Experimental spec proposal - Flex Ledger

Digital Bazaar has been working on a spec called "Flex Ledger" that
attempts to define a standard data model and HTTP API interface for next
generation Blockchains:

http://web-payments.github.io/flex-ledger/

Before going into what it is, let me outline what it isn't:

* It's not something that is anywhere near ready for production.
* It's not a universal mechanism meant to apply to existing Blockchains
  (even if it could, we don't think the social dynamics between the
  current Blockchain communities would allow it to happen).
* It's not an insistence on the "one true way" to model and interface
  with Blockchains.
* If looking at it makes your blood boil and think that most
  everything we're doing is wrong, then we're probably not trying to
  solve the same use cases that you are. :)

Ok, so what is the general class of use case we're trying to solve:

Any situation where there is a loosely knit community of organizations
that wants to publish and read data about people or organizations for
auditing purposes.

For example:

1. Writing and verifying emergency responder badge numbers to make sure
   the person that shows up on site is trained for the particular
   emergency that they're responding to.
2. Verifying whether or not a bank account is associated with a known
   terrorist organization.
3. Verifying if a particular vehicle has had an insurance claim filed
   on it with another insurance organization (in order to prevent
   fraud).
4. Checking to see if someone graduated from the school they said they
   graduated from.
5. Checking to see if a doctor is licensed to practice medicine in a
   particular location and that they have not been debarred.
6. Noting the intake point and application number of a refugee that is
   seeking asylum in a privacy-enhancing way.

The Flex Ledger specification outlines an experimental data model and
syntax for expressing a set of ordered events in a decentralized system
in way that can be cryptographically verified.

This technology is useful when coordinating the recording of events,
such as financial transactions, transfer of property, or time-stamped
data that must be shared among coordinating parties. A primary goal of
this ledger format is flexibility, allowing the pluggability of
consensus algorithms, data structures for recording history, and the
type of data that can be stored in the ledger.

We also have a corresponding data model vocabulary that goes along with
the specification here:

http://web-payments.github.io/flex-ledger/vocabulary.html

I am happy to answer any questions that folks may have about the spec or
the motivation behind it.

-- manu

-- 
Manu Sporny (skype: msporny, twitter: manusporny, G+: +Manu Sporny)
Founder/CEO - Digital Bazaar, Inc.
JSON-LD Best Practice: Context Caching
https://manu.sporny.org/2016/json-ld-context-caching/

Received on Sunday, 7 August 2016 19:06:42 UTC