The MetaCert Protocol Technical Paper: Process Mechanism
This section covers processes for submission, validation, and ownership.
Contents
Clicking on each heading will take you that section’s medium post.
1. Index
2. Introduction
5. Process Mechanism
6. Decentralized Technical Governance
Submission and Validation Mechanism
To increase the quality of submissions and ensure bad actors cannot game the system to their advantage, the URI submission and validation service employs some base submission and validation rules which can be extended by category owners for the categories they own. Base rules are applied to general as well as to specific categories to guarantee transparency as well as a set of standards that governs the system.
URI Submission Pre-check Processes
When a submission is received, the system performs a series of pre-checks as time saving measures, including added benefits during the validation process. These pre-checks include:
- Is the URI classified? This is a basic check to ensure a submission hasn’t already been classified
- Does the URI resolve? If a submitted URI is a web URL and it resolves, it will be placed into the general validation review queue. Otherwise, it will be marked in the system as “Awaiting Confirmation” for an expert Validator to review
Following these initial pre-checks, the system crawler will collect metadata from the URI.
Metadata Collection
The system crawler harvests information about a website and its contents. This process allows for additional pre-checks to help aid the classification of a submission. For example, if the metadata contains phishing or pornography keywords, the system would record this in the submission’s intelligence record to be used when performing assisted validation.
Additional Pre-checks for Pornography (XXX) URIs
The system performs a few additional pre-checks for submissions to identify XXX URIs, which are:
- Does the URI contain the .XXX Top-Level Domain (TLD)? The system checks to see whether a submission uses the .XXX TLD
- Is the domain name string classified as XXX? The system checks to see whether the domain name is already in the registry and classified as XXX
- Does the URI contain any XXX images? The system utilizes the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Image Recognition API to identify potential XXX images.
If any of these specific pre-checks are true, the system will update the submission’s intelligence record, which can be used in the assisted validation process.
URI Validation Methods
The Protocol has two types of validation methods for URIs: Assisted and Peer.
Assisted Validation Process
During the submission pre-check process, if the URI validation intelligence record contains data, a Validator may opt to request for an assisted validation. This means that they do not need to wait through a designated holding period (7–14 days depending on reputation score of the Validator) following validation to receive their Token reward. This is because the validation is considered stronger with the system having intelligence on the URI. Should a Validator select this option, they will be required to share a percentage of their Token reward with the system.
If the URI is submitted by an expert Submitter with a high reputation score, the smart contract will be completed and the validation will automatically be marked as “Validated” in the system.
Between the submission and validation period, a dispute claim can be filed, which will withhold the validation until the dispute is resolved.
Peer Validation Process
If the system is unable to provide any intelligence data during the pre-check process, the URI submission is placed into a review queue. From here, multiple Validators (minimum of two) can reach an agreement (consensus) on the submission claim. Once consensus is reached, the status of the URI changes to “Validated” and a smart contract is constructed. There is a designated holding period (7–14 days depending on reputation score of Validator) before Token reward is distributed to the Submitter and Validators. During this time, a dispute claim may be filed, adding an additional delay and a disputing party to the process.
Peer Endorsement for Validation (Optional)
A Validator may review a subset of validation records and agree or disagree with the results, which will affect the weighted adjustment to the validation process. Regardless of the outcome of the validation, the Validator will receive a percentage of Token for their work.
Overview of Assisted Validation for XXX Content
Ownership (Brand Protection)
URI Submission (Pre-check)
The existing pre-check processes apply to brand ownership submissions including checking to see if a URI is already classified or whether or not it resolves with a few notable differences.
Notable Differences
- Token Share for Submitter: One of the key aspects of the brand ownership submission process is that the Submitter pays for the validation
- Metadata Collection Differences: Depending on the type of ownership submission received, the system will collect different sets of metadata which includes:
○ Domain ownership will result in the collection of a domain’s age and ownership information
○ Social account ownership will result in the collection of the account’s status (public or private), account age, locale, activity and followers and friends - System notification to domain and account owners: Efforts are made to contact the owners by email (for domain ownership) or social media message (for social account ownership) to inform them of a pending validation request
URI Validation by Owner
Similar to the general validation process, there is an assisted validation process and an optional peer endorsement process for both domains and social accounts.
Assisted Validation Process
Domains
- Domain owners must pay token to initiate validation
- Owners can verify ownership by uploading a file to their domain or adding a CNAME record to their DNS records
- Information is recorded to the ledger including but not limited to:
○ Whether the owner responded to the email notification
○ Reputation score for the Submitter
○ Reputation score for the owner, especially if they are an existing Validator
○ Search engine rankings
○ Screenshot of the domain/website
○ All inbound domain links to the homepage including their classifications
○ Whether or not the domain has an entry on Wikipedia
○ Historical data from the Internet Archive’s “Wayback Machine” - A smart contract is constructed
Social Accounts
- Owners send a private or direct message requesting a validation link
- A private link is sent to the owner via private or direct message to complete the ownership validation process
- Information is recorded to the ledger including but not limited to:
○ Whether or not the owner responded to the private or direct message. - A smart contract is constructed
Dispute Claim Process
In order for a dispute claim for a classification to proceed, the dispute must come from a registered participant in the Protocol, and they must place a tokenized amount as a stake that is a parameterized multiple of the original validation earnings amount. Optionally, the original Submitter and Validators may place their own optional defense stake within parameterized time period in order to defend the dispute. After the parameterized time period elapses, a smart contract is constructed for the dispute.
The dispute is agreed only when (a) one or more Validators agree with the dispute or (b) one or more Validators concur with the dispute. Certain categories require more Validators to agree or disagree with the dispute. For example, phishing submissions require a minimum of five Validators to agree or disagree. Once a dispute claim is agreed upon, the smart contract will be completed and the URI will be declassified from the category it was assigned to.
Further work and discussion will be carried out with the governance body to determine what should happen If a dispute is not agreed upon or if a dispute is not defended by the original Submitter or Validators.
The Token reward for Disputer or Validators will be released 15 to 30 days after declassification assuming there is no disagreement (negative vote) during this timeframe. If there is a disagreement, the dispute is reopened and the cycle continues until majority consensus is established after another 15 days.
However, if the dispute is upheld, the original Submitter and Validator will lose reputation points, and any Tokens they may have staked as a challenge to the dispute will be forfeited.
Contents
Clicking on each heading will take you that section’s medium post.
1. Index
2. Introduction
5. Process Mechanism
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