SPRA: Scalable policy-based regulatory architecture for blockchain transactions

Implementing effective regulation of blockchain transactions has become a research hotspot in recent years. However, most of the current regulatory schemes are customized for specific blockchain applications and lack versatility and scalability. Meanwhile, these schemes cannot guarantee fairness due to the non-disclosure of regulatory policies and regulatory processes. To address these issues, a scalable policy-based regulatory architecture (SPRA) is proposed for blockchain transactions that separates regulation and application to provide sufficient scalability. SPRA is a four-layer model (permission layer, regulation layer, bridge layer, and business layer). A regulatory policy description language (XRPL) is designed to define the regulatory rules and specifications for interoperability between the layers. A decentralized jury mechanism (JuryBC) based on the Shamir threshold secret sharing algorithm and Pedersen commitment is proposed at the regulation layer to avoid regulatory arbitrariness and unfairness. We also construct a secure and efficient regulatory data sharing scheme (RDShare) at the business layer using an attribute-based encryption algorithm. The key parameters in both JuryBC and RDShare can be specified in the regulatory policy to suit different application scenarios. Finally, the security of the architecture is analyzed and the feasibility and scalability of the architecture through simulation experiments are demonstrated. © 2023 The Authors. IET Blockchain published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Institution of Engineering and Technology.