Amazon Wins Two Patents, Aims On Improving Distributed Data Storage/Signatures Protection

Worldwide popular e-commerce giant Amazon hits the blockchain news today for winning two patents related to digital signatures integrity protection and distributed data storage improvement. Both of the patents were published today, November 13 by the US Patent and Trademark Office.

The first patent application was filed in April 2018 where a signature delegation method was outlined, for ‘’protecting the integrity of digital signatures and encrypted communications’’. This method will allow the distribution and validation of cryptographic keys that can be used only once.

The encrypted keys are formed as a ‘’Merkle Tree’’ structure that represents a binary system of hashes built from the bottom up. Merkle Trees are a key element of blockchain systems since they allow huge amounts of data to be securely verified.

As crypto media platform Hackernoon explained:

 “The Merkle Root summarizes all of the data in the related transactions and is stored in the block header. It maintains the integrity of the data. If a single detail in any of the transactions or the order of the transaction’s changes, so does the Merkle Root. Using a Merkle tree allows for a quick and simple test of whether a specific transaction is included in the set or not.”

Amazon proposed the same Merkle Tree structure aiming to solve how to delegate signing authority from a central entity to multiple subordinates that will be authorized. The second patent that was first filed in December 2015, aims to solve issues related to distributed data storage.

The patents suggest that these methods can help reduce storage redundancy but still allowing maximum availability. Amazon also filed for other crypto-specified inventions but we will find out more about them in the near future.