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the miner identifier is a public key for which the mining node holds a private key.

16. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the generation transaction in each of the additional blocks includes a registration reference pointing to the generation transaction of the first block and a digital signature.

17. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the reference to the generation transaction of the preceding one of the blocks in the order includes one of a transaction identifier, a block number, or an outpoint.

18. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the step of verifying the work history recorded on the blockchain, wherein the verifying includes:

identifying a last block in the order;

retrieving, from the blockchain, the respective generation transactions from the additional blocks, in a reverse order, based on the reference to the generation transaction of the preceding one of the blocks contained in each of the respective generation transactions;

retrieving the generation transaction of the first block; and

verifying the registration of the miner identifier in the generation transaction of the first block,

whereby the generation transactions provide the work history of the mining node.

19. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the step of determining a reputation score for the mining node based on the recorded work history of the mining node, wherein determining includes calculating the reputation score based on count of a number of blocks in the order.

20. The computing device of claim 14 , wherein the computer-executable instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the step determining a reputation score for the mining node based on the recorded work history of the mining node, wherein determining includes calculating the reputation score based on:

assigning a respective weight to each block in the order; and

calculating a sum of the respective weights.

Assignments (2)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (59)