XYO Platform - Revolutionary approach to Location Based Tracking

In this post, I try and analyze the upcoming XY Oracle Network ICO. Before diving into the finer details of the token & network, let’s take a step back and understand which industry are we talking about here.

With the advent of smartphones, mobile data and GPS, we all have been used to navigating and finding places on google maps or similar solutions. Be it tracking your upcoming uber ride, or the food delivery person or finding the right place, travelling in an unknown region, it has become an integral part of our daily lives.

While it has made lives simpler, there is a lot of background work which goes in to verify the data points on the map. Still, we sometimes do run into dead ends or navigate to the wrong place. This was an example where there is lot of human intervention required, people can always take the next right turn or correct their route.

Apart from simple navigation in daily lives, GPS tracking industry is huge and finds its applications almost in every industry. There are different sub markets here such as:

a) GPS Tracking Device Market, which is expected to reach $2.8bn by 2023 as per Research AND Markets (https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/gps-tracking-device-market-to-reach-28-billion-by-2023---analysis-by-type-deployment-type-gps-tracking-device-industry--geography---research-and-markets-300478895.html)

b) Indoor Location Market, which is forecasted to be worth $41bn by 2022(https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/indoor-location.asp)

c) Real-Time Locating Systems is also expected to be worth $8bn by 2022 (https://www.marketsandmarkets.com/PressReleases/real-time-location-systems.asp)

Now these are all huge numbers and clearly show us that there is a big market out there. XYO with its game changing solution, would find its application across all these industries / markets.

But what is it that XYO is trying to solve, which is not possible today? Let’s understand this by an example.

To make it even more interesting, let’s try and understand the importance of accurate GPS tagging or location tracking, in the middle of the ocean!

If a navy ship is trying to navigate through pirate friendly waters, one of the methods they deploy is by GPS spoofing. GPS typically works by comparing timestamped signals from a group of satellites, inferring their position by calculating the light speed lag from each signal.

Now faking these signals from distant satellites, using spoofing stations is not that hard. On the other hand, detecting a spoofed GPS signal is extremely tough. All of this might sound like an excerpt from a James Bond movie, unfortunately these kinds of events are already taking place.

To quote an example from the real world, a small group in the south coast of Italy took control of a $80m yacht’s navigation device using only a homemade device! These guys then sent the yacht in a random and dangerous direction. During all this, the Captain of the ship had no idea that the GPS system of the ship was messed up with.

Now imagine, if something like this is orchestrated at scale, targeting the logistics sector. For those you don’t know, 90% of world’s freight moves across the seas!

This brings us to the pain point which XYO is trying to solve: GPS spoofing or rather unreliable location tracking, which is subject to various kinds of frauds.

XY Oracle Network will leverage a Proof of Origin based Cryptographic location network to solve for these issues. Now this sounds a bit complex, let’s try and break it down.

If you happen to read the XYO’s whitepaper, you will come across this term: Oracle. What is an Oracle exactly?

It sounds something like from ancient Greek mythology, and in a way they actually serve a similar function in the blockchain world. In ancient world, when people didn’t have enough information themselves and they needed to make decisions, they would turn to Oracle to get information which was beyond their realm.

Similarly, in the blockchain world, especially when it comes to executing smart contracts on platforms like Ethereum, these networks do not have access to information outside the chain. This where Oracles come handy.

An Oracle provides the information necessary to trigger smart contracts, as and when the terms of the contract are met. In a real-world scenario, these triggers could be anything ranging from a certain temperature, payment execution, order delivery etc. So in a way, Oracles act as the bridge between blockchain world and the real world. It ensures that smart contracts can have real world applications.

Okay, now that we have the basics clear, let’s deep dive further.

The XYO network is written in a way so that it’s open for blockchain developers to leverage the platform via APIs. Another important thing to note here is that the platform already has an infrastructure of 1mn devices / nodes out there.

To solve for accurate tagging, XYO network leverages 4 key components. Without delving into technical description, I have tried to explain it in lay man terms. The term node used below refers to anything which can send gps data.

a)Sentinels: They are like data entry folks, who witness a node’s location and keep recording it in ledgers.

b)Bridges: They pass on the information received from Sentinels, essentially, they act as secure messengers to relay information collected by the Sentinels.

c)Archivists: The information is then relayed to Archivists, who going by their name store it in a decentralized form.

d)Diviners: This is the Oracle! Their job is the most complex among the 4 components. They act as an interface between the smart contract and the real world. Their job is to find out the most accurate answer corresponding to a query. e.g.: A query could be about finding the location of a delivery drone among a fleet of 100 drones. Diviners interact with Archivists and then scan the data stored to find the answer with the highest accuracy score.

What is a confidence score? How does a Diviner decide which is the most accurate location of a node? (in case the query is to find the location of a specific node in the platform)

The confidence score is calculated using the Proof of Origin system. Now that is that?

Imagine a room, which has 50 people inside the room who are constantly moving around the room. At a given point, there would be few people near the edge of the room and few at the centre. Their position is subject to change driven by how are they moving around. Let’s say that after a specific fixed time internal, every person in the room must report their location and of few people around them. If a person (say Max) is surrounded by 3 people, he must report this location and of 3 others around him, this is then supposed to be signed by the other 3 as well and recorded in a ledger.

This helps us record the location of every person in the room and at the same time, this is cross-referenced by the people surrounding the person. Now the 3-people surrounding Max will keep changing, so it is not possible for a small group to collude and enter false information.

I hope I could explain the Proof of Work concept and Confidence score via this example. For more technical details, please do go through XYO’s whitepaper.

The real-world applications of such a network are immense. Let’s look at few examples where this could be a game changer.

Any industry with Field Service (Delivery such as Food Order, Ecommerce etc.)
Such a solution can help optimize number of orders filled per executive, if they can accurately track their location, delivery times and customer location. This can also help automating a lot of processes such as scheduling (considering consumer’s preferred delivery slot). On top of it, a highly skilled delivery executive (who has the best delivery track record), can be incentivized for better performance and may be allocated tougher deliveries.

FMCG
By accurately tracking inventory’s shelf live in retail stores, a Company can plan ahead. It can help FMCG companies automate sales beat processes, optimize time spent per store, organize delivery etc.

Cold Chain / Storage
This is especially critical in industries dealing with cold chain products such as pharma, food & beverages and other chemicals. To guarantee timely delivery while ensuring the quality of the product, accurate tracking is a must. XYO network can help with end-to-end fleet tracking on its platform while optimizing for in-time deliveries.

Apart from the above, there are 100s of more such examples, where XYO can be a life saver.

About ICO

The XYO token is the utility token of the Network that will be used to incentivize the nodes (Sentinels, Bridges, Archivists and Diviners)

The token sale will begin on 20/03/18 and will continue for 2 months, ending on May 20th.

An unlimited number of XYO tokens will be available for sale during the ICO and no new tokens are to be generated after the main sale.

The minimum price of the token will begin at 100,000 XYO/ETH and will peak at 33,333 XYO/ETH contribution. The prices can vary with time.

Summary

The world economy has and always will be heavily reliant on logistics. Be it human drivers or drones, accurate tracking is a must and will ensure beneficial unit metrics for any Company out there.

XYO platform with its unique Proof of Origin based cryptographic location network is the perfect solution plaguing the sector today. By acting as the bridge between smart contracts and real world accurate tagging, it can change the way the world looks as GPS. Infact, standalone GPS might become a thing of the past, if XYO is implemented globally at scale.

Website : https://xyo.network/

Whitepaper : https://docs.xyo.network/XYO-White-Paper.pdf

ANN : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=3040825.0

Telegram : https://t.me/xyonetwork

Blog By: maxxxks

Profile: : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=1929209