Methods and Systems For Blockchain-Implemented Event-Lock Encryption

Abstract

There may be provided a computer-implemented method. It may be implemented at least in part using a blockchain network such as, for example, the Bitcoin network. The computer-implemented method includes: i) encrypting a plaintext message to a cryptographic public key in accordance with an identity-based encryption scheme using at least a congress public key to generate an encrypted message, wherein the congress public key is associated with members of a congress, respective members of the congress having access to private key shares usable in a threshold decryption scheme in which at least a threshold of private key shares are sufficient to derive a decryption key through the combination of partial contributions to the decryption key on behalf of the congress; ii) generating, using at least a cryptographic private key corresponding to the cryptographic public key, a digital signature over a first set of instructions to perform cryptographic operations upon an occurrence of an event; and iii) broadcasting one or more transactions to a proof-of-work blockchain network, the one or more transactions comprising the encrypted message, the cryptographic public key, at least the first setof instructions, and a second set of instructions to the members of the congress to cooperate to: in response to reaching a consensus on the event occurring and contingent upon the digital signature being authentic, deploy a ghost chain to perform the first set of instructions, wherein performing the first set of instructions includes at least deriving the decryption key from the cryptographic keyand a plurality of private key shares that satisfies the threshold, the decryption key being sufficient cryptographic material to obtain the plaintext message from the encrypted message.

Description

technical field [0001] The present invention relates generally to distributed systems, and more particularly to methods and systems for event-locked operations in transactions on distributed systems. Event-locking and event-locking encryption can mean manipulating data in response to the occurrence of an event—for example, under an event-locking encryption scheme, a ciphertext message can be decrypted in response to the occurrence of an event. A specific type of event-locked encryption is a time-locked encryption scheme, in which a message is encrypted and then, after a certain amount of time has elapsed, the encrypted message is decrypted or made decipherable. The present invention is particularly suited, but not limited to, efficiently and reliably generating messages, detecting the occurrence of events, and operating in response to using a distributed system to verify the occurrence of events. For example, a message may be encrypted under a time-lock encryption scheme, whe...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Extended feature sets that rely on the blockchain can be exploited by malicious parties

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