US 12,074,853 B1
Method and apparatus for providing secure information to a decentralized computing environment
Lorenz Breidenbach, Grand Cayman (KY); Alex Coventry, Grand Cayman (KY); Ari Juels, Grand Cayman (KY); and Christian Cachin, Grand Cayman (KY)
Assigned to SmartContract Chainlink Limited SEZC, Grand Cayman (KY)
Filed by SmartContract Chainlink Limited SEZC, Grand Cayman (KY)
Filed on Feb. 23, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/678,769.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/152,804, filed on Feb. 23, 2021.
Int. Cl. G06F 16/00 (2019.01); G06F 16/2458 (2019.01); G06F 16/248 (2019.01); G06F 16/27 (2019.01); H04L 9/40 (2022.01)
CPC H04L 63/0428 (2013.01) [G06F 16/2471 (2019.01); G06F 16/248 (2019.01); G06F 16/27 (2019.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method for providing secure information to a decentralized computing environment, the method comprising:
executing a smart contract on plural on-chain nodes of the decentralized computing environment, wherein the smart contract specifies a network of plural oracle nodes of an off-chain computing network and wherein the oracle nodes each have a collection of keys that define an identity of the corresponding node;
periodically receiving, by each oracle node, a respective value corresponding to the secure information;
wherein the oracle nodes communicate with each other and with the smart contract using a protocol that defines the following three protocol modules;
a report generation module configured to gather the respective values from each oracle node and, when specified security conditions are met, generate a signed report listing the respective values;
a pacemaker module configured to periodically initiate a new epoch that triggers an instance of the report generation module; and
a transmission module configured to selectively transmit, to the smart contract, the signed report generated by each of multiple instances the report generation module, wherein signed reports to be transmitted are selected based on timing of the generation of the reports and a state of the smart contract;
determining, by the smart contract, a mathematical aggregation of the values in each report transmitted in accordance with the transmission; and
exposing by the smart contract, the aggregation of the values to consuming smart contracts executing on the decentralized computing environment.