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Scalable Data Notarization Leveraging Hybrid DLTs

Domenico Tortola, Claudio Felicioli, Andrea Canciani, Fabio Severino

TL;DR

The paper tackles scalable data notarization by moving from per-ledger public-chain writes to a consolidated, auditable data structure built on a hybrid DLT. It introduces an $r$-ary bitwise trie with partial-persistence to aggregate digests of many ledgers, allowing a single public digest to certify an entire collection while preserving privacy via privacy-preserving proofs. Empirical evaluation across varied parameters $r$ and $k$ demonstrates favorable scalability characteristics, highlighting trade-offs between path length, trie size, and audit proof size. The approach reduces public-chain costs and preserves tamper-evidence and auditability, enabling practical deployment for large-scale applications like product passports in supply chains. Future work includes developing networked audit protocols to further minimize data sharing while maintaining strong external audit guarantees.

Abstract

Notarization is a procedure that enhance data management by ensuring the authentication of data during audits, thereby increasing trust in the audited data. Blockchain is frequently used as a secure, immutable, and transparent storage, contributing to make data notarization procedures more effective and trustable. Several blockchain-based data notarization protocols have been proposed in literature and commercial solutions. However, these implementations, whether on public or private blockchains, face inherent challenges: high fees on public blockchains and trust issues on private platforms, limiting the adoption of blockchains for data notarization or forcing several trade-offs. In this paper, we explore the use of hybrid blockchain architectures for data notarization, with a focus on scalability issues. Through the analysis of a real-world use case, the data notarization of product passports in supply chains, we propose a novel approach utilizing a data structure designed to efficiently manage the trade-offs in terms of storage occupation and costs involved in notarizing a large collection of data.

Scalable Data Notarization Leveraging Hybrid DLTs

TL;DR

The paper tackles scalable data notarization by moving from per-ledger public-chain writes to a consolidated, auditable data structure built on a hybrid DLT. It introduces an -ary bitwise trie with partial-persistence to aggregate digests of many ledgers, allowing a single public digest to certify an entire collection while preserving privacy via privacy-preserving proofs. Empirical evaluation across varied parameters and demonstrates favorable scalability characteristics, highlighting trade-offs between path length, trie size, and audit proof size. The approach reduces public-chain costs and preserves tamper-evidence and auditability, enabling practical deployment for large-scale applications like product passports in supply chains. Future work includes developing networked audit protocols to further minimize data sharing while maintaining strong external audit guarantees.

Abstract

Notarization is a procedure that enhance data management by ensuring the authentication of data during audits, thereby increasing trust in the audited data. Blockchain is frequently used as a secure, immutable, and transparent storage, contributing to make data notarization procedures more effective and trustable. Several blockchain-based data notarization protocols have been proposed in literature and commercial solutions. However, these implementations, whether on public or private blockchains, face inherent challenges: high fees on public blockchains and trust issues on private platforms, limiting the adoption of blockchains for data notarization or forcing several trade-offs. In this paper, we explore the use of hybrid blockchain architectures for data notarization, with a focus on scalability issues. Through the analysis of a real-world use case, the data notarization of product passports in supply chains, we propose a novel approach utilizing a data structure designed to efficiently manage the trade-offs in terms of storage occupation and costs involved in notarizing a large collection of data.
Paper Structure (15 sections, 2 figures, 1 table)

This paper contains 15 sections, 2 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background
  3. Distributed Ledger Technologies
  4. Data notarization
  5. Problem definition
  6. A real world use case
  7. Problem statement
  8. Proposed solution
  9. Construction
  10. Authentication
  11. Persistency
  12. Notarization procedure
  13. Limitations
  14. Size scalability evaluation
  15. Conclusions

Figures (2)

  • Figure 1: Hybrid DLT notarization framework overview
  • Figure 2: Data structure overview