VELOCITY IS DESIGNED TO BE THE WORLD’S NETWORK FOR VERIFIED AND TRUSTED CAREER CREDENTIALS, DESIGNED FOR THE DIGITAL AGE. IT’S GOVERNED BY A NON-FOR-PROFIT FOUNDATION, SET OUT TO PUT PEOPLE BACK IN CONTROL AND BUILD A GLOBALLY ACCESSIBLE, TRUSTWORTHY “INTERNET OF CAREERS”. AT THE SAME TIME, EMPLOYERS AND EDUCATION VENDORS WILL BE ABLE TO RELY ON TRUSTED, IMMUTABLE AND VERIFIED EMPLOYEE AND CANDIDATE DATA, SEAMLESSLY AND COST EFFECTIVELY ELIMINATING HIRING RISKS, BOOSTING PRODUCTIVELY, IMPROVING EMPLOYEE EXPERIENCE AND ACHIEVING REGULATORY COMPLIANCE.
CONSENSUS NETWORK
Velocity will be implemented as a public service on top of a permissioned blockchain network running the distributed ledger that is shared, replicated and synchronized among the members of a decentralized network (nodes). A public service utility enabling self-sovereign career identity on the Internet, allowing Individuals to collect, hold, and choose which verified career credentials – jobs, gigs, education, skills, performance, etc. – they share with interested parties. Every record in the network has a timestamp and unique cryptographic signature, thus making the ledger an auditable, immutable history of a user’s career. The nodes communicate with each other in order to gain consensus on the contents of the ledger and do not require a central authority to coordinate and validate transactions. Consensus algorithms ensure that the shared ledgers are exact copies and lower the risk of fraudulent transactions. The decentralized peer-to-peer network prevents any single participant or group of participants from controlling the underlying infrastructure or undermining the entire system. Participants in the network are all equal, adhering to the same protocols. The network belongs to no one and is run by its members. For these players, the driver to join the network is to provide their users the enhanced value proposition that comes with the interoperability of validated career records.
CREDENTIAL ISSUERS
The Credential Issuers, such as employers, academic institutions, education providers, certification agencies and others that can contribute verified career records, participate via the provisioning and automated processes that will be offered by their data processors or specialized software vendors that will emerge to capture this massive opportunity.
GOVERNANCE: THE VELOCITY NETWORK FOUNDATION
The Velocity Network is governed by the Velocity Network Foundation, a cooperative, nonprofit organization, established to: govern the use of the Velocity Network by all involved parties; continuously build the rulebook, a common framework that ensures operational consistency and legal clarity for every transaction; promote global adoption and support among stakeholders and constituents; guide the development of the decentralized protocols; and support research and development of applications and associated services, fostering a community of open-source developers.
UNIFIED, IMMUTABLE AND INVULNERABLE VERIFIED SINGLE SOURCE OF TRUTH
Consensus ensures that the shared ledgers are exact copies and lowers the risk of fraudulent transactions because tampering would have to occur across many points at the same time. Cryptographic hashes ensure that any alteration to transaction input — even the most minuscule change — results in a different hash value being computed, which indicates potentially compromised transaction input. Digital signatures ensure that transactions originated from senders (signed with private keys) and not imposters.
The decentralized peer-to-peer network prevents any single participant or group of participants from controlling the underlying infrastructure or undermining the entire system. Participants in the network are all equal, adhering to the same protocols. They can be individuals, state actors, organizations or a combination of all these types of participants. At its core, the system records the chronological order of transactions with all nodes agreeing to the validity of transactions using the chosen consensus model. The result is transactions that cannot be altered or reversed unless the change is agreed to by all members in the network in a subsequent transaction.
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.