ThreeFold was inspired by the blockchain burst when it was created in 2016. After doing a comprehensive scan of the technological space we realized that Blockchain holds the best technology to store (1) Smart Contracts and (2) Transactions in an immutable way. We created our own blockchain database: Rivine to host the Smart Contract layer before switching to the Parity Substrate of Polkadot and our Transactional blockchain to the Stellar Network.
While we use blockchain technology, ThreeFold is much more than just “a blockchain project” as we apply many more revolutionary technologies. We decided to use Parity Substrate as we don’t see the need to create something if there’s already great technologies out there that we can already use. Today we’re proud of our Smart Contract for IT layer and approach the ThreeFold Grid v3.0 release this year which will expose its full potential to interact with the primitives of the grid.
So what is this Smart Contract for IT about?
The Smart Contract for IT allows you, your company or your community to execute the storage and running of your files and applications securely with consensus and automatic billing. You could compare it as a fingerprint check and your data would be accessible only if presenting your private key (fingerprint). Let’s maybe go through the process for a better idea of how this works.
The smart contracts are like recipes for chefs to cook exactly what you want. In that sense they need to be very accurate and as descriptive as possible to deliver what you need. In the case of ThreeFold, the smart contracts would define different sets of Internet resources you would need to store files, run applications, or communicate across the network.
Whenever you want to reserve more resources to store your latest album or run your applications, you will define the resources you need to your 3Bot or Digital Twin (your personal virtual system administrators) which will then look at different smart contracts that are available and choose the most appropriate package. For e.g. Reserve 3 PB of Storage in Switzerland across 7 nodes.
Following that, your 3Bot or Digital Twin will create and register the smart contract in the blockchain database in a few seconds, providing you with all your specific needs. It will also store and secure some instructions to the BCDB for the nodes to meet smart contract completion.
ThreeFold had to make sure that user data would remain ultra-secure. Inspired by storage and communication algorithms used in space, we integrated it between the Smart Contract layer and Zero OS. The algorithm splits data into unrecognizable ‘slices’ that are distributed via network connections to different nodes locally or across the world, and that can be reconstructed only with your fingerprint.
More than the average Smart Contract
Via your Smart Contract for IT, you can also define a consensus mechanism and create multi-signatures for smart contract execution or completion to deliver appropriate digital services in for example work related activities.
The beauty of the Smart Contract for IT is that it can work with thousands of connected nodes for the proper execution of any digital requirements on the infrastructure, verify if consensus was reached or not, download the right files to execute the smart contract and verify them, make sure that no hacker or outsider can ever gain access or influence its execution and more.
If you want to learn more about ThreeFold’s Smart Contract for IT, read more here.