Study Guide for Blockchain Practicality Enhancement
Short Answer Questions
What is the "final state" of a blockchain? How does it relate to the practicality of a blockchain?
What is the difference between a "parent blockchain" and a "child blockchain"?
What role does "selecting transactions" play in the process of creating a child blockchain?
How is a "migration block" generated? What important information does it contain?
What is the purpose of a "counterblock"? How does it relate to a migration block?
Why do new transactions need to be "re-migrated" to a child blockchain?
What are the benefits of splitting a blockchain into multiple child blockchains?
Why do "historical blocks" need to be included in the new blockchain in some cases?
How do you ensure that the connection between the parent blockchain and the new blockchain is accurate?
What are the main advantages of the system and method described in this patent application?
Answer
The "final state" of a blockchain refers to the summary of the latest status of all assets in the blockchain. It is closely related to the practicality of a blockchain because the final state can be used as a starting point for generating a new blockchain, thereby reducing the size of the existing blockchain and improving its performance.
"Parent blockchain" refers to the original blockchain, while "child blockchain" is a new blockchain generated from a portion of transactions selected from the parent blockchain. A child blockchain can adopt different rules, policies, and structures than the parent blockchain.
"Selecting transactions" refers to selecting a portion of transactions from the parent blockchain to build a new child blockchain. The criteria for selecting transactions can be set according to actual needs.
"Migration blocks" are new blocks that contain transactions that migrate from the parent blockchain to the child blockchain. It contains information about the migration transactions, a machine-readable link to the relevant previous block in the parent blockchain, and information about the final state.
The purpose of the "anti-block" is to explain the reason why the final state migrated from the parent blockchain to the child blockchain. It contains an explanation of the migration transaction and links to the relevant previous block in the parent blockchain.
The purpose of "re-migrating" new transactions to the child blockchain is to ensure that all subsequent transactions are added to the child blockchain instead of the parent blockchain.
Splitting a blockchain into multiple child blockchains can improve the management efficiency and performance of the blockchain. Each child blockchain can focus on a specific type of transaction or asset and can adopt different rules and policies.
In some cases, it is necessary to include "history blocks" in the new blockchain to provide some contextual information to the new blockchain before it starts processing all new transactions.
To ensure that the connection between the parent blockchain and the new blockchain is accurate, the state of the new blockchain needs to contain a link to the archived historical blockchain. For example, a reference to the final block of the parent blockchain can be included in the seed block of the new blockchain.
The main advantages of the system and method described in this patent application are the ability to reduce the size of the blockchain without sacrificing the cryptographic security of any blockchain, and to improve the uptime, practicality, and performance of large blockchains.
Suggested Paper Topic
Explore the potential impact of splitting a blockchain into multiple child blockchains on different industries, such as supply chain management, fintech, or healthcare.
Analyze different methods of creating child blockchains using the concept of "final state" and compare their advantages and disadvantages.
Evaluate the security of the system and method described in this patent application and discuss potential vulnerabilities and attack vectors.
Explore the implications of splitting a blockchain into multiple child blockchains from a legal and regulatory perspective, especially focusing on data privacy and ownership issues.
Design an experiment to test the performance of the system and method described in this patent application and compare it to other blockchain scaling solutions.
Glossary of Key Terms
Definitions of Terms Blockchain A chronologically linked and cryptographically secured list of transaction records. Final State A summary of the latest state of all assets in a blockchain. Parent Blockchain The original blockchain. A new blockchain generated by a child blockchain from a subset of transactions selected from the parent blockchain. Selected transactions A subset of transactions selected from the parent blockchain to build a new child blockchain. Migration blocks New blocks containing transactions migrated from the parent blockchain to the child blockchain. Antiblocks Blocks explaining the reason for the final state migration from the parent blockchain to the child blockchain. History blocks Blocks that existed before the current point in time and may need to be included in the new blockchain to provide some contextual information for it. Machine-readable links A digital link that allows software applications to access and process information stored in different locations. Archiving The process of transferring data from one storage system to another, usually for long-term preservation. Historical integrity refers to the property of ensuring that data remains accurate, complete, and consistent throughout its lifecycle. Blockchain utility enhancement refers to the process of improving the performance, scalability, and efficiency of a blockchain, such as by creating child blockchains, optimizing consensus mechanisms, or using sharding technology. Transformation protocol A set of rules and procedures for securely migrating data between different blockchains. Account balance final state The final balance of a specific account at a specific point in time, used to initialize account states when creating a child blockchain.