The successful 2015 InterChainZ project demonstrated it was indeed possible to build distributed ledgers that can store, exchange, and keep records of any kind. We demonstrated an interface for tasks including selection and storage of documents, document encryption, sharing keys, viewing the InterChainZ transactions, and viewing the InterChainZ contents subject to encrypted limits. The interface was deliberately simple, and served the purpose of demonstrating how distributed ledgers work in practice.
Objectives & Scope
The objective of IntereXchainZ was to build a mutual distributed ledger marketplace for data exchange. This marketplace uses distributed ledger functionality to build a controlled environment which will:
- Manage identity through authentication;
- Execute transactions across space;
- Handle transactions over time;
- Provide a platform for mutual collaboration.
The output of IntereXchainZ provided a generic marketplace of identity data for insurance, trading, payments, shipping, etc. IntereXchainZ thus adds:
- Facilities for automated creation of new mutual distributed ledgers - a parameter driven system providing options for permission management, proof of stake and identity settings, supervisor-master and other node settings, and peer-to-peer structure settings;
- Management and control features - user authentication and control, billing on a per user or per transaction basis management information, monitoring and testing facilities;
- Integrity proofing - dynamic anomaly and pattern response additions, monitoring and testing facilities;
- Market functions - order matching, margining, account functions, clearing, settlement, as well as possible uses of a token currency within exchange;
- Usability and ergonomics to enhance the end-user experience - exploring the end-user experience by connecting IntereXChainZ to off-the-shelf wallets for cryptographic key management;
- Exchange functions - processes to make the basic interacting ledgers into a demonstrator of a full exchange, with numerous ‘use cases’ therein, e.g. sharing identity functions with transactional functions and storing relevant documents securely and permanently; uses of a token currency within the exchange;
- Data taxonomies, encryption levels and tracking - how feasible is it to have differently labelled categories and 'data boxes' (e.g., health, car insurance, home insurance, driving record, etc on a person's MDL) that can only be opened as a group, to encrypt levels with levels (first order health data perhaps before detailed data), to provide access records (who opened, when) and might homomorphic encryption have a role;
- Content Hash-Addressable Storage Market (C#ASM) - extending the 'identity', 'transaction', and 'content' chain thinking that emerged from InterChainZ into an indexable archiving system both as a ledger itself, but also supporting other ledgers;
- Further investigation of storage permutations and requirements, including implications of storage "off ledger", synchronisation of of entries at different times and from different places;
- Addressing issues around trust and management, e.g., managing the process when records expire or individuals request to leave the system; how can encryption be made usable and secure for large numbers of users, options for publishing the ledger hashes to increase trust levels;
- Stress testing the capacity of the ledgers, e.g., for addition and removal of nodes and/or network members;
- Documentation of regulatory standards for mutual distributed ledgers and legal entity identifiers.
The outputs will primarily be delivered using an online demonstrator showing the exchange application in action. Z/Yen has experience in developing exchanges and will provide our existing exchange software to act as a basis for developing the IntereXchainZ exchange. Consortium members will be able to use all the software with their own clients and communities as they explore how they can use distributed ledgers for real business purposes. As with the InterChainZ project, this trial software will be brought into the consortium as shared intellectual property.
Results
The principal output from IntereXchainZ was a demonstration of Smart Ledgers on ChainZy combined with identity functions on IDChainZ. Both ChainZy and IDChainZ have gone on to inspire both applications and further research into identity and smart ledger marketplaces for data.