US Patent 11057187 Blockchain-assisted hash-based data signature system and method

A set of secret, indexed keys is generated and used in requests from a signing entity to a signing server for digital signature of messages. The signing server maintains a counter as well as a hash tree that aggregates requests during a round into a root value that is stored in an append-only data structure in a repository. Each signing entity is associated with a leaf of the hash tree. After a signature is formed, the counter for the requesting signing entity is incremented, whereby the secret key that was used cannot be used again.