What if
Hello Steemians,
I'm a bit of a stranger here. I'm perplexed by so many things that go on in this network regarding Steem, Witnessing, cryptocurrency, and minnow stuff. It's all slowly sinking in for me, and the more it does the more excited I get. I recently read an article that you may not like if you're already more familiar with these concepts than I am, but in my current state of very limited knowledge, I found it mind-blowing. I'll link to that article at the end.
Digital art made by KD Neeley (image sourced from Nasa)
I'm writing to you so that you can help me better understand this notion that has me so excited right now. Tell me if I'm insane, tell me what I'm failing to understand and what I have misunderstood, tell me it's already being done and where so I can use it.
What I'm imagining is a structured data source of information that is owned by each individual user on a unique blockchain for that user. Something that offers users the ability to store iterations of their data one time, for use across multiple networks and an open protocol application that allows users to save, edit, distribute, and authorize access to, blocks in their identity chain of content.
Imagine this: you're going through your files and cleaning things up to make the big transition. This means going through your plethora of photos from multiple files and applications, all the videos you've made, all the songs you've recorded, the artwork you've photographed and scanned, and all the writing you have stacked up in copy on your hard drive or in your notebooks, or sitting in Facebook, Twitter, and Steemit posts.
The imaginary open source application we're using to do this is called ID. The first criteria your blockchain upload will need to know is "what is it?" This is simply the extension of the file that is used to translate the content; the kind of image, audio, video, or text file that it is. It has nothing to do with what it's about or any humanized meaningful content yet.
Each file will be uploaded as a block in your identity blockchain. You can always upload another block of data, and all ID requires from you is the location of the file and your password to verify that you want to write the file onto your identity chain.
BOOM. It's happening. You've begun to assimilate your content through ID's upload and writing process which is creating and encrypting blocks of data that are each one of your many files. The only requirement is that these files be saved with the proper extension before upload and an error will pop up if there is a file with an unusual or unknown extension to ask you if it is correct. Just in case.
Some basic tags are automatically assigned to the datatype after the upload is complete:
text (automatically assigned to .txt, .doc, .pdf, .rtf, and everything else here: https://fileinfo.com/filetypes/text )
image (automatically assigned to .jpg, .png, .gif, .tiff, .psd, .pdf and everything else here: http://guides.lib.umich.edu/c.php?g=282942&p=1885348 )
audio (automatically assigned to .mp3 and everything else here https://fileinfo.com/filetypes/audio )
video (automatically assigned to these: https://fileinfo.com/filetypes/video )
To keep this simple I'm skipping over automatically assigning other file types for now. Let's just imagine that this beta version of ID only handles text files, images, audio, and video files. It's enough to get us started using most social media applications.
The thing that's important at this point is that you are the owner of this identity blockchain of data that you built with ID.
The next thing you do with ID is tagging your files with relevant information based on open source structured data models like schema.org. You could spend all day doing just this, but the good news is, it will all come to use later, thanks to ID being an open protocol. And you can add and edit tags anytime. This stage will let you do several things later:
- locate the file's block without knowing the filename
- allow applications to find and utilize data types from your blockchain based on application-specific needs (but not without your authorization)
That's it. ID was an open source application that generated your identity blockchain which is made up of your text, image, audio, and video files and it allowed you to tag those blocks with words that are meaningful to you and coupled with structured data. (You looked at a picture of your family get-together and labeled it Susie, Joe, Mom, Fido etc. under "person" and you called it 106 10th st 87105 under "place" and you called it "2017 reunion" under "event")
So what? Why waste time uploading your content onto a blockchain and especially why waste time tagging that content with something as tedious as structured data?
Here's where it gets really exciting to me.
The open protocol based program, ID, generated a blockchain we're calling your identity chain and application developers can make applications that work with ID to utilize data from your identity chain.
It would work like this:
You launch another imaginary application, we'll call it Distinct. Distinct is a social network that can pull the data it uses for posts from your identity chain. (It's a version of Discord that works with ID's blockchain protocol) You launch another imaginary application that works with ID's blockchain protocol because not everyone uses Distinct you also want to post and chat and see what's going on in Factbook. It's not as cool as Distinct but it has this really addictive interface and it's super popular.
At first it's a little annoying having to launch both applications, but the beauty of both of them is that any photos, videos, audio files, or authored copy you want to share can be easily accessed on your identity chain through an open protocol search interface that works with ID's schema tags and allows you to find what you're looking for and authorize use of your chosen data on the social network. You never have to re-upload any of the data you've written to your identity chain.
Now imagine that ID comes out with an update. Sweet, what's new? Well now, after updating, ID is compatible with Distinct and Factbook just like Factbook and Distinct were compatible with ID in the first place. So what? So now you sign into ID and after you authorize both applications you only need to sign into ID, you never have to log into Distinct or Factbook again if you don't want to. Why? Because this new update that makes ID compatible with both applications let's you get all and post all your messages from the ID interface. Kind of like how Instagram posts to Facebook accept that you're authorizing that application to access a very specific block in your identity chain to share the photo and ownership of that photo always belongs to you.
So that's kind of neat, but eh? So what?
There's more advantages. You started using Distinct before you finally came around to using Factbook and you had posted so many things on Distinct that you wish you had shared on Factbook already because you don't want to repeat yourself. You don't want to find all those photos again or try to remember all the clever things you said and you certainly don't want to backdate any of your posts, screw that! Not a problem. Because Distinct and Factbook both work with the same open protocols written by ID they can easily synchornize your accounts. They use all the same schema to organize content. What a relief! Now you synchronize and know that all your friends on Distinct and all your friends on Factbook can access the same cool photos you shared five months ago. You just met Melanie at a party and you guys friended each other on Factbook but you've only been using Factbook for a week and you want to tag her in that totally rad post that you think should have gone viral on Distinct but nobody was around to see it. Now an iteration of that same post is on Factbook, with all the same data (the time it was posted, what you said, the comments that were made, the replies, the links to other stuff that came up) you tag her there and what's really happening?
Factbook and Distinct aren't competing for post data, they're both just accessing the data you give them permission to utilize from your identity blockchain that was written in an open protocol language through ID. ID is the encrypting, open source, backbone to a new world of social networking.
How about another application? Let's imagine GetMe. GetMe is a version of Uber that works with the locations you input, places you've checked in on, your current location wherever that is, and other social media networks, and locations you've tagged as "places" in your blockchain. Want to go visit that neat gallery you found and followed on Factbook? GetMe can easily access the data because they're all using the same structured data originating from your identity blockchain. Your friend that you're with is using a different app called ImHere. You both leave the gallery at the same time and you're both waiting for a ride to go eat at the same restaurant and split the tab. What happens now? How can ImHere know if GetMe already found and sent you a ride? Easy, you tell it. GetMe is still waiting for a driver to respond while ImHere pings back with a driver on the way, she's 10 minutes out. Sweet, cancel the lift on GetMe...oh it knows. How the hell did it know?
Because GetMe and ImHere are accessing all the same user data for drivers coming from the blockchains. That driver who answered on ImHere was one of the same drivers that would have been found by GetMe if your friend's reception hadn't been worse than yours.
Wow cool paint job on the ride! You want to show your friends, you snap a picture with your phone, upload it with ID and share it to post across all the social networks you're using all at once.
"This is a lot of work for just a little convenience, why are you so excited?"
Because the potential is endless! If any kind of data can be uploaded onto your identity blockchain written with a single universal open protocol then any application can be designed to work with that universal application that wrote the blockchain to request authority to access the types of data it needs to utilize as you interact with the application's interface.
I could go on and on with this wild dream! And I'm sure there are a plethora of issues I have yet to imagine. But it's so much fun to think about!
Imagine an application that allows you to interface with contacts, each contact has an address linked to their own identity blockchain. Let's call it Connection. Connection works with ID to decipher transactions in your blockchain and allows you to organize who is who among those transactions. It can read who all your friends are on Factbook and Distinct and it knows who you've been on rides with in GetMe and ImHere because they're all based on the same structured data. The identity blockchain could generate a world of compatible applications that all respect the ownership of the data that is sourced from your identity blockchain.
Is this possible?
Is it already being done?
Here's the article that got me all excited about this:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/16/magazine/beyond-the-bitcoin-bubble.html
Beep! Beep! This humvee will be patrolling by and assisting new veterans, retirees, and military members here on Steem. @shadow3scalpel will help by upvoting posts from a list of members maintained by @chairborne and responding to any questions replied to this comment.
So there's this place in my mind where the notion is flawless and seamless and never abused but that's ludicrous. One of the things that could happen with the ability to upload data onto your identity chain is storage of information that was never yours to begin with. It would be the ultimate way to own copies of your (hopefully legally obtained) media files. Imagine having online access to your entire media library and having that data be utilized by applications to help you find more content you like or applications that utilize your media collection to guess things about your personality or determine where you are on a demographic scale. The iterations would never be copied, only pointed to. But they would never be deleted. Your identity blockchain would be this permanent indestructible record of everything you've ever uploaded and ways you've utilized each iteration of your own data across endless applications.
This could be a terrible thing if anyone ever accessed your password or managed to steal your encrypted identity. It could be a nightmare because they could put terrible things onto your blockchain that could never be undone.
And would it then be a punishable crime to upload data that is not your rightful intellectual property? In this utopian dataverse the ideal "media" collection of your favorite songs and movies and books would all be tags to the owners of the content on their blockchain with their authority for you to access that media.
And what about ethical concerns with the utilization of data you've uploaded to your identity chain? the ID would be the most important application to be developed as far as its cryptography being secure and your password being secure. No application would be able to access any part of your blockchain without your authority. But what if your consent could be hacked? What a nightmare that could be.
Now I'm imagining what it could be like to build a website for a business on this platform. To start, a business would have its own identity chain, just like a person would. That bothers me for some reason I can't yet understand... but I'd rather that a 'business' be in existence, in this dataverse, as an entity shared by common tags or a common key throughout the blockchains of people and not be its own unique entity. I don't know why at this moment.
Anyway if you were assembling a website using data from your identity chain you would use a key to access each iteration of data. And data could have multiple keys, so you could give one key to multiple users or you could have several keys tag the same iteration of data. This way you would be able to see the difference between you and someone else, or determine exactly who has accessed your blockchain using a unique key to identify them and you could determine the source from which a key originates and thus know who shared a key without consent or where you left the key public to be accessed.
Anyway you would have a platform like Joomla or Wordpress be designed as yet another application running on the open protocol system that understands how to request authority tokens from ID to reference data as content. This way you would assemble a template drawing content from your identity chain or from another person's identity chain with their token authority.
Every website would be made of keys that an application loads (a browser running on this open source platform and reading the data assembled in keys and drawn from those blockchains) so that no unauthorized data is ever loaded and so that every iteration of data that is loaded can be sourced.
And as Steven Johnson has mentioned in his article, 'Beyond the Bitcoin Bubble' what if you uploaded your own genome data onto your blockchain? Hell, what if your genome data served as the original authoritative code that registered you as the user!? YES! That's it! ID wouldn't begin with images and video files it would begin with your genome! Your fingerprints! Your ear! Your eyes! These would be your passwords.
Anyway if you did have your genome as a file on your identity blockchain you could allow access to that data by research applications, I think I'm just repeating Steve now, but GOD DAMN it's exciting!!!
So the ID application would have versions of hardware that it is compatible with, drivers that run on the open protocol but hardware that companies would need to develop to run on the system. One company could come out with an ID reader for fingers, another could come out with an ID reader for eyes, another for your ear etc. And these scans of you could function as your password when authorizing application transactions on your blockchain.
Imagine the ability to copyright your intellectual property by uploading an iteration of your creation onto your identity blockchain. No patent office. No trademark necessary. Your brand would be yours, encrypted and timestamped so that only you could authorize access to it via a token or key you create and share.
So your genome, DNA, fingerprint, ear scan, eye scan are all part of your identity blockchain (hell you could tripple up on security by using all three scans to prove your identity!) and say there's a family tree application that someone builds to source your data and discover genetic relationships between all users. You could find your parents, your children, your cousins, your distant cousins...
If there is the building blocks of an open protocol identity blockchain that is built and encrypted for each person and understood across a single platform then all you would need to do after uploading the data to your blockchain is authorize access to blocks in the chain to applications you utilize. The applications that could be built to sift and use the data are endless.
You could build a dream application that uses the schema tags for dream-journaling and gather data about common dreams, symbols, how often a dream is in color or includes a smell, accounts of all sorts of information that are so hard to collect reliably.
You could build a facial recognition application that sorts through images and finds doppelgangers and people with features similar to yours and the movie industry could utilize that technology to find doubles and bodyguards could utilize that technology to find stand-ins.
You could build image comparison applications that locate images from the same location and locate images that contain the same shapes, colors, value transitions, any number of algorithms that you could detect and you could use that application to sort your own photos or find missing people!