- From: Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com>
- Date: Fri, 21 May 2021 13:52:30 -0400
- To: public-rww@w3.org
- Message-ID: <20b457e0-36e9-f3b1-2954-b1554b9ecf58@openlinksw.com>
On 5/21/21 12:18 PM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
>
>
> On Fri, 21 May 2021 at 16:14, Kingsley Idehen <kidehen@openlinksw.com
> <mailto:kidehen@openlinksw.com>> wrote:
>
> On 5/21/21 7:34 AM, Melvin Carvalho wrote:
>> this is the outline of a strategy to track state changes in a
>> temporal read-write web
>>
>> by no means the only strategy, but an aim to generalize some of
>> the recent discussions
>>
>> 1. Data as a declarative state machine
>>
>> The data can be considered as a declarative state machine,
>> offering state transitions
>>
>> Simple case is one document, but it's useful to have multiple
>> documents over a set of quads (linked data) or directory tree
>> (file system)
>>
>> It seems standard practice to track this data using a hash
>> function. So the first step would be to hash the document or tree
>> or knowledge base into a chain of hashes. Git or other VCS
>> systems do this, similarly with single documents you could take a
>> sha2, for example, and maintain a chain of hashes that way
>>
>> 2. Bootstrapping a timestamp server to witness hashes
>>
>> Robust global timestamp servers have existed for over a decade,
>> popularized by the bitcoin project, often referred to as block
>> chains, because data is tied to those timestamps in the form of
>> 'blocks' of data. Users compete for space on those blocks based
>> on an auction basis, as they are a finite resource, to make them
>> spam resistant
>>
>> The chain of hashes described in (1) can be tracked on the blocks
>> of the timestamp server, which tend to have a common transaction
>> format.
>>
>> What is needed is hash1,hash2,hash3...hashn to be sequenced in
>> time from a definitive start, or genesis. That genesis can
>> become an identifier for the chain of linked data which we wish
>> to securely witness.
>>
>> Block chains typically follow a transaction in time from spent ->
>> unspent. The terminology is that of inputs and outputs. This
>> can be thought of as source and destination.
>>
>> The transactions are identified as cryptographic hashes, with an
>> array of outputs. In order for a timestamp server to track a
>> chain of linked data, we need to construct a URI for the linked
>> data hashes (hash1,2...n) and for the block chain transactions
>> (tx1,2,...) with the first tx being a genesis identifier
>>
>> Gaps needed to fill: create URIs for hash1,2,...n. Create URIs
>> for tx1,2...n
>>
>> 3. Two way links between state machines
>>
>> Two way links between those state machines ensure strong coupling
>> between the two systems providing a bootstrap. So from the case
>> of the linked data, you need a pointer to the transaction URI.
>> And from the block chain you need a pointer to the hash URI.
>>
>> From a block chain there's a couple of ways to do this, one is
>> the so-called OP_RETURN which allows you to embed data in at
>> transaction. The other is known as 'tweaking' a public key on
>> order to add a hash (hash1,2...n in the web chain)
>>
>> Linking from linked data to a transaction, once you have a URI
>> can be done in a number of ways. But as linked data is designed
>> to link to other URIs it's quite doable by putting it onto the
>> data structure. Another technique, for example in VCS is to put
>> a link in the commit message, as commit messages are part of the
>> chained tree
>>
>> 4. Ensuring Temporal Integrity
>>
>> Once (1), (2), (3) are in place. Change can be made to the state
>> machine, and new hashes generated. With the example of git we
>> can commit hashes to a file system, or a centralized server such
>> as github
>>
>> But, If we want to commit at web scale, we can do so as follows:
>>
>> Firstly generate a hash of the new state. Then move the
>> transaction in the block chain along to point to this new state.
>> The transaction itself has PKI based ownership rights which have
>> a variety of ways to manage and transfer ownership including
>> so-called "multi sig" ownership where any N of a given M actors
>> need to agree on a transition
>>
>> Finally, point the web chain back to this new transaction once it
>> is confirmed
>>
>> This will progress the web chain in time and mirror it on the
>> underlying time stamp server
>>
>> The resulting system creates a temporal read write web state
>> machine anchored to the strong assurances of an underlying
>> timestamp server
>>
>> This is a sketch outline of something that could be turned into a
>> prototype or MVP, and also illustrating the gaps in technology
>> that we need, namely to create two URI schemes, to hash web
>> state, and describe state transitions, for data and for agents
>>
>> Appreciate this is a sketch outline right now, feedback welcome!
>>
>
> Great explanation!
>
> *Challenge:*
>
> Persisting this in a form that available for easy recall.
>
> *Suggestions:*
>
> 1. Documentation using RDF sentences in a document
>
> 2. A visual diagram to complement -- e.g., using http://draw.io
> <http://draw.io> *
> *
>
> *Example:*
>
> 1.
> http://www.openlinksw.com/data/turtle/general/knowledge-graph-manifestation-turtle-jsonld.html
> <http://www.openlinksw.com/data/turtle/general/knowledge-graph-manifestation-turtle-jsonld.html>
> -- I constructed that for explaining Hypertext, Hyperdata,
> Hypermedia etc., in relation to Knowledge Graphs; that all started
> from a draw.io <http://draw.io> diagram .
>
>
> Good thoughts, I can add some diagrams to explain things better
>
> Couple of inspiration of images I'd like to make:
>
> https://www.commerceblock.com/images/mainstay.png
> <https://www.commerceblock.com/images/mainstay.png>
>
> And Figure 1. from this white paper (which has quite related ideas)
>
> https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipns/ipfs.commerceblock.com/commerceblock-whitepaper-mainstay.pdf
> <https://cloudflare-ipfs.com/ipns/ipfs.commerceblock.com/commerceblock-whitepaper-mainstay.pdf>
>
> I'm not great with graphics, nor can afford to hire someone, but I've
> asked an artist friend to see if they can help
>
> I'll give draw.io <http://draw.io> a look tho
>
You can also just draw with pencil and paper, then scan and share it
i.e., someone else could make a rendition using draw.io or similar
tools. Key thing here is to inject illustrations into the discourse
since "a picture speaks a thousand words" etc :)
--
Regards,
Kingsley Idehen
Founder & CEO
OpenLink Software
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Received on Friday, 21 May 2021 17:52:48 UTC