Granted Patent B2

US 12,574,227 · App. 18/022,738 · Granted Mar 10, 2026

Inventors: Antoaneta Serguieva (London, GB); Craig Steven Wright (London, GB)

Assignee: nChain Licensing AG

H04L9/0866H04L9/3231

Abstract

Claims (70)

1 . A computer-implemented method of storing a biometric vault system on a blockchain, wherein the biometric vault system comprises one or more biometric vaults, each biometric vault locking a respective secret value, and wherein the method comprises:

obtaining at least one biometric reading;

identifying a plurality of biometric features from the at least one biometric reading;

for each one of one or more respective target ones of the plurality of biometric features:

generating a plurality of first binary values, at least one of which is a respective first binary representation of the target biometric feature relative to respective other ones of the identified biometric features;

generating, for each one of the plurality of first binary values, a second binary value, thus generating a plurality of second binary values, of which at least one is required to reconstruct a respective first-level secret value;

generating a plurality of binary data pairs, each data pair comprising one of the plurality of first binary values and the corresponding one of the plurality of second binary values;

generating a first biometric vault comprising the plurality of binary data pairs;

generating a second biometric vault comprising the first biometric vault;

generating a blockchain transaction comprising a respective output comprising at least part of the second biometric vault; and

transmitting the one or more respective blockchain transactions corresponding to the one or more respective target biometric features to the blockchain.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the at least part of the respective second biometric vault is encrypted with a respective encryption key.

3 . The method of claim 1 , comprising, for each first biometric vault and for each target biometric feature, determining a plurality of respective first vectors, wherein each first vector defines the target biometric feature relative to the respective other identified biometric features, and wherein each respective first binary representation is generated based on a respective first vector.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein each respective first vector comprises a respective value for one, some or all of a relative distance, relative angle, and/or relative orientation of the target biometric feature relative to the respective other identified biometric features.

5 . The method of claim 4 , wherein each first binary representation is based on a respective second binary representation of the respective value of one, some or all of the relative distance, relative angle and/or relative orientation of the target biometric feature relative to the respective other identified biometric features.

6 . The method of claim 3 , wherein for each target biometric feature, the method comprises: applying a respective first transformation to the respective values of each respective first vector, wherein the respective first transformation is configured to remove any correlations that exist between the target biometric feature and the respective other identified biometric features, and wherein the respective first binary representation is based on the transformed respective values.

7 . The method of claim 6 , wherein for each target biometric feature, the respective first transformation is configured to remove said correlations by transforming a relative distance and/or angle of the respective target biometric feature relative to the respective other identified biometric features.

8 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the relative distance of the respective target biometric feature is transformed as a function of a respective co-ordinate and rotation invariant characteristic.

9 . The method of claim 7 , wherein the relative angle of the respective target biometric feature is transformed as a function of a respective transformation value, wherein the respective transformation value is pseudorandomly generated.

10 . The method of claim 9 , comprising, for each first biometric vault, determining a respective second vector for each of the respective mock biometric features such that a respective minimum distance between each of the respective first vectors and each of the respective second vectors is above a predetermined threshold, and wherein the respective second binary representations are generated based on a respective second vector.

11 . The method of claim 1 , wherein for each first biometric vault, at least one of the first binary values are respective mock binary representations of respective mock biometric features, wherein a mock biometric feature is a feature that is not present in the biometric reading, and wherein the respective second binary value paired with the respective mock binary representation are respective mock binary values.

12 . The method of claim 11 , wherein for each first biometric vault, a total number of mock biometric features is greater than a total number of biometric features.

13 . The method of claim 1 , comprising, for each first biometric vault:

splitting the respective first-level secret value into at least a first threshold number of elements, and wherein the first-level secret value is encoded into a respective first polynomial function, wherein coefficients of the respective first polynomial function are respective ones of the threshold number of elements, and wherein the respective second binary values that are paired to the respective first binary representations are generated by evaluating the first polynomial function using the respective first binary representation.

14 . The method of claim 1 , comprising generating one or more private keys based on the first-level secret value.

15 . The method of claim 1 , wherein each of the one or more blockchain transactions comprises a respective first spendable output, and wherein the method comprises spending the respective spendable output, wherein said spending revokes at least part of a respective second biometric vault included within a respective blockchain transaction.

16 . The method of claim 1 , comprising, for each first biometric vault:

obtaining a respective master private key; and

generating one or more auxiliary private keys based on the respective master private key.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the at least part of the respective second biometric vault is encrypted with a respective encryption key, and wherein a first one of the one or more auxiliary keys is used as the respective encryption key.

18 . A computer-implemented method of unlocking one or more biometric vaults of a biometric vault system that includes one or more biometric vaults, each biometric vault locking a respective secret value, wherein the biometric vault system is generated by:

obtaining at least one biometric reading;

identifying a plurality of biometric features from the at least one biometric reading;

for each one of one or more respective target ones of the plurality of biometric features:

generating a plurality of first binary values, at least one of which is a respective first binary representation of the target biometric feature relative to respective other ones of the identified biometric features;

generating, for each one of the plurality of first binary values, a second binary value, thus generating a plurality of second binary values, of which at least one is required to reconstruct a respective first-level secret value;

generating a plurality of binary data pairs, each data pair comprising one of the plurality of first binary values and the corresponding one of the plurality of second binary values;

generating a first biometric vault comprising the plurality of binary data pairs;

generating a blockchain transaction comprising a respective output comprising at least part of the second biometric vault; and

transmitting the one or more respective blockchain transactions corresponding to the one or more respective target biometric features to the blockchain, and wherein the method comprises:

obtaining at least one candidate biometric reading;

identifying a second plurality of biometric features from the at least one candidate biometric reading;

generating a plurality of respective candidate binary representations of respective ones of the second plurality of biometric features;

obtaining, from the blockchain, one or more second biometric vaults, each second biometric vault comprising a respective first biometric vault, and wherein each first biometric vault comprises a plurality of respective first binary values paired with a respective second binary value; and

for each first biometric vault:

determining at least a threshold number of respective first binary values that correspond to respective ones of the plurality of candidate binary representations,

obtaining a threshold number of the second binary values that are paired with respective ones of a first threshold number of first binary representations, and

reconstructing a first-level secret value based on each of the first threshold number of the second binary values.

19 . Computer equipment comprising:

memory comprising one or more memory units; and

processing apparatus comprising one or more processing units, wherein the memory stores code arranged to run on the processing apparatus, the code being configured so as when run on the processing apparatus, the processing apparatus performs a method of storing a biometric vault system on a blockchain, wherein the biometric vault system comprises one or more biometric vaults, each biometric vault locking a respective secret value, and wherein the method comprises:

obtaining at least one biometric reading;

identifying a plurality of biometric features from the at least one biometric reading;

for each one of one or more respective target ones of the plurality of biometric features:

generating a plurality of first binary values, at least one of which is a respective first binary representation of the target biometric feature relative to respective other ones of the identified biometric features;

generating, for each one of the plurality of first binary values, a second binary value, thus generating a plurality of second binary values, of which at least one is required to reconstruct a respective first-level secret value;

generating a plurality of binary data pairs, each data pair comprising one of the plurality of first binary values and the corresponding one of the plurality of second binary values;

generating a first biometric vault comprising the plurality of binary data pairs;

generating a blockchain transaction comprising a respective output comprising at least part of the second biometric vault; and

transmitting the one or more respective blockchain transactions corresponding to the one or more respective target biometric features to the blockchain.

20 . A computer program embodied on a non-transitory computer-readable storage and configured so as, when run on one or more processors, the one or more processors perform a method of storing a biometric vault system on a blockchain, wherein the biometric vault system comprises one or more biometric vaults, each biometric vault locking a respective secret value, and wherein the method comprises:

obtaining at least one biometric reading;

identifying a plurality of biometric features from the at least one biometric reading;

for each one of one or more respective target ones of the plurality of biometric features:

generating a plurality of first binary values, at least one of which is a respective first binary representation of the target biometric feature relative to respective other ones of the identified biometric features;

generating, for each one of the plurality of first binary values, a second binary value, thus generating a plurality of second binary values, of which at least one is required to reconstruct a respective first-level secret value;

generating a plurality of binary data pairs, each data pair comprising one of the plurality of first binary values and the corresponding one of the plurality of second binary values;

generating a first biometric vault comprising the plurality of binary data pairs;

generating a blockchain transaction comprising a respective output comprising at least part of the second biometric vault; and

transmitting the one or more respective blockchain transactions corresponding to the one or more respective target biometric features to the blockchain.

Assignments (1)

Priority Claims (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (54)