Blockchain technology allows for open, decentralized, and immutable recording of data. So far, this ground-breaking technology has been used mostly to solve problems in the digital realm, including transferring virtual currencies across borders, bringing transparency to online advertising, or directly rewarding content creators for their work, just to give a few examples.
But, now, the XYO Network is bringing blockchain technology to the real world by creating world’s first network for cryptographic location tracking that sits on two novel components that ensure data integrity: Proof of Origin and Bound Witness.
The Need for Better Location Tracking
Current location-tracking systems are all prone to data manipulation, data corruption, and data loss. A shipment of goods with a GPS beacon can be intercepted, the beacon can be compromised, and the data reported by the beacon can get lost or become polluted. In other words, our current systems have far too many weak points to be considered reliable and dependable.
That’s bad news for multiple different industries. The counterfeit global drug market costs the pharmaceutical industry around $70 billion in revenue each year, according to a McKinsey study. The self-driving car market is forecasted to reach $20 billion by 2024, but incidents involving self-driving cars such as Uber’s recent fatal crash underline the need for verifiable and highly accurate locational information. Perhaps most importantly, outdated locational-tracking systems cost companies of all sizes millions of dollars in lost revenue because they fail to provide the visibility needed for doing business in the 21st century.
“The need for a difficult-to-disrupt system to complement GPS has been well known for years. GPS is exceptionally accurate and dependable, yet jamming, spoofing, cyber-attacks and other forms of interference appear to be growing infrequency and severity. This has the potential for devastating effects on our lives and economic activity,” said RNT Foundation’s president Dana Goward.
Trustless, Decentralized Location Tracking
The XYO Network extends an existing infrastructure of over one million Bluetooth- and GPS-equipped tracking devices with a blockchain-based location verification service to create a trustless, decentralized location-tracking system resistant to attacks and disruption.
The system stands upon four core pillars: Sentinels, Bridges, Archivists, and Diviners.
- Sentinels: The main job of Sentinels is to gather location data. They store this data on temporary ledgers, thus vouching for its certainty and accuracy. Every time a Sentinel records a piece of data, it automatically adds Proof of Origin using Transient Key Chaining to a relay chain of cryptographic proofs. This makes the recorded data impossible to falsify.
- Bridges: Named so because their purpose is to transcribe location data from Sentinels to Archivist and ensure that only valid data can pass through and be stored in perpetuity. Every piece of data approved by a Bridge receives additional Proof of Origin for extra security.
- Archivists: After receiving the data transmitted via Bridges, Archivists store this information in a decentralized form and index it, so they can quickly return a string of ledger data if needed. All Archivists are linked together and are programmed to automatically ask other Archivists for any data they don’t have.
- Diviners: By analyzing Proof of Origin of individual data records and using proximity as the primary bidirectional heuristic, Diviners fetch the most accurate data for a query from the XYO Network and relay that data back to the issuer of that query, applying the underlying concept of Bound Witness for the first time ever, ensuring that all invalid data is detected and removed it falls outside the allowed range for that heuristic.
Similar to blockchain platforms such as Ethereum or EOS, the XYO Network aims to enable blockchain developers to develop their own integrations and build decentralized location-reliant DApps. By acting as a bridge between the real world and the possibilities created by blockchain technology, the XYO Network can bring the much-needed certainty and security to virtually all industries, allowing for trustless location transactions without the shortcomings of current location-tracking technologies.
XYO Token Economy
All location transactions that happen on the XYO Network require XY’s Utility Token: XYO. This ERC20 token incentivizes Sentinels, Bridges, Archivists, and Diviners to provide accurate, reliable location information.
Every time an end user of the XYO Network submits a location-tracking query to a Diviner, the user specifies an amount of XYO to be spent on the query. This amount determines the priority of the request and serves as a reward for all network participants involved in the processing of the request.
The public sale of the XYO tokens has a tiered pricing structure, starting at 1 ETH: 100,000 XYO and ending at 1 ETH: 33,333 XYO. The XYO Network will burn all unsold and unallocated tokens after the XYO token sale ends on May 20, 2018. You can find out more information about the XYO Network on its official website.