Microsoft Corporation
Heartbeats and consensus in verifiable outsourced ledgers

Abstract:

Heartbeat consensus forming for the state of a digital ledger built upon a blockchain to provide users with the ability to securely, accurately, and verifiably share state information between distrustful parties is provided herein. The digital ledger is hosted in a networked environment, accessible by multiple parties. Heartbeat transactions allow clients, who are not in direct communication with one another and may distrust one another, to verify the integrity of the digital ledger via consensus. The consensus is readily verifiable by each client on its own machine and allows the ledger to be recovered to an agreed-to state in the event of a fault initiated by a client or the host of the ledger, whether malicious or otherwise. The digital ledger is freely movable to different hosts in the event of a fault.