Chain Table: Protecting Table-Level Data Integrity by Digital Ledger Technology
Abstract
The rise of blockchain and Digital Ledger Technology (DLT) has gained wide traction. Instead of relying on a traditional centralized data authority, a blockchain system consists of digitally entangled block data shared across a distributed network. The specially designed chain data structure and its consensus mechanism protect blockchain data from being tampered by unauthorized adversaries. However, implementing a full-fledged blockchain system to protect a database can be technically cumbersome. In this work, we introduce an in-database design, named chain table, to protect data integrity without the need for a blockchain system. It features a succinct design without significant technology barriers or storage overhead. To realize rigorous data security, we also propose a set of data writing principles for the chain table. We prove that the chain table, together with the data writing principles, will guarantee flexible data integrity, named table-level data integrity (TDI).
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2507.13932,
title = {Chain Table: Protecting Table-Level Data Integrity by Digital Ledger Technology},
author = {Feng Yu and Ryan Laird},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2507.13932},
year = {2025}
}