Methods and Devices for Recording Work History and Proving Reputation in a Blockchain Network

A computer-implemented method of verifying a work history of a mining node on a blockchain in a blockchain network, comprising:

• identifying a block mined by the mining node and having a generation transaction that includes, in an information field, a miner identifier, and a reference to an earlier generation transaction;
• retrieving, from the blockchain, a plurality of earlier generation transactions, in a reverse order, each of which contains the miner identifier and a reference to a respective preceding one of the earlier generation transactions in the reverse order, until a last generation transaction that includes a registration with regard to the miner identifier;
• and
• verifying the registration of the miner identifier in the last generation transaction, whereby the generation transaction and the plurality of earlier generation transactions provide the work history of the mining node.

A computer-implemented method of determining a reputation score for a mining node in a blockchain network based on a blockchain, comprising:

• tracing a chain of linked generation transactions, wherein the generation transactions each include, in an information field, a miner identifier for the mining node, and each of which, excluding a first generation transaction, includes in the information field a reference to an earlier one of linked generation transactions in the chain, wherein each generation transaction is in a respective block mined by the mining node;
• for each generation transaction of the generation transactions, determining a difficulty score of its respective block of the generation transaction;
• and
• determining the reputation score for the mining node based the difficulty scores of respective blocks associated with the generation transactions in the chain.

A computing device to manage a public key infrastructure using a blockchain network to recording work history of a mining node on a blockchain in the blockchain network, the computing device including:

• one or more processors;
• memory;
• and
• computer-executable instructions stored in the memory that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method of:
• mining, by the mining node, a first block containing a registration generation transaction that includes, within a registration information field, a miner identifier for the mining node;
• and
• mining, by the mining node, two or more additional blocks in an order, each additional block containing a generation transaction that includes an information field containing the miner identifier, a reference to the generation transaction of the preceding additional block in the order, wherein the registration generation transaction is a first block in the order.