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Velocity Network Blockchain

A Glance

PUBLIC UTILITY – PERMISSIONED NETWORK

The Velocity Network provides a public utility for individuals that allows them to collect, hold, and choose which verified career credentials – jobs, gigs, education, skills, performance, etc. – they share with interested parties. On the other hand, organizations that wish to engage as Credential Issuers, Inspectors, Data Processors or Application Developers, must join the foundation and be permissioned to participate, and the Network is enabled by a multiple server nodes located around the world, hosted and administered by a diverse, yet restricted, group of trusted organizations, that are classified as Class A members of the Velocity Network Foundation. Each node contains a copy of the ledger, a record of publicly accessed information needed to verify the validity of credentials issued within the network.

 

The question to be asked is this: why put restrictions on the identity of the participating players? this is done to assure trust, security, and compliance to data privacy regulations. The restrictions on participant entry allow only the right kind of participant in the network and leave out malicious actors, allowing us to provide assurances of security, stability, compliance, and speed – things which a public Blockchains cannot fully offer at this point, at least when it comes to perceptions.

DATA ON BLOCKCHAIN

Velocity Network implements a self-sovereign identity solution in which the individual is in complete control of their records. Personal data and credentials are stored on the individual’s device(s) and their elected cloud storage services. In both cases, the individual has sole ownership and control over their data.

 

The Blockchain will not be used to store any personal data but only the proofs required for supporting verifiable credentials. It will also be used for handling credentials that end up being revoked. Additionally, issuers and inspectors’ profiles will be stored on-chain, as well as all Velocity Token transactions. Finally, the smart contracts that govern the network will be on-chain.

 

Blockchain data is composed of block headers that form the “chain” of data that is used to cryptographically verify blockchain state; block bodies that contain the list of ordered transactions included in each block; and transaction receipts that contain metadata related to transaction execution including transaction logs.

 

There is a shared state that is maintained by every node in the ledger. The nodes (Data Processors) take transactions and share them throughout the network. Then all nodes run the consensus algorithm to reach agreement on a consensus what each block contains and its position in the history of blocks.

CONSENSUS ALGORITHM

Velocity will initially implement a Byzantine Fault Tolerant (BFT) protocol – IBFT 2.0. BFT consensus protocols are used when participants are known to each other and there is a level of trust between them but at the same time is able to tolerate a small number of malicious or infected nodes – which is the case with Velocity Network permissioned consortium network.

 

In IBFT 2.0 networks, transactions and blocks are validated by approved accounts, known as validators. Validators take turns creating the next block. IBFT 2.0 has immediate finality. When using IBFT 2.0, there are no forks and all valid blocks are included in the main chain.

 

In general, BFT consensus algorithms enable distributed consensus in an innovative, efficient way while still being fair and secure. It allows Velocity constituents to achieve fast, low-latency transactions with guaranteed finality in seconds or less.

 

Velocity Network will also embed a staking mechanism to incentivize participants to adhere to network policies. The objective is to ensure that participants will be issuing real credentials to real people. In case of fraudulent behavior, the node will lose all its tokens.

 

PRIVACY

Velocity Network keeps transactions private between the involved parties. Other parties cannot access the transaction content, identify the sending party, or list of participating parties.

 

INTEROPERABILITY

We are monitoring closely the work done by W3C and DIF on standards and interoperability for distributed identity networks, and we adhere to the developed standards for Verified Credentials and DIDs.