Skip to main content

Technological implementation of the data disclosure protocol

The protocol ensures the exchange of reliable data for cryptocurrency and guarantees that none of the parties will be able to take advantage of each other. This protocol is used in the DISCIPLINA work in order to only provide recruiters with verified data on academic achievements.

The protocol has two parties - the Buyer (B) and the Seller (S). The system also has an intermediary that can hold money and validate the data. However, unlike conventional data exchange algorithms, this intermediary in DISCIPLINA is a blockchain — a decentralized ledger with a consensus mechanism that can ensure the validity of all the transactions.

Each party will have the opportunity to determine the validity of the data. If any disputes occur, the parties will use blockchain as a final judge: the chunk of data that the Buyer claims to be invalid is observed by the nodes of the network, and then the Buyer decides whether the data is valid or not. It should be noted that the blockchain nodes will not have access to the data as long as the parties agree on the fairness of the deal.

Before making a deal, the Buyer will have to notify the nodes about the function that will be used for the validation. Each chunk of the traded data will have to be valid in terms of this validation function. The Seller then encrypts the data with a session key, computes a Merkle root of the encrypted data, and puts this Merkle root in the publicly available chain of blocks.

The Buyer creates a session keypair and makes a transaction, making the session public key available for everyone. They also send coins that are locked on the smart-contract with this transaction.

The Seller sends a fixed security deposit to the contract and waits for a pre-agreed confirmation period in order to be sure there is no chain rollback. They send the encrypted data chunks to the Buyer off-chain, which allows to avoid storing a big amount of information in the blockchain and disclosing the entire dataset in case of dispute.

After the Buyer confirms that they have received the encrypted chunks, the Seller publishes a session key encrypted with the public session key of the Buyer.

Now the Buyer can decrypt the data. This stage has two possible scenarios:

  1. If the Buyer finds out that some data chunk is invalid, they can just identify that invalid chunk and reveal their private session key. Any user can then decrypt the chunk and apply the validation function. In order to prove that this chunk was indeed among the data that the Seller sent to the Buyer off-chain, the Buyer also provides a Merkle path of this chunk. In the event that the Buyer can prove the data is invalid, they receive their money back, along with the security deposit initially provided by the Seller.

  2. If all the data is valid, the Buyer acknowledges it through the on-chain transaction. If they fail to do so, the contract automatically sends the money to the Seller after a certain time period.

Popular posts from this blog

The idea of DISCIPLINA: how it originated

The DISCIPLINA project has made significant progress and continues to develop. Today, we would like to recall how it all began. A few years ago, Ilya Nikiforov, the company founder, was travelling along the West Coast of the United States. He decided to take surfing courses and started to search for the most suitable ones online. Having spent considerable time, Ilya faced the issue of fragmented information, since there was no single resource where one could find any course they need. He decided to take its development into his own hands — that is how the TeachMePlease marketplace was created. Analyzing the education situation and working on the project development, it has become clear that there are a lot of other critical issues to be resolved, including the invalidity of post-course certificates and the low value of academic education. Young people enroll in university to get a diploma, seeing no direct correlation between their education and further career development. It thus caus
Read more

DISCIPLINA interaction with TeachMePlease

We have already told you that the first project to implement the DISCIPLINA blockchain will be TeachMePlease. It began as a convenient tool for the structured presentation of data and a system of reliable ratings and reviews with an effective infrastructure and blockchain technology built into the platform. However, during the development process, it became clear that the existing blockchain solutions are unsuitable for the planned functionality. Thus, TeachMePlease has partnered with a team of experts to create a blockchain that would both be up to their own standards and become a universal solution for any educational or HR-service. TeachMePlease currently provides the conditions for efficient and effective cooperation between academic institutions and private tutors, and their students. The project has no territorial borders, which allows schools and private tutors from around the world to offer their programs to potential students anywhere on the planet. Integrating DISCIPLINA wi
Read more

How DISCIPLINA will change the education sphere

Education affects our lives and our professional and personal development. However, it is complicated to find an educational institution that provides high-quality services. That is why we either have to rely on online reviews or choose by trial and error. Sometimes you even have to do both, since the reviews can be easily falsified. Moreover, if 20 years ago a person that obtained a degree was considered a specialist with all the required skills, nowadays this is not the case. We have gotten used to the idea that a diploma is just a bullet point in our CVs that is meant to help our career. What is more important is to have necessary competencies, as you can survive without having a diploma. Thus, people prefer to develop their skills either practically or by taking intensive courses rather than by putting significant time and effort into studying at university. Sometimes people consider buying a diploma to be easier than getting it themselves and gaining experience to later become a d
Read more

© 2021 DISCIPLINA Blockchain