WO2020188614A1

WO2020188614A1 - Blockchain of criptocurriences, smart meter for utilities and 5g wireless technology

Info

Publication number: WO2020188614A1
Application number: PCT/IT2020/050062
Authority: WO
Inventors: Claudio Giordano; Natallia Parkhimovich
Original assignee: Franceschetti, Giorgio; IRACE, Andrea; Villari, Massimo
Priority date: 2019-03-15
Filing date: 2020-03-14
Publication date: 2020-09-24
Also published as: WO2020188614A9; IT201900003519A1

Abstract

The evolutionary process that is affecting the electricity production sector and the electrical power system requires a gradual transformation of the electricity grids through an innovative, flexible and intelligent system. The new system will be able to communicate the various actors present in order to make them interact with a view to pursuing the objectives set by the smart grids. The innovative part of this patent concerning the real-time dialogue between the various smart meters and the network takes place by means of a management software for electricity requests, the accounting of the energies put on the network as transferred and requested, the conversion of the energy part sold in cryptocurrencies and their conversion into legal currency. Our invention arises as a development of patent applications US2017/206522A1, US2016/284033A1, WO2017/092817A1, US2017/ 358041A1, US2018/165660A1.

Description

Blockchain of Criptocurriences, Smart Meter for utilities and 5G wireless technology

The present invention relates to the evolutionary process that is affecting the energy production sector electric and the electric power system, requires a gradual transformation electrical networks through an innovative, flexible and intelligent system. The new system will be able to connect the various actors present in order to get them interact in order to pursue the objectives set by the smart grid.
The shared energy and in particular the share of energy sold by a user generic to another generic user, through the electric network either local that of other form, can be converted through its own counter electricity in units of cryptocurrencies.

An electrical power meter distribution system having an electricity meter connected to power lines on one side and a load on the other side are known such as the blockchain distributed database. The innovative part of the prerequisite patent concerning the real time dialogue between the various smart meters and the network takes place by means of a software to manage the electricity demand, the accounting of the energies put into the network such as assignments and requests, the conversion of the part of energy sold in cryptocurrencies and the conversion of the same into legal currency.

The new smart meter in addition to optimizing the management of dynamics in real consumption time, production from renewable and non-renewable sources, of the value of energy stored by the storage systems of the individual "consumers" send and receive signals of telemetry / remote control and accounting of cryptocurrencies generated.

The communications between the smart meter occur through via power-line using standardized protocols for the continuous control of the local energy consumption and production state that can occur in quick mode or full and for cycles queries of all smart meter powered by the same MV / LV transformer for the purpose of collecting possible diagnostics such as:
              a) Collection of energy production / storage and transfer data electricity;
              b) Collection of data for billing and cryptocurrency generation and sen_
ding of virtual currency to the banking system for the conversion of
the cryptocurrency in legal currency;
c) Energy Balance Function, Power Quality and absence of harmonic signal components;
              d) Synchronization of the Smart Meter clock.

Our invention has a strong potential impact on the correlation between the amount of energy sold to the network through sharing and the generation of cryptocurrencies that can also be converted into legal tender and it is a development of Italian Patent Application N. 102019000003519.

Every technological innovation has inherent risk, from the beginning to the end of its life cycle, but despite this, mankind can’t help but introduce new systems, new systems, new methods. The degree of novelty is different: incremental innovations consist in the improvement of a product, a process or a service compared to the existing model and aimed at the development of quality, performance, adaptability of products.

To determine if the benefits outweigh the deficits connected to the modernization is the most complex task which they are called modern states. This is the case of cryptocurrencies, the subject of the present patent, an innovative electronic payment system, which enabled the creation of "digital cash". To understand this aspect it is necessary to analyze the peculiar characteristics of the two coins that have existed so far: the "physical" currency and the "electronic currency".

The "physical currency" offers the advantages of being accessible to anyone, even without the opening of a current account or the possession of an electronic device; moreover it is anonymous, as it is not necessary for payment purposes nor to indicate the identity of the sender or that of the beneficiary. The "electronic money" has the prerogative of being easy to use (just think of the ATM or credit card), it must not be changed at the border and allows payment at a distance and, above all, it is traceable. The system of cryptocurrencies is inserted between these two coins, deriving their respective advantages.

Every technological innovation has an intrinsic risk, from the beginning to the end of its life cycle, but, despite this, humankind cannot help introducing new systems, new systems, new methods. The degree of novelty that can be brought is different: incremental innovations consist in the improvement of a product, process or service with respect to the existing model and aim at developing the quality, performance and adaptability of the products.

Determining whether the benefits outweigh the deficits associated with modernization is the most complex task facing modern states. This is the case of cryptocurrencies, subject of this patent, an innovative electronic payment system, which has allowed the creation of "digital cash". To understand this expression it is necessary to analyze the peculiar characteristics of the two currencies existing so far: the "physical" and the "digital currency".

The "physical currency" offers the advantages of being accessible to anyone, even without opening a current account or possessing an electronic device; it is also anonymous, as it is not necessary for payment purposes to indicate the identity of the sender or that of the beneficiary. "Electronic money" has the prerogative of being easy to use (just think of the ATM or credit card), it must not be changed at the border and allows remote payment and, above all, it is traceable. The cryptocurrency system fits between these two coins, drawing their respective advantages.

At the state of the art, electronic energy measuring devices sample electricity at high temporal resolution to obtain instantaneous values of voltage (V) and current (I) and to accumulate the various quantities of electricity in order to transmit them at regular intervals of time to the electricity distribution network; there are also patent applications such as US2017 / 206522A 1, US2016 / 284033A1, WO2017 / 092817A1 submitted which concern blockchains but none of these correlate the energy produced and supplied by the user with the possibility of generating cryptocurrencies and consideration. of the energy supplied to the smart grid; the fields that are affected by this patent are those of electrical, electronic and IT engineering.

The characteristic that most differentiates cryptocurrencies from previous currencies is its being "active" of those who hold it without involving the "passive" of anyone else: while the scriptural currency, created by commercial banks, and the metallic one, issued by central banks, they constitute a credit of the possessor against a debt of the institution, the cryptocurrency is, by its nature, more similar to gold, being an asset of those who hold it without being the liability of anyone else.

Another pecuniary aspect of the cryptocurrency is the "artificial scarcity": as, the gold, which has a natural scarcity, linked to the available quantity of the resource and its difficult extraction, also for the cryptocurrency has been defined an "artificial" scarcity, determined from the computer protocol, the so-called whitepaper which arbitrarily defines its quantity and makes its creation complex. The aim is to aim to remove the "human factor", eliminating, thanks to peer - to - peer technology, the presence of financial intermediaries and making this technical currency automatic, decentralized and entrusted to user control. All cryptocurrency transactions are based on a data structure called blockchain, that is, a series of chained blocks.

The operations are grouped into blocks, and then shared and validated by a network of nodes. The blockchain, therefore, is a distributed database that uses peer - to - peer technology and each user is able to download it from the web, thus becoming a node on the network.

The main problem may be that of safeguarding the security of transactions. In reality, however, the cryptocurrency solves the so-called "problem of the Byzantine generals", or how to complete a safe operation on a network that in itself is not secure, by transferring the cryptocurrency through encrypted messages, as represented in Fig .1: "A" has two public addresses (public keys) and two private addresses (private keys) which control its two balances in digital currency (VD). As you can see, the transaction can take place between two or more parties (input / output) and each input corresponds to an output of the previous transaction in digital currency (VD), as shown in Fig.2.

The transactions are validated if the outputs of the previous transactions coincide with the inputs of the new transaction; for this reason we speak of "chain of blocks". Being a system based on peer - to - peer technology, to complete the transaction it is necessary to demonstrate to the network that "A" is the true sender (approval of 50% plus 1 of the nodes) and has not altered or replaced what it is exchanging. To achieve this purpose "A" must demonstrate that it has private keys: each public address present within A's portfolio corresponds to a private key through which it can sign the transaction using a "digital signature" (DS). Once validated by the network, the transaction is permanently incorporated into the blockchain and "B" will receive its cryptocurrencies, as shown in Fig.3.

Cryptocurrency uses public key cryptography, that is, an asymmetric cryptographic algorithm that uses two mathematically generated keys: the private key, used to "encrypt" or digitally sign the document, "digital money", and the public key, which is used to "decrypt" the message or to verify the signature. The mathematical link between the two keys makes the public key work if and only if the corresponding private key exists: Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithms - ECDSA are used in order to generate the pair (public and private); with the systematic ECDSA calculation procedure it is possible to generate a public key "starting" from the relevant private key at any time, while the reverse operation cannot be performed.

Digital Signature refers to a pair of numbers (r, s), of which r represents a nonce (random number that can be used only once), and the other is generated with the signer's private key. Using the public key it is possible to verify, thanks to a mathematical algorithm defined starting from the system with which it works, if the digital signature has been correctly produced.
[020]The sender of the transaction must know the subject's cryptocurrency address to which to transmit a certain amount of cryptocurrencies. It is calculated by applying cryptographic hash algorithms, simply called hashes, to the public key, and, subsequently, another hash function to the previously obtained output. The holder of a certain amount of money previously received who wants to transfer it to a certain recipient digitally signs a hash of the previous transaction and the recipient's public key and adds this information to the transaction he is preparing. A cryptographic hash function (HF) is therefore a function:

that to a string m of length * any, given in input, associates in output a digest of message h (m) of fixed length (DMn), as shown in Fig.4.
When information is transmitted via an unsafe network, it is important that the information is not corrupted during transmission; cryptographic hash functions (HF) help to solve this problem, since in fact the various properties have not to be injective but, on a computational level, do not allow to find two different images for the same image.

The best knownhash developed by the National Security Agency is called SHA256 and is able to produce a digest code of a document, that is a short string of characters, in this case 40 (256 bits); another known European hash algorithm is called RIPEMD-160 and is capable of producing a 160-bit digest code (each alteration of the document generates a different digest and does not allow the validation of the transaction). These two hash functions are applied to the public key and, in order to identify the network to which the address belongs, a " network identifier " (IR) is added in front of it identifying the local electrical grid to which the user’s smart meter is connected, the smart identification code user meter and the access address to the local computer network. At the end of the address, instead, a code called checksum (CS) is calculated and inserted, used to ensure that the address contains a series of valid characters (if a character is wrong, the checksum number will be incorrect). Lastly, to the network identifier (IR), to the hash code (HC) and the checksum code (CS), a BASE

function

58 is applied (58B), for example, which aims to encode large numeric values in an alphanumeric string of characters.

The result is a public address, used to receive cryptocurrencies, and a private key (PrK) that is used instead to "spend" them. In short, we generate a private key (PrK) and its cryptocurrency address (VD-A) starting from a large random number (RN); an ECDSA elliptical curve algorithm (ECDSA-AL) , creates the public (PuK) and private (PrK) key pair byhash functions (SHA256 or RIPEMD-160) , adding a checksum code (CS) and coding the whole, for example, with BASE58 (58B) , as shown in Fig.5 .

The transmission inbroadcast, that is from a transmitting system to a set of receiving systems not defined a priori, of the signed operation is possible by connecting to one or more nodes of the same network: some of these nodes, called miner, carry out the resolution of a complex mathematical problem to perform transaction validation. The "connected" node becomes part of the network and is able to send and receive transactions; the other nodes "listen" to the transmitted transactions and share them with each other, in order to be able to manage a copy of each transaction created and use it to validate new transactions, with the guarantee that the available balance is sufficient before to forward the operation to other nodes. The new transactions are initially in an " unconfirmed " state, as the network must establish its validity (sufficient balance and digital signature); in case they are confirmed, the transactions are grouped in a " block " by the miner. Once the mathematical problem has been solved, the accepted blocks are exchanged by the nodes, marked with a timestamp (time stamp) and permanently concatenated to the block chain (Fig.6).

The transactions can be performed by all the nodes connected to the network, which is "decentralized " (each node is independent of the other and can redirect the connection if one of them is deactivated, there is in fact a fallible central point). In order to validate the operations, each node is able to manage a copy of the entire blockchain history; each block includes a list of validated transactions and is linked to the previous block in the chain.

The trajectory consists of two main components:

Input : the information referring to the previous transaction, from which the sum is taken.
Output : information regarding the recipient of the transfer of cryptocurrencies .

A transaction can comprise more input and output, which are respectively director you in two vectors vin, for inbound transactions, and vout for outgoing calls. Each output is used as input in future transactions, particularly when a transaction is used as input, it is agreed that the transaction is "spent", since the entire sum is sent to the recipient address. In Fig 7, an example of a transaction between multiple users: during each transaction the money holder transfers the amount to the recipient digitally signing (DS-XX) a hash (HF) of the previous transaction, together with the public key (PuK) of the next owner and adds these signatures (DS-XX) at the end of the transaction so as to prove that it is the true owner of the amount. In this way only the owner of the private key (PrK) can create a valid signature, which guarantees that he is the only one able to spend money.

The set of nodes constitutes the network ofcryptocurrencies but some of them engage in the " extraction " (mining) of new cryptocurrencies and, therefore, they are called minerals. The mining activity consists of a process that uses a block of transactions as the basis for calculating a problem with complex resolution. In the event that the problem is solved, the miner sends a proof of work, a test, to the network and receives new cryptocurrencies plus commissions due for each transaction.

The efficient and safe verification of the contents in the nodes is entrusted to thehash tree (HF) which is a mostly binary tree, whose ramifications are two at each step, in which each node is labeled with the hash (HF XX) of its child nodes. The tree structure allows the verification of a block through a quantity of data proportional to the algorithm of the number of nodes of the tree.
As can be seen in Fig.8, the hashes of all the blocks, taken from a list, are coupled each time until a single hash, called Top hash (THF) is obtained.
The Hash 0 (HF 0) is the hash of the result of 0-0 hash concatenation (HF 0-0) and hash 0-1 (HF 0-1); more precisely: hash 0 = hash (hash 0-0 + hash 0-1). To verify the integrity of a block it is therefore necessary to consider a subset of the tree and this implies that when a data of a block changes (DB), it is not necessary to calculate the hash above any other data, but only the nodes are calculated along the branch, up to the root. In doing so the number of required hash calculations decreases logarithmically on the number of blocks of such total data. This process results to be particularly efficient when there are many ramifications of the tree.

In the system we devised, whenever an energy transaction is performed (supply of energy supplied by one's own renewable energy system or energy storage batteries) by the user to the smart grid, this is dated using a distributed system Cloud-based that in addition to billing data and characterization of data from the smart meter also receives data relating to the cryptocurrencies associated with the smart meter itself, creating a virtual wallet associated in a unique and non-anonymous way with the user associated with that given smart meter for various utilities. The remote Cloud computing unit computes the hash of the object, or of the information that must be dated and publishes it in the Blockchain, the general register of all payments. Each payment is recorded through one or more transactions; transactions are contained in blocks and blocks form the Blockchains.

Cloud computing represents the natural evolution of the IoT in the enterprise world, setting the abstraction of the infrastructure as its objective, that is, shifting attention from the infrastructure itself to information, affirming itself as a response to the increasingly "driven" needs of companies. Although Cloud is always referred to with regard to end users to a series of objectives, and that is to say, increase flexibility and free up resources, paying only for what you use (innovative Pay-as-You-Go paradigm). Cloud architectures are not all the same, and there are currently three different types of Cloud that can be identified with the models of Public Cloud, Private Cloud and Hybrid Cloud. In the cryptocurrency use model, it is good to immediately conceive a hybrid architecture, in which the needs for calculating and storing non-critical user data allows public cloud use (with consequent economic savings on large scales), while user data, useful for managing the virtual portfolio, can have a connotation and identification within the private cloud, within which security and privacy is strongly guaranteed.

Cloud computing comes in strong help in the creation of the virtual wallet as it provides high calculation capabilities useful for the management of the cryptocurrency and for the algorithm calculation put in place here. Whenever a costly calculation is necessary, it can be remoted to the cloud and obtain the result of the computation, minimizing management costs.

The Cloud seen as a consistent resource for data storage comes in strong help in the creation of the virtual wallet as it provides a substantial resource for the persistent retention of transactions made intact with BlockChain technology (see [029]). Storage of all the data exchanged by users necessary for the management of cryptocurrencies and subsequent verification of the transactions carried out. In this case, we refer to the transactions that took place in the energy sector through the use of Smart Meters.

In Cloud computing, increasingly innovative data exchange standards and protocols are being adopted which guarantee the interoperability of the services connected to it, with a strong integration of the same. Adopting SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) and IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) policies makes it possible to extend the concept of Virtual Portfolio not only to Energy Metering but also to a wider set of applications. where it is necessary to charge and invoice services to users as in the case of electricity and water.

Each block is somehow related to the previous ones because it contains a control code that depends on the previous block. It is therefore impractical to falsify a block without falsifying all subsequent blocks, and the control codes uniquely determine the chronological order of the block from the moment it was created and activated.

Every single n-th smart meter (SM) that is inserted in the m-th local power grid (REL) sends its consumption data, invoicing and cryptocurrency wallets to the K-th local concentrator CL and they send to them it turns the data towards the integrated WAN (Wide Area Network) module such as xDSL or GPRS, which interfaces and communicates with the communication, control and CLOUD server (FIG.9).

Each single smart meter (SM) will be associated with the part of stored energy, generated from renewable sources and made available to the local power grid (REL) in a virtual portfolio of cryptocurrencies generated remotely via CLOUD. In this way there will be a univocal association between the electricity available for sharing and the amount of cryptocurrency generated.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Fig.1 illustrates an example of transfer of cryptocurrencies using public and private addresses.

Fig.2 illustrates an example of transfer of cryptocurrencies using public and private addresses in digital currency.

Fig.3 illustrates an example of transfer of cryptocurrencies using public and private addresses in digital currency and validated by digital signature.

Fig.4 illustrates an example of digest of message h (m) of fixed length (DMn).

Fig.5 illustrates how it is generated a private key (PrK) and its cryptocurrency address (VD-A) starting from a large random number (RN); an ECDSA elliptical curve algorithm (ECDSA-AL), creates the public (PuK) and private (PrK) key pair byhash functions (SHA256 or RIPEMD-160), adding a checksum code (CS) and coding the whole, for example, with BASE58 (58B).

Fig.6 illustrates an example of how accepted blocks are exchanged by the nodes, marked with a timestamp (time stamp) and permanently concatenated to the blockchain.

Fig.7 illustrates an example of transference between multiple users.

Fig.8 illustrates an example of how the hashes of all the blocks, taken from a list, are coupled each time until a single hash, called Top hash (THF) is obtained.

Fig.9 illustrates how every single n-th smart meter (SM) which is inserted in the m-th local power grid (REL) sends its consumption data, invoices and cryptocurrency portfolios towards the K-th local CL concentrator and these in turn send data to the module Integrated WAN (Wide Area Network) such as xDSL or GPRS, which interfaces and communicates with the communication, control and CLOUD server.

Claims

The system consists of an electrical measurement device (SM) that transmits data on virtual currency portfolios on the basis of the energy produced and shared, inserted into the REL local power network, a local CL concentrator, a WAN module and a CLOUD.
The system consists of an electrical measuring device (SM) which receives data on virtual currency currencies on the basis of the energy produced and shared, inserted into the REL local power network, a local CL concentrator, a WAN module, and a CLOUD.
The system as in Claims 1 and 2, wherein the metering device (SM) communicates with the local concentrator (CL) relative to the data associated with the virtual currency portfolios associated with individual users.
The system as in Claims 1, 2 and 3, wherein the local concentrator (CL) transmits virtual currency portfolios data to an integrated WAN module via power line communication and 5G wireless technology.
The system as in Claims 1, 2 and 3, wherein the local concentrator (CL) receives the data of the virtual currency portfolios from an integrated WAN module via power line communication and 5G wireless technology.
The system as in claims 1,2,3,4 and 5, wherein the WAN module interfaces with and communicates with CLOUD in order to control and generate virtual currency portfolios.
The electrical measuring device (SM) as in claim 3, transmits to the concentrator (CL), via power line communication and 5G wireless technology, an alphanumeric character string in which the network identifier (IR) identifies the local power network (REL) to which it is connected the electrical measuring device (SM), the identification number of the electrical measuring device (SM) and the local computer network access address.
The system, as in claims 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 7, generates in the CLOUD public keys (PuK), private Keys (PrK) and blockchains in order to validate each transmitted transaction to generate digital currencies which will form the virtual currencies for each individual user to which the electrical measuring device (SM) is associated.