WO2019172877A1

WO2019172877A1 - Data unit management using blockchain information

Info

Publication number: WO2019172877A1
Application number: PCT/US2018/020938
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mike Alan Holmberg; Sally Blue Hoppe; Kim HILLIARD; Helen Balinsky
Original assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.
Priority date: 2018-03-05
Filing date: 2018-03-05
Publication date: 2019-09-12

Abstract

According to examples, an apparatus may include a processor and a memory on which is stored machine readable instructions executable by the processor to: identify a request regarding a data unit, the data unit being associated with a blockchain, the blockchain including transaction records of the data unit and ascertain information in the blockchain pertaining to the identified request. The instructions may also cause the processor to determine whether execution of the identified request is permitted on the data unit based on the ascertained information and based on a determination that execution of the identified request is permitted, generate a new transaction record reflecting the executed request and add the new transaction record to the blockchain.

Description

DATA UNIT MANAGEMENT USING BLOCKCHAIN INFORMATION

BACKGROUND

[0001] Big data is often used for business analytics and business intelligence reports that may provide key insights and actions for businesses. Data laws may enforce data handling rules that may include data localization rules. The data laws may dictate where, e.g., geographic locations, the data is permitted to be stored and processed based on, for instance, the origin of the data. The data laws and corresponding data handling rules are subject to change often, e.g., relative to potential data retention/usage periods. The data laws may include rules that dictate, for instance, that protected information is used fairly and lawfully, used for limited, specifically stated purposes, used in a way that is adequate, relevant, and not excessive, accurate, kept for no longer than is absolutely necessary, handled according to people’s data protection rights, kept safe and secure, and not transferred outside of a geographic area without adequate protection.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0002] Features of the present disclosure are illustrated by way of example and not limited in the following figure(s), in which like numerals indicate like elements, in which:

[0003] FIG. 1 shows an example apparatus that may manage data units using information about the data unit in a blockchain associated with the data unit; and

[0004] FIGS. 2 and 3, respectively, show flow diagrams of example methods for managing a data unit using information in a blockchain associated with the data unit.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0005] For simplicity and illustrative purposes, the present disclosure is described by referring mainly to examples. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the present disclosure. It will be readily apparent however, that the present disclosure may be practiced without limitation to these specific details. In other instances, some methods and structures have not been described in detail so as not to unnecessarily obscure the present disclosure.

[0006] Throughout the present disclosure, the terms“a” and “an” are intended to denote at least one of a particular element. As used herein, the term “includes” means includes but not limited to, the term“including” means including but not limited to. The term“based on” means based at least in part on.

[0007] As data laws and corresponding data handling rules may change at a relatively rapid pace (e.g., compared to the lifespan of a particular data unit) and there may be a relatively large number of data units that may be affected by the changes, it may be difficult and/or time consuming to manually identify which data units are affected by the changes. In addition, it may be difficult to determine which data units are permitted to be modified or moved from one country to another based upon the changing rules. In addition, or alternatively, to movement from one country to another, the rules may include: access control for handling requests for data access by employees, partners, government entities, legal entities, or other third parties; access control for handling requests to perform machine learning/data analysis, or other queries; and/or retaining or erasing data, or the like.

[0008] Disclosed herein are apparatuses and methods to manage data units through use of blockchain technology. As discussed herein, each of the data units may be associated with a respective blockchain that includes transaction records of the data units. That is, a blockchain may include blocks corresponding to respective transaction records of the data unit. In addition, each of the blockchains may be a separate file from the data unit to which the blockchain is associated. In this regard, the blockchains may be accessed and stored separately from their associated data units. Moreover, the data units may be stored in an encrypted form to protect the data units against unauthorized access.

[0009] According to examples, apparatuses and methods disclosed herein may access and ascertain information contained in the blockchains to determine which of the data units are affected by the data handling rules (and/or data handling rule changes) and may thus be prevented from being handled in manners that may violate the data handling rules, for instance, from being moved from one geographic location to another in violation of the data handling rules. That is, the apparatuses and methods disclosed herein may ascertain information in the blockchain of a data unit relevant to a requested operation on the data unit and may determine from the ascertained information as to whether the requested operation is permitted. By way of particular example, information contained in blockchains corresponding to the data units may be used to determine whether the data units are permitted to be relocated to another country. In another example, the information may be used to determine whether the data units may be used, modified, copied, deleted, or the like.

[0010] As used herein, a data unit may be defined as a sequence of bytes or bits containing some whole number of records. The blockchains may include blocks that correspond to the transaction data records of the data units. A blockchain ledger may include blocks, which may be chained together by appropriate cryptography. Each block in turn may include a number of transactions and the number of transactions may depend on a use case. Transactions in a block (of a blockchain ledger) may be added together in the blockchain. As such, in an environment in which the data unit undergoes a relatively small number of transactions, the blockchain of the data unit may include a relatively small number of blocks, whilst in environments in which the data unit undergoes a relatively large number of transactions, the blockchain of the data unit may include a relatively large number of blocks. Generally speaking, blockchain transactions may be the smallest“component” of a blockchain ledger, e.g., an individual record, and the information inside a transaction may be called payload. The payloads in the blockchain may be metadata, which may include data origin, data harvesting source, data owner, data versions, data transformation records, etc. The transaction records may be combined into blocks, which in turn may be combined into the blockchain and may be entered into the blockchain in a predefined order, e.g., a chronological order, an alphanumeric order, a size order, etc.

[0011] In some examples, the transaction records may indicate whether a certain action, e.g., movement of the data to another or certain country, is permitted. In other examples, the transaction records may be compared against a predefined data handling rule to determine whether the certain action is permitted. In the latter examples, a determination may be made that relocation of the data may not be permitted to another country based upon the origin of the data as identified in the transaction record. Data units that comply with certain data handling rules and/or laws may thus be identified in a relatively quick and efficient manner through review of the transaction records contained in the blockchain corresponding to the data unit. That is, the data units that comply or fail to comply with certain data handling rules and/or laws may be identified without having to analyze the information contained in the data units. As the blockchains may be of considerably smaller sizes than the data units to which the blockchains correspond, analysis of the blockchains may be performed in a relatively shorter period of time and through use of a relatively smaller amount of processing resources. Also, the data units may be maintained in formats and storage facilities that may be more suitable for handling particular types of data (e.g., SQL-based database or noSQL storages) rather than being interleaved/intervened with a blockchain cryptographic structure. The data units may be referenced by a blockchain transaction, which may secure a data location and a hash/signature of a data value, which in turn may guarantee that original and unmodified data is stored at the specified data location. The data location may be an address (beginning and end), a uniform resource identifier, uniform resource locator, a database name and row, a pointer to a beginning and the length of the data unit, or other forms of uniquely identifying where the data unit is stored.

[0012] According to examples, the apparatuses and methods disclosed herein may determine the data units that may be affected by a new data handling rule. The apparatuses and methods disclosed herein may also process the affected data units according to the new data handling rules while all of the data transactions are recorded into respective blockchains of the affected data units. That is, once a data transaction is completed for a data unit, a block containing the corresponding data transaction may be recorded as a block in the blockchain. Each time a transaction is completed, the transaction may be combined with other transactions into a new block or the transaction may be recorded on its own into a new block (for instance, depending on the block size). The new block may be hashed together with the hash of an existing blockchain and added to the blockchain. As such, the blocks in a blockchain may be connected to each other through a hashing sequence (which may be similar to links in a chain) in a proper linear and chronological order. In addition, the blockchain of a data unit may store a complete transaction history of the data unit as well as rules associated with the data unit.

[0013] The apparatuses and methods disclosed herein may further control subsequent processing and movements of the data units using transaction records identified in the blockchain. In examples, a user or an administrator may submit a request to move, modify, delete, or the like, a data unit. A determination may be made as to whether the request is permitted on the data unit based on the transaction records contained in the blockchain of the data unit and current data handling rules, which may also be stored in the blockchain. If the request is deemed to be permitted, the request may be executed and a new transaction record reflecting the implemented transaction may be generated and a block representing the new transaction record may be added to the blockchain. In one example, if the request is deemed to not be permitted, execution of the request may be denied and a new transaction record reflecting the denial of the request may be generated (in some cases, the new transaction record may be added to the blockchain, whilst in the other cases the new transaction record of the denied transactions may not be added). In some cases, a block containing the new transaction record reflecting the denial of the request may also be added to the blockchain. In this regard, all of the implemented and denied requests may be recorded into the blockchain of the data unit.

[0014] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of an example apparatus 100 that may manage a data unit using information about the data unit contained in a blockchain associated with the data unit. It should be understood that the apparatus 100 may include additional components and that some of the components described herein may be removed and/or modified without departing from a scope of the apparatus 100 disclosed herein.

[0015] The apparatus 100 may be a computing device, a tablet computer, a server computer, a smartphone, or the like, and may include a processor 104, which may be a semiconductor-based microprocessor, a central processing unit (CPU), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field-programmable gate array (FPGA), and/or another hardware device. Although a single processor 104 is depicted, it should be understood that the apparatus 100 may include multiple processors, multiple cores, or the like, without departing from a scope of the apparatus 100.

[0016] The apparatus 100 may also include a non-transitory computer readable medium 1 10 that may have stored thereon machine-readable instructions executable by the processor 104. Examples of the machine-readable instructions are shown as 1 12-120 and are further discussed below. Examples of the non-transitory computer readable medium 1 10 may include an electronic, magnetic, optical, or other physical storage device that contains or stores executable instructions. For example, the non-transitory computer readable medium 1 10 may be a Random Access memory (RAM), an Electrically Erasable Programmable Read-Only Memory (EEPROM), a hard disk, an optical disc, or other type of storage device.

[0017] The processor 104 may fetch, decode, and execute the machine-readable instructions 1 12 to identify a request regarding a data unit associated with a blockchain. The blockchain associated with the data unit may include blocks that contain all previous transaction records of the data unit and may be stored as data pertaining to the data unit, e.g., separately from the data unit. The request may be, for example, a request to modify data in the data unit, a request to delete the data unit, a request to relocate the data unit, a request for access to the data unit by certain personnel, a request to perform machine learning analysis on the data, a request to produce data derivative to the data unit or a group of data units, or the like. In an example, the request may be to move the data unit to a storage location in another country.

[0018] The transaction records may include, for instance, records pertaining to movement of the data unit, records pertaining to changes in ownership of the data unit, records pertaining to denial of requests to move the data unit, or the like. In addition, the blocks corresponding to the transaction records may be inserted into the blockchain in a chronological order such that a record of a most recent transaction may be at an end of the blockchain. The blocks may additionally or alternatively be ordered in another predefined arrangement, such as, based on an alphanumeric order, based on sizes, based on an order in which a first block inserted into the blockchain is the first block out, based on an order in which a last block inserted into the blockchain is the first block out, or the like. In addition to or as part of the transaction records, the blockchain may include information that describes the data unit, which may include, for instance, data unit origin, data unit harvesting source (data unit generating device), data unit owner, data unit versions, data unit transformation records, or the like.

[0019] The processor 104 may fetch, decode, and execute the machine-readable instructions 1 14 to ascertain information, e.g., a transaction record or multiple transaction records, in the blockchain pertaining to the identified request. The ascertained information in the blockchain may include, for instance, the origin of the data unit, the owner of the data unit, whether the data unit is permitted to be moved or copied to a particular geographic location, or the like. In addition, the ascertained information may include information in the blockchain that the processor 104 may access in determining whether execution of the identified request is permitted. In this regard, the ascertained information may depend upon or correspond to the type of operation indicated in the identified request. According to an example, while the data unit is in a particular geographic location, the ascertained information in the blockchain may be analyzed (e.g., for compliance with privacy regulations) to determine whether access to the data unit in the particular geographic location is permitted.

[0020] The processor 104 may fetch, decode, and execute the machine-readable instructions 1 16 to determine whether execution of the identified request is permitted on the data unit based on the ascertained information. In some examples, the processor 104 may determine whether execution of the identified request is permitted from the ascertained information itself. In these examples, the ascertained information, e.g., the transaction record, may indicate whether execution of the identified request is permitted. By way of particular example in which the identified request is to store a copy of the data unit in another country, the ascertained information may identify the countries in which the data unit is permitted to be stored. Conversely, the ascertained information may identify the countries in which the data unit is not permitted to be stored.

[0021] In addition or in other examples, the processor 104 may determine whether execution of the identified request is permitted through a comparison of the ascertained information against a predefined rule. In these examples, the processor 104 may determine whether execution of the request would comply with or violate a predefined rule. By way of particular example in which the identified request is to store a copy of the data unit in country A and a predefined rule is that data units originating in country B are not permitted to be stored in country A, the ascertained information may include the origin country of the data unit. In this example, the processor 104 may determine whether the origin country of the data unit matches country B. If so, the processor 104 may block execution of the identified request. However, if the origin country, e.g., the country in which the data unit originated, does not match country B, the processor 104 may enable execution of the identified request.

[0022] The processor 104 may fetch, decode, and execute the machine-readable instructions 1 18 to, based on a determination that execution of the identified request is permitted, generate a new transaction record reflecting the executed request. For example, the processor 104 may generate a new transaction record reflecting the executed request based on a determination either that the ascertained information indicated that execution of the identified request is permitted or that a comparison of the ascertained information against a predefined rule resulted in a finding that execution of the identified request is permitted. The processor 104 may generate the new transaction record prior to or following execution of the identified request. In some examples, the processor 104 may also generate a new transaction record in instances in which execution of the identified request was determined to not be permitted.

[0023] The processor 104 may fetch, decode, and execute the machine-readable instructions 120 to add the new transaction record to the blockchain. For instance, the processor 104 may add the new transaction record into the blockchain as a block representing the latest transaction pertaining to the data unit. That is, the processor 104 may hash the new transaction record and may encode the hashed new transaction record into the blockchain as the most recent transaction record, e.g., block in the blockchain. In one regard, through execution of the instructions 1 12-120, the processor 104 may produce a complete and up-to-date transaction history of the data unit.

[0024] Turning now to FIGS. 2 and 3, there are respectively shown flow diagrams of example methods 200 and 300 for managing a data unit using information in a blockchain associated with the data unit. It should be understood that the methods 200 and 300 depicted in FIGS. 2 and 3 may include additional operations and that some of the operations described therein may be removed and/or modified without departing from scopes of the methods 200 and 300. The descriptions of the methods 200 and 300 are also made with reference to the features depicted in FIG. 1 for purposes of illustration. Particularly, the processor 104 of the apparatus 100 may execute some or all of the operations included in the methods 200 and 300.

[0025] With reference first to FIG. 2, at block 202, the processor 104 may query a blockchain of a data unit to identify information in the blockchain pertaining to a request to be implemented with regard to the data unit. As discussed above, the blockchain may include transaction records of the data unit as well as other information of the data unit. For example, the blockchain may include records of transactions pertaining to relocations of the data unit, data unit modifications or updates, denied relocation or modification requests, or the like. In addition, the processor 104 may identify information, e.g., a block, in the blockchain that the processor 104 may use in determining whether to allow implementation of the request. As discussed herein, the information may indicate whether implementation of a requested action on the data unit is permitted and/or the processor 104 may use the information to determine whether implementation of the requested action on the data unit will violate a predefined rule.

[0026] As also discussed herein, the transaction records may be added to the blockchain in a predefined order, e.g., in a chronological order such that the latest transaction records are near the end of the blockchain. According to examples, the processor 104 may, in identifying the information pertaining to the request, start from the end of the blockchain containing the blocks representing the newest transaction records and work in a reverse chronological order. The processor 104 may also select only transactions relevant to a particular data unit. In this regard, the processor 104 may identify the most up-to-date information that may be relevant to the request. As the information pertaining to the request may change over time, identifying the most recent information may enable the processor 104 to make request implementation decisions more accurately. In instances in which the blockchain includes information that supersedes prior information, the processor 104 may use the superseding information in determining whether to permit the requested action.

[0027] At block 204, the processor 104 may determine from the identified information, whether implementation of the request (e.g., requested action) is allowed. As discussed above, the processor 104 may make this determination from the identified information itself and/or based on a comparison of the identified information and predefined rule. As also discussed above, the request may be a data unit relocation request as well as other types of requests.

[0028] Based on a determination that implementation of the request is allowed at block 204, the processor 104 may generate a new transaction record pertaining to implementation of the request at block 206. For example, prior to or following implementation of the request on the data unit, transaction data such as the relocation date, time, destination, or the like, of the requested implementation on the data unit may be reflected in the new transaction record.

[0029] However, based on a determination that implementation of the request is not allowed at block 204, the processor 104 may generate a new transaction record pertaining to a denial of implementation of the request at block 208. For example, the processor 104 may generate the new transaction record to indicate that the request was received and that the request was denied.

[0030] Following either of blocks 206 and 208, at block 210, the processor 104 may add the generated new transaction record to the blockchain. The processor 104 may add the generated new transaction record as a new block in the blockchain. The processer 104 may combine a number of transaction requests that have arrived during a specified period of time into one block. In this regard, the processor 104 may add the generated new transaction record or a group of transaction records as a permanent block in the blockchain. According to examples, the transaction records may be digitally signed and/or encrypted prior to being added to the blockchain. In any regard, the processor 104 may execute the method 200 to generate and add data unit transaction records to the blockchain of a data unit regardless of whether request actions on the data unit have been implemented or denied.

[0031] Turning now to FIG. 3, the method 300 may be implemented following block 202. In this regard, the method 300 may include operations similar to those discussed above with respect to the method 200, but may include more detail regarding those operations.

[0032] At block 302, the processor 104 may determine whether implementation of the request is allowed from an indication in the identified information as to whether implementation of the request is allowed. For example, the identified information may be in a field that has been set to be unchangeable (i.e. , an immutable field). In this case, implementation of the request may not be allowed because the information may not be permitted to be changed to allow implementation of the request. In other examples, there may be an express indication that the requested implementation is not allowed on the data unit. For instance, an indication that the data unit may not be copied to a storage location in a particular country may expressly be contained in the blockchain. Therefore, the processor 104 may not allow execution of the request based on the information contained in a blockchain (e.g., a flag in a relocation field may be changed).

[0033] In addition or alternatively to block 302, the processor 104 may, at block 304, compare the identified information against a predefined rule. In addition, at block 306, the processor 104 may determine whether the comparison indicates that implementation of the request will result in the predefined rule being violated (or that implementation of the request will result in the compliance with a predefined rule). According to an example, the predefined rule may be that data units originating from a particular country are not allowed to be stored in another country. In this example, the processor 104 may determine the origin country information in the blockchain of the data unit and may determine whether the predefined rule will be violated if the request is implemented.

[0034] Following either or both of blocks 302 or 306, the processor 104 may, at block 308, determine whether implementation of the request is allowed. Based on a determination that implementation of the request is not allowed at block 308, the processor 104 may block implementation of the request. For instance, the processor 104 may deny access to the data unit. In addition, the processor 104 may generate a new transaction record pertaining to the denial of implementation of the request at block 310 and may add the new transaction record to the blockchain at block 312. Blocks 310 and 312 may respectively be similar to blocks 208 and 210 discussed above with respect to the method 200 and FIG. 2.

[0035] However, based on a determination that implementation of the request is allowed at block 308, the processor 104 may, at block 314, allow implementation of the request. For instance, the processor 104 may allow access to the data unit to a requesting application. In some examples, the processor 104 may also implement the request at block 314. The processor 104 may further generate a new transaction record pertaining to implementation of the requests at block 316 and may add the new transaction record to the blockchain at block 318. Blocks 316 and 318 may respectively be similar to blocks 208 and 210 discussed above with respect to the method 200 and FIG. 2.

[0036] Through implementation of the methods 200 or 300, the blockchain of the data unit may be updated to record transactions on the data unit regardless of whether requested operations on the data unit were implemented. In one regard, as rules regarding handling of the data unit change, a determination as to whether the rules apply to the data unit may be made in a relatively quick and efficient manner by simply reviewing the blockchain and/or comparing information contained in the blockchain against the rules. This may also be applied to a large number of data units, e.g., the blockchains of the data units may be reviewed to determine whether changes in rules are applicable to the data units.

[0037] Some or all of the operations set forth in the methods 200 and 300 may be contained as utilities, programs, or subprograms, in any desired computer accessible medium. In addition, the methods 200 and 300 may be embodied by computer programs, which may exist in a variety of forms. For example, the methods 200 and 300 may exist as machine readable instructions, including source code, object code, executable code or other formats. Any of the above may be embodied on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium.

[0038] Examples of non-transitory computer readable storage media include computer system RAM, ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, and magnetic or optical disks or tapes. It is therefore to be understood that any electronic device capable of executing the above-described functions may perform those functions enumerated above.

[0039] Although described specifically throughout the entirety of the instant disclosure, representative examples of the present disclosure have utility over a wide range of applications, and the above discussion is not intended and should not be construed to be limiting, but is offered as an illustrative discussion of aspects of the disclosure. [0040] What has been described and illustrated herein is an example of the disclosure along with some of its variations. The terms, descriptions and figures used herein are set forth by way of illustration only and are not meant as limitations. Many variations are possible within the spirit and scope of the disclosure, which is intended to be defined by the following claims - and their equivalents - in which all terms are meant in their broadest reasonable sense unless otherwise indicated.

Claims

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory on which are stored machine readable instructions that cause the processor to:

identify a request regarding a data unit, the data unit being associated with a blockchain, the blockchain including transaction records of the data unit;

ascertain information in the blockchain pertaining to the identified request;

determine whether execution of the identified request is permitted on the data unit based on the ascertained information;

based on a determination that execution of the identified request is permitted, generate a new transaction record reflecting the executed request; and add the new transaction record to the blockchain.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the metadata and the transaction record are included in the blockchain in a predefined order, and wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to:

query the blockchain to ascertain the information pertaining to the identified request according to the predefined order in which the metadata and the transaction record are included in the blockchain.

3. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to determine whether the ascertained information includes an indication as to whether execution of the identified request is permitted.

4. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to:

compare the ascertained information against a rule;

determine, from the comparison, whether the ascertained information indicates that execution of the identified request will violate the rule; and determine that execution of the identified request is permitted based on a determination that the comparison does not indicate that execution of the identified request will violate the rule.

5. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to:

hash the new transaction record; and

encode the hashed new transaction record into the blockchain to add the new transaction record to the blockchain.

6. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the request regarding the data unit comprises a request to move and/or copy the data unit to another geographic area and wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to determine whether the data unit is permitted to be moved and/or copied to the other geographic area based on the ascertained information.

7. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to:

prevent execution of the identified request based on a determination that execution of the identified request is not permitted on the data unit;

generate a denial transaction record reflecting an indication of a denial in the execution of the identified request on the data unit; and

add the denial transaction record to the blockchain.

8. The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to:

query blockchains associated with a plurality of respective data units to ascertain information included in the blockchains pertaining to the identified request; determine on which of the plurality of data units the identified request is permitted to be implemented;

for the data units for which the identified request is permitted to be implemented, generate new transaction records reflecting the implemented request; and

add the new transaction records to the blockchains associated with the data units for which the identified request was implemented.

9. A method comprising:

querying, by a processor, a blockchain of a data unit to identify information in the blockchain pertaining to a request to be implemented with regard to the data unit, the blockchain including transaction records of the data unit;

determining, by the processor, from the identified information, whether implementation of the request is allowed;

based on a determination that implementation of the request is allowed, generating, by the processor, a new transaction record pertaining to implementation of the request; and

adding, by the processor, the generated new transaction record as a next transaction record in the blockchain.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

based on a determination that implementation of the request is not allowed, generating a new transaction record pertaining to a denial of implementation of the request; and

adding the generated new transaction record pertaining to the denial of implementation of the request as a next transaction record in the blockchain.

1 1. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

determining whether implementation of the request is allowed from an indication in the identified information as to whether implementation of the request is allowed.

12. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

comparing the identified information against a rule;

determining, from the comparison, whether the identified information indicates that implementation of the request will violate the rule; and determining that implementation of the request is allowed based on a determination that the comparison does not indicate that implementation of the request will violate the rule.

13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:

based on a determination that implementation of the request will violate the rule,

blocking implementation of the request;

generating another transaction record pertaining to blockage of the implementation of the request; and

adding the generated other transaction record as a next transaction in the blockchain.

14. A non-transitory computer readable medium on which is stored machine readable instructions that when executed by a processor, cause the processor to: query a blockchain of a data unit to identify information in the blockchain pertaining to a certain action requested to be implemented with regard to the data unit, the blockchain including transaction records of the data unit;

determine, from the identified information, whether implementation of the certain action would violate a predefined rule;

based on a determination that implementation of the certain action would not violate the predefined rule,

enable implementation of the certain action;

generate a new transaction record pertaining to implementation of the certain action; and

add the generated new transaction record as a next transaction record in the blockchain.

15. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the instructions are further to cause the processor to:

determine, from the identified information, that implementation of the certain action would violate the predefined rule; based on the determination that implementation of the certain action would violate the predefined rule,

block implementation of the certain action;

generate another transaction record pertaining to blockage of the certain action implementation; and

add the generated other transaction record as a next transaction record in the blockchain.