Dean

Ties.DB bills itself as the world’s first decentralized, public, ‘smart database’. More broadly, this database itself forms the backbone of a decentralized business platform enabling its users to interact with each other while taking advantage of all the benefits of the latest blockchain technology.

What is a ‘smart database’?

Essentially the smart database is a secure and transparent means for many different people to use the same public database, and to store information in formats which are native to blockchain software.

All data written to this database is stored across multiple nodes which earn ‘TIE’ tokens for processing queries, storing and retrieving information. Despite the radical transparency of the blockchain, data entries can only be modified by their owner. Anyone can query public information, for a small fee.

The technology behind Ties.DB combines the benefits of public and private hosting. Information is not stored directly to the blockchain, which would quickly bloat the chain and lead to performance issues, but rather is stored to the ‘distributed cloud’ made up from the network’s nodes. Instead, blockchain technology forms a kind of decentralized management centre, storing key meta information on all entries, encrypting data, identifying users and securing ownership of data. Thus, all users have a unique ID secured by their public key which they use to manage their account and data.

This set up also allows for the option to choose between on-chain and off-chain modes, with the former offering enhanced security and transparency, and the latter improved speed and efficiency.

One of the most obvious early use cases for this kind of system is to provide storage services to other ‘decentralized apps’ and blockchain related projects. The Ties.DB website features information about this prominently. Many such projects have a need to store non-financial data which cannot be written to the blockchain directly, but still wish to maintain to advantages of decentralization. Probably the most popular method of doing this at the moment is to use a system called IFPS, but Ties.DB claims to offer improvements over this in the form of a more distributed network, the ability to store structured data, and the ability for a user to delete data they own, among other things.

Doing business through smart contracts

Perhaps more interestingly from the perspective of ordinary cryptocurrency enthusiasts and entrepreneurs who are not decentralized app developers, Ties.DB also makes extensive use of smart contracts to enable new and improved ways of doing business.

This system of smart contracts, which produces an unforgeable track record of both financial and data transaction, enables a number of different use cases including:

  • Reputation: A system of business reputation based on provable transaction history. For example, reviews which you can be sure come from a genuine user who has purchased a product or service, therefore freeing users from the problem of fake reviews which are prevalent on the internet.
  • Secure Exchange: Trade anything of value, from money and cryptocurrency to property or shares in a transparent manner, with smart contracts automatically enforcing the obligations of everyone involved.
  • Social Networking: Find trading partners with a provable track record and enter into business deals with the security of smart contracts. Users can also form an join various groups or collaborative projects.
  • Fundraising and investment: The system can also be used to secure and launch crowdfunding initiatives and token generation events.
  • Recruitment: The same reputation system used for businesses can also apply to individuals, creating a reliable tool for hiring people. This may be especially useful for specialist employees (particularly in the blockchain field) and freelancers.

The system also allows for escrow agents and experts who can monitor transactions and intervene when needed.

Partnership with Credits

Ties.DB has recently partnered with Credits PTE LTD, a Singapore based open blockchain platform which features autonomous smart contracts.

The CREDITS blockchain offers an extended application programming interface (API) which Ties.DB can make use of, as well as its famous ‘self-executing’ autonomous smart contracts.

According to Co-Founder and CEO of Ties.DB Alexander Neymark:

CREDITS’ unique architecture, autonomous smart contracts, new consensus protocol and unsurpassed speed of transactions will enhance the benefits of the Ties.DB database for scores of customers in financial, trade, medicine, identification, IoT, and many other fields,”

In addition to enabling public data registry and smart contracts to access blockchain-native databases directly, this partnership will also allow Ties.DB to make use of Credits’ private blockchain infrastructure, which is capable of over 1,000,000 transactions per second with a transaction time of 0.01-3 seconds.

Making use of Credits’ technology will also allow for the migration of many ‘application layer’ processes such as authentication, settlement and privacy checks to the blockchain layer, further enhancing international commerce through the power of decentralization.

For more information you can check out the official website here: www.tiesdb.com.