• 

  Data transfers between mobile devices.

• 

  User prestige fluctuations over time.

DataHop

A Decentralised Platform for Innovation at the Edge

Inspiration

DataHop is building the next-generation mobile CDN by means of using users’ devices to distribute content locally and off-line using a new smart device-to-device connectivity solution. DataHop incorporates a blockchain-based reward system that uses a new consensus algorithm in order to reward users according to their contribution to the network.

DataHop allows user devices (smartphones) to exchange information locally in an “offline-first” manner (without relying on Internet connectivity). This is achieved by taking advantage of the storage capacity and network connectivity opportunities of end-user devices. Users “store-carry-and-forward” content, acting as data mules as they move around densely-populated urban environments making use of the hundreds of transfer opportunities in places such as trains, restaurants, coffee shops and workplaces.

What it does

DataHop aims to change the centralised nature of downloading data by:

• Exchanging content directly between users in an information-centric way.
• Incentivising content propagation using the Proof-of-Prestige reward scheme.
• Visualising node interactions in a user-friendly way.

Content Providers

DataHop will disseminate content providers’ media content, reducing their CDN costs and effectively acting as a purely mobile content distribution network. It also improves users' experience where lack of good connectivity hinders content retrieval.

Proof-of-Prestige

DataHop is developing a new smart reward system for users that help diseminating content using a blockchain solution. The DataHop reward system will be based on a new “useful work reward system” for unverifiable tasks, called Proof-of-Prestige. Proof of Prestige is a layer-2 protocol that can run on top of any Proof-of-Stake blockchain.

Example Usage

If BBC wants to distribute a film, it currently has to spend millions of pounds on content delivery networks (CDN). Using DataHop, only a few nodes would be required to get the content directly from the cloud, which can then be disseminated locally using device-to-device connectivity.

How we built it

We built a Proof-of-Prestige Proof of Concept using Cosmos and Tendermint as a Proof-of-Stake solution.

To build our solution we implemented the next functionalities:

• Integrated an Android app allowing users to exchange content using Bluetooth Low Energy and WiFi Direct.
• Allow the Android app to submit transfer confirmation to the blockchain.
• Created a Cosmos-based blockchain implementation using Proof of Prestige reward scheme.
• Make Tendermint consensus protocol use prestige values instead of stake.
• Built a visualisation module reading data from the blockchain and presenting them in a user-friendly way.
• Integrated all the modules using JSON/REST-based communication.

Challenges we ran into

Proof-of-Prestige is a state-of-the-art reward scheme that has never been implemented before this hackathon. Running it on top of a Proof-of-Stake blockchain is non-trivial at the moment, and it required us to modify the core behaviour of the consensus protocol.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

In just two days, we have found a novel use-case for a state-of-the-art reward scheme on the blockchain and managed to integrate it into recently-developed frameworks. Without any prior knowledge of Go or Cosmos, we have built a functional application that can be accessed from different devices and leverages the decentralised nature of blockchain.

What's next for DataHop (Proof-of-Prestige)

• Testing the scalability of the application.
• Polishing the code to prepare it for production.
• Talk to event organisers (festivals, concerts) for potential applications.
• Extend the protocol for additional use-cases.

Built With

• android
• cosmos
• go