XYO Network's Location Based Data Creates New Solutions For Old Problems

mcdform (46)in #cryptocurrency • 6 years ago

Lisa recently opened a beachfront bike rental company in San Diego California. She rents out a variety of bikes to tourists and locals that are looking to cruise up and down the strand of the sunny Southern California beaches.

The business has been running into trouble lately as some bikes have been getting stolen and customers getting into accidents when riding into areas that aren't intended for casual bicycle riding.

Lisa has been thinking of ways to prevent decrease the number of thefts and also prevent customers from riding into less bike-friendly areas.

Lisa identified two solutions she was willing to try a blockchain based protocol called XYO Network or a traditional GPS based service. She chose the traditional GPS based service and installed the devices on her bikes and changed her terms of service to prevent customers from riding their bikes into certain areas. The GPS units would also allow stolen bikes to be tracked.

This pilot program was not a success.

Old School Solutions Have Old School Problems

The GPS pilot program was successful in tracking the location of bikes but the customers found ways to manipulate the devices. They could prevent them from tracking by manipulating their sensors or simpling disputing their accuracy.

Stolen bikes were also difficult to track down because the GPS devices were almost instantly removed. Lisa had to find a new solution.

Blockchain Based Solutions

Lisa researched and found that a local company, XYO Network was creating a cross-chain platform for sending location-based data to the blockchain. The company also provided inconspicuous Bluetooth GPS devices that could record location data.

She was very interested in how it worked and hired a developer to create an app that would allow her to track all bike locations and also allow customers to view their history. All of the information would be recorded onto the blockchain.

The developer created smart contracts that would interact with the location data. The smart contracts would generate an send alerts to customers as the approached the geographic limits of the bike rental. The open nature, immutability, and auditablity of the blockchain made it more difficult for customers to dispute Lisa's claims. The unique Proof-of-Origin system used by the XYO Network created a system where accuracy was not in question.

The GPS devices purchased from [XYO Network](https://xyo.network/) were thin stickers that were located on the bikes in areas where they blended in. The ability to hide the tracking unit prevented thieves from removing the device when a bike was stolen. Soon after installation, all stolen bikes were being recovered.

How Did It Work?

Lisa liked the results of integrating XYO Network into a web-based app but she was curious about how it worked.

In simple terms, XYO Network creates a network of location verifying nodes that allow smart contracts to interact with real-world location data. Normally a smart contract can only interact with other computers but XYO Network creates the framework for off-chain data to be translated and used by smart contracts on multiple blockchains.

There are four main parts to the XYO Network ecosystem Sentinels, Bridges, Archivists, and Diviners.

Sentinels are the devices that gather location data, in this case, the stickers on the bicycles. Sentinels send data to Archivist via an intermediary known as Bridges. The intermediary provides a secondary Proof-of-Origin to the location data.

The archivist store the data, verifying it once more until it is queried by a diviner. In this example, the Diviner is the web app that Lisa and her customers use to access the data.

Since XYO Network is a protocol this data ecosystem can be built into an app in the same way that APIs are currently used. This is what allowed a developer to easily integrate the XYO data into the bicycle businesses app.

Summary

This example is a preview of the near future, a future where traditional businesses begin integrating with blockchain technology. Location-based data that can be verified and transacted to multiple blockchains will be a highly valuable resource as businesses begin adopting smart contracts and blockchain. XYO Network is poised to become the first project offering a protocol for location-based oracles.