Building Integrity With Thingschain Transparency

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thingschain

5 min readSep 22, 2018

Thingschain is a promise of transparency that the nations, companies, and individuals can take a huge advantage of on a global scale. We live in an information age. Data drives all and most of our modern world. Everything from our money to national elections, to all our personal data and history, is stored digitally. And we have gone leaps and bounds in innovating how we store and distribute data.

From cloud computing to sophisticated database systems, we continue to push what we can do with our data. Data is literally power nowadays. Power that is, unfortunately, concentrated in the hands of a few. And whenever that happens, that power tends to be abused. Mishandling or outright theft of our funds, selling of our personal data without knowledge — these are just examples of how our data is being exploited for gain.

The Problem with Transparency

In an ideal world, we trust companies to be transparent about our data. In the literal sense of the word, it means information is openly shared, as it is. It holds companies accountable for properly representing our data, free from any manipulation and deception. It should be one of their top priorities. And we must trust these companies that they are doing all of this.

The problem with trust is that it is easy to break. Worse, we won’t even know it is being broken. Take an election for example. You trust the government or election committee that your vote (the data) gets counted as is. You trust that central authority that who you vote for is what should be reflected in the ballot. No changing or manipulation. Of course, we all know this isn’t what happens, in more cases than we’re comfortable with.

The examples are rampant. Politicians misappropriating funds from taxes and doctoring the book to make it look like nothing’s wrong. Hackers routinely steal funds from our bank account. Consumers can’t verify a company’s claims about its products (if the food they sell is truly organic, for example). And there are examples still that are due to human error or pure negligence. It might be unintentional, yes, but it is still damaging.

This problem will continue to exist whenever we “trust” a central authority to handle our data. Truth is, they have power over it, and the safety of our data is built on shaky moral ground. Human nature just won’t always let everyone be 100% honest. A better solution is needed

Thingschain Integrity Boosters

This revolutionary new paradigm of data storage offers a myriad of benefits.

Blockchains are transparent

Since data in the blockchain is stored in distributed ledgers, there is no one central repository for all the data. Any computer in the network can verify this data at any time, and we can be assured that it is the actual data and not some manipulated version of it. Remember, blockchain ledgers are immutable. It can’t be changed after it has been recorded, so no danger of unauthorized editing.

Blockchains are traceable

Back in 2010, California required manufacturing companies to be transparent and audit every part of their supply chain. This ensures that these companies don’t use raw materials that were produced through forced labor or slavery. With traditional data storage, any offending suppliers or companies can just produce fake papers to show they are legitimate

With the transparency of blockchains, every part of a company’s supply chain becomes auditable. This means companies can be truly transparent, even with their suppliers, and choose not to deal with those who don’t share that same level of transparency.

Blockchains are secure

The nice thing about blockchain is that it provides the utmost in transparency without sacrificing security. It is true that any computer in the node can verify can transaction in the blockchain to see if they are legitimate. These transactions, however, are completely anonymous. Anonymity, after all, is one of the main driving forces in developing blockchain technology. Your privacy is still protected

Blockchains are also hack proof. Adding anything to the blockchain requires consensus from every node in the network. All nodes “sign off” and verify all transactions. The Thingschain consensus requires the proof of linkage verification.

Computers get the right to add a new transaction into the blockchain by being the first one to solve a mathematical problem. Solving these usually require a substantial amount of processing power. This mechanism makes it hard for any one node in the network to solve it and add a transaction.

Blockchains are stable

Finally, because they are decentralized, blockchain systems are next to impossible to shut down. In a centralized location, if that server goes down, the entire system goes down. This is important for crucial services where interruption cannot be tolerated. In blockchains, if a node goes down, the rest of the nodes in the computer can take the load and the system continues to run. In this sense, blockchain systems truly live in the Internet.

Thingschain offers Decentralization

The Thingschain blockchain solves the problem of transparency and trust in the Internet. Blockchain is basically a network of distributed ledgers or databases that operate on a trustless protocol. Data is redundantly stored in computers connected to the network, and transactions are carried out through consensus among them. This eliminates the need for a central authority.

Any transaction or data that is written in the blockchain is forever there and cannot be changed. This makes blockchain databases immutable — immune by design to any kind of fraud or adulteration. Contrast this with a typical database. No one is stopping the system administrator from changing your data, adding a zero here or removing a zero there.

Lastly, in a data-centric world, transparency and trust is more paramount than ever. The problem is that human nature gets in the way of that. The Thingschain Blockchain solves this by removing humans in the equation, achieving a trustless, transparent system. As blockchain gains more adoption, we are on schedule to see a society where true data transparency is the norm.