US 11,736,456 B2
Consensus service for blockchain networks
Yacov Manevich, Beer Sheva (IL); and Jason Karl Yellick, Raleigh, NC (US)
Assigned to International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed by International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY (US)
Filed on Sep. 29, 2020, as Appl. No. 17/35,814.
Prior Publication US 2022/0103532 A1, Mar. 31, 2022
Int. Cl. H04L 9/40 (2022.01); G06F 16/27 (2019.01)
CPC H04L 63/0435 (2013.01) [G06F 16/27 (2019.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for establishing consensus in a blockchain network, comprising:
providing a first total ordering service gateway (“TOS gateway”) for an organization in a blockchain network, wherein the TOS gateway has read/write access to a shared message queue that makes messages available to each other TOS gateway in the blockchain network, wherein contents of the messages are unreadable by an entity managing the shared message queue;
generating a symmetric key at the first TOS gateway;
splitting the symmetric key to generate a plurality of key shares;
distributing at least one of the plurality of key shares to a second TOS gateway in the blockchain network; and
receiving, at the first TOS gateway from the second TOS gateway via the shared queue, a request for the symmetric key; and in response:
receiving an ephemeral public counterpart from the second TOS gateway;
generating an ephemeral key pair, wherein the ephemeral key pair comprises an ephemeral private key and an ephemeral public counterpart for the first TOS gateway;
generating an ephemeral symmetric key;
encrypting the ephemeral symmetric key using the ephemeral public counterpart from the second TOS gateway;
encrypting a shared key using the ephemeral symmetric key; and
publishing the encrypted shared key to the shared queue.