- The start-up GeoDB has published the IOTA based proof provision protocol to give validity to commercial user data.
- The protocol protects the visibility of the data via public, private and restricted channels, which work similar to the (former) MAM channels.
GeoDB has announced an IOTA based protocol for the validation of information under the name proof provision protocol. The company was already in the headlines at CNF a few days ago when it presented an IOTA-based app for the containment of the coronavirus. The company’s goal is to enable users to securely commercialize their data.
However, this process requires mechanisms that give credibility to the data provided, which is why GeoDB has now introduced the proof provision protocol. This protocol builds on IOTA’s Distributed Ledger technology to provide transparency to the data validation process. For the verification mechanism, the protocol relies on sha256 to reduce the risk of invasion of user privacy.
IOTA based proof provision protocol guarantees the validity of data
The protocol consists of two main components, the channels for the provision of proofs and the provision of the data. The former are inspired by the MAM channels (recently renamed and redesigned to IOTA streams) and are based on the concept of the Merkle Tree. As GeoDB describes, not all functions of the MAM channels are needed. Moreover, at the time of the decision to develop the protocol, MAM was still in the alpha stage, so that a separate solution was needed.
According to GeoDB, when the protocol was created, it was important that the user’s data was protected and visibility could be controlled through public, private and restricted channels. For this purpose GeoDB uses the concept of key pairs (public and private), which are generated using elliptic curve cryptography (secp256k1).
From the public key the IOTA address is generated, i.e. the address where all information that is validated is stored. In principle, only the owner of the private key that generated the data can decrypt and access the data.
The data from the channels are written to the IOTA Tangle using the provision strategy. For this, all data is first stored in a buffer until a condition is fulfilled. Then the process for sending the data to the IOTA Tangle is triggered. As GeoDB further describes, during the provision process all data is shared with third party providers:
It is necessary to highlight that all information stored in the proof provision channel needs to be notified to the provision app (third party app). The proof provision channel info together with the shared data itself, along with some authorization info, allow the third-party app to verify the proofs, request rewards to GeoDB and give the corresponding reward to each user identity.
A detailed description of the GeoDB protocol or its deployment strategy can be found in the official blog post. Furthermore, the team has announced to publish another post explaining how they provide the data.
