Geeq Chain

1. It’s the practical platform for everyone, with no smart contracts.

Geeq is blockchain for the everyday user, rather than an experts-only technology. There is no need to get to grips with new ways of working: Geeq’s API connectivity enables you to keep the same kinds of front-end user interfaces and dashboards you already use and enhance them with the most secure blockchain back end.

While smart contracts are nearly synonymous with better-known blockchains, they come with some compromises. Webs of interlinked and interdependent smart contracts lead to complex dependencies, which may cause unpredictable and unexpected results that produce a cascading effect across a network. Furthermore, a smart contract might be written for a specific task but then applied in another domain where it is less suitable, causing reliability and performance issues.

Geeq takes a different approach. We make it easy to send, receive, mint, escrow, swap, track ownership and more by building these directly into streamlined, standardized data structures, executed by protocol. In other words, Geeq has gone back to basics, stripping the complexity away and taking the time to provide logic to support any well-defined application. No smart contracts required.

2. It’s ahead of the curve with multichain architecture.

Other blockchains are struggling to improve their speed and scalability with patched-on solutions to reconcile separate components. The difficult technical problems with that approach are already being exposed. While the future is multichain, the strength of Geeq’s forest-of-chains design is the use of its secure protocol and standard transactions for every chain.          

With Geeq, there is no upper limit on the volume of transactions. Blocks on any chain are written every 10 seconds and, if an app becomes wildly popular, another chain can be launched with the exact same genesis block, to double the capacity at peak load. And on it goes.

Spinning up another chain is easy – the validation code is the same; the application functions are the same. All you need is a new network of nodes to bootstrap the new chain’s network. This is merely one way in which Geeq’s standardization pays off: you get scalability and flexibility while still having that all-important proof that every transaction in a block has been validated, according to the same, logically consistent, and unbiased set of rules.

3. Secure and provably accurate by design.

Geeq’s design makes for inherently trustworthy networks because nodes police each other automatically, as part of protocol. Geeq allows for three different node types: Geeq nodes, certified nodes and, in the case of public blockchains, anonymous nodes. Coordination between bad actors is extremely difficult for three reasons. Firstly, Geeq builds separation of powers into the core protocol. Secondly, each node separately builds its own block and must independently pass a test to prove its veracity and trustworthiness. Thirdly, there are built-in incentives to maintain correctness and audit any discrepancies. Only provably correct and reliable nodes will get paid because users will send transactions to them rather than a node who cannot provide proof that it is a good actor.

Why will users care about proof? It’s simple. Every present or future transaction will have counterparties, so any discrepancy will hurt someone who is counting on clearing a mutually agreeable trade. Viewed this way, the incentives of the nodes have been aligned completely  with their users. As real-time participants with an interest in their transactions, users will demand to see proofs of their transactions’ validity and inclusion, otherwise they may have been cheated.

Of course, Geeq has worked to make the proofs as compact and efficient as possible, with the least amount of clicks for users to find them on a block explorer or via the software in their wallet’s interface, so the check is as easy as putting a copy and paste into a search

Finally, Geeq will use a more up-to-date encryption algorithm at public launch. This is only possible because we started from scratch, whereas older blockchains face the difficulty of searching out, replacing, migrating and matching keys, node clients, and encryption with accounts, protocol versions, and smart contract code. Geeq’s software architects have thought ahead so that an entire chain may be upgraded at one time, without touching another chain, leaving the choice of migration completely up to the user.

4. Enterprise-ready blockchain for the real world.

Corporations face a lot of barriers in adopting blockchain. There is tremendous institutional resistance to change itself, which is compounded when it’s difficult to understand and believe a blockchain’s assurances. Geeqs understand; it is why we have de-risked blockchain and made it simple to use. Geeq offers security, scalability and unlimited volume at radically low costs, without the need to change anything. Geeq adds value to whatever is already working for you, while putting a safety net under your data so if something happens to your central database, you know you have a tool for recovery that has never been compromised.

Our simple deployment options put you in control. Geeq doesn’t store your files; you decide where they are located and continue to use them however you wish. Geeq’s invisible layer of  automatic, cryptographic integrity and independently neutral validation means you can be sure to find your original data as if it was flash-frozen in the state it was in. You still get to choose how much and which kinds of data to send and share.

Because the data structures that govern transactions are standardized, Geeq’s templates can be adapted for thousands of use cases. Similarly, networks can be private, public or hybrid, whatever your organization needs. Geeq provides safer, more adaptable, and more user-friendly blockchain, suitable for solving problems with supply chains, IoT, self-certification services, micropayments, verification of digital asset ownership, transfers, and more.

We understand managing changes in technology can be stressful, which is why Geeq has prioritized providing next generation services with the highest level of security and least amount of disruption. Your experts can advise you whether to keep blockchain invisible and outside your firewalls, access them minimally through an API, or use them to power any webapps you like. All of it is possible.

5. From the beginning, Geeq was designed for public participation.

Geeq was conceived to provide security and scalability in the most challenging setting imaginable: a multi-chain public environment, which we believe is what global and space infrastructure will require. Our focus, though, has always been on the people at home: to provide a safe, level playing field for the end user. It is a core part of our DNA and vision for Web3.

Our protocol de-risks blockchain to tackle the transactions and data handling that are a part of busy users’ everyday lives. We have put crypto speculation to the side in order to focus on utility. Exploits of smart contracts or bridges aren’t even a factor: Geeq has invented the most secure swaps (on-chain trades) in the space.

We’ve also witnessed pent-up demand from enterprises for easier to adopt ways to incorporate NFTs and fungible tokens. Geeq’s standardized transactions and built-in data structures satisfy these needs exactly.  Finally, Geeq’s multi-chain platform support private, public, and hybrid configurations for a reason. Different users desire different levels of privacy, from transparency within an enterprise only, to permissioned sharing with regulators, to complete visibility for the public.

We are excited to work with enterprise partners to address their specific needs. It is an ideal way to perfect Geeq ahead of public release. We can polish features, test them in real time, gather feedback, and iterate. This helps us to build our market, generate demand, and spread awareness for the public role of the $GEEQ token. Everything is working according to plan.

We know many of you have questions about how the $GEEQ token will work when the public chain(s) are live, so let’s answer them.

– What incentive does the public have to run nodes? 

Geeq’s protocol is innovative because it automatically pays nodes – but only if their individual validation is correct. Geeq nodes are paid twice the marginal costs of their services, and have incentives to prove their blockchains are correct and up to date because they will get traffic. Users, in the meantime, benefit from more certainty about fees and from efficient markets for chains and nodes. Everyone wins.

– Cool! When can I run a public node and start earning GEEQ? 

History has shown it makes sense to launch public chains with some central control, in order to make adjustments without having to coordinate across anonymous nodes. However, once that period ends, the fact that Geeq’s protocol requires each node to build its own provably correct blockchain means there is no special value for centralization. The market for network participants will be able to sustain a competitive market by coding free entry and exit in the genesis block, with quality assured because every node is held to the same standard of proof for the end user.

– And what does that mean for the token swap?

Once the network is fully public, holders of the ERC-20 token will be able to swap their tokens for native GEEQ. The ERC-20 token will continue to be used for some time after the token swap as the Geeq platform grows, ensuring it has inherent utility.

– But what about tokenomics?

Geeq’s tokenomics were thought through from the beginning, and the distribution is exactly the same as originally specified.  Moreover, we’ve doubled down on our commitment to build until $GEEQ fulfills its role for the public. The founders and advisers have agreed that their tokens are locked until Geeq launches its public chain(s). Geeq has a mission; we’re building the technological backbone for a better economy. For everyone.

Thanks for reading! And please share this article with anyone who would like a quick overview of Geeq.

– The Geeq Team

In the past few years, enterprise attitudes to blockchain have changed rapidly. The overwhelming majority believe blockchain adoption is necessary to maintain a competitive advantage in their business. If they’re not already implementing blockchain, they’re preparing to do so. However, actual rates of adoption lag these attitudes substantially, and sentiment varied greatly across regions.

Right now, around half of all enterprise blockchain deployments are private. That’s like agreeing the internet is a vast resource – and building a company intranet instead of accessing the world wide web. Sure, it’s useful and it looks similar, but there’s so much missing! Why are organizations limiting themselves like this?

The “blockchain trilemma” as a hurdle for adoption

The traditional challenge of blockchain design is how to optimize performance for a particular user group’s needs, while incorporating desirable – and sometimes competing – characteristics associated with blockchain: security, decentralization and scalability.

The idea of decentralization, in particular, has given enterprises pause. Given the dramatic events and heated debates in the past ten years of the blockchain space, public blockchain adoption has had to be weighed against the potential disruption of their security systems, while needing to continue handling their business transactions at scale.

Enterprises have ongoing operational concerns, as well as fiduciary, commercial, and legal reasons to be conservative about their choices in data services. For those who have entered the blockchain race in the recent past, private blockchains have seemed to offer the safest and most reliable options.

Private blockchain offerings remain highly centralized

Centralized solutions offer the comfort of familiarity when adopting a new technology. Most enterprises already have responses in place for the known knowns of dealing with central points of failure.

Businesses are already under pressure to protect sensitive information and must ensure reliable performance. As this is a top priority, the natural reaction for executives with decision making power is to choose the option that gives them more control: private blockchains.

In doing so, they forgo the most innovative potential at the heart of a full enterprise blockchain solution. However, these decisions have been rational. As yet, there have not been dramatic, consistent demonstrations of public blockchain’s transformative power in enterprise settings.

On public networks, large transaction volumes can result in slow performance, unpredictable fees, and the threat of high energy usage. Furthermore, there has not been a one-stop shop for adoption of performant and easy to use solutions that deliver the best features of private and public blockchains.

A new technology has arrived

Geeq has the solution. Geeq’s modular construction means enterprises may expand blockchain adoption as needed, now and in the future. Determined to provide practical and sustainable solutions from inception, Geeq’s protocols are light years ahead on security, with ultra-low financial and environmental costs. In addition, Geeq’s structure provides tremendous flexibility and scalability.

Geeq anticipated the move away from a single monolithic blockchain system with a unique, multi-chain, scalable design. Geeq’s architecture provides a more secure and consistently reliable alternative to sidechains and Layer 2s: every Geeq chain uses the same efficient protocols and benefits from Geeq’s cutting-edge security.

Understanding blockchain technology involves a deep dive into a highly technical world. Geeq has resurfaced with elegant, ground-breaking solutions that provide firmly grounded, easy to interpret and simple to use endpoints – for users of enterprise software and consumer applications.

The right choice for you

The natural consequence of Geeq’s design and engineering choices is its ability to offer a range of blockchain solutions. Enterprises may use purely private blockchains that are more future-forward, secure, efficient, and sustainable. Geeq’s public chains are launched with the ability to boostrap themselves into fully decentralized blockchains, without intervention.

Finally, Geeq offers enterprise solutions to combine the strengths of both public and private chains, delivering the opportunity to enjoy the best of both worlds in the same ecosystem.

Geeq simply provides better blockchain solutions. We built these systems with the specific pain points of adoption in mind, so enterprises can access the full benefits of blockchain without compromise. Blockchains have made big promises. Geeq delivers.

Bitcoin and Ethereum (among others) famously use mining in their Proof of Work (PoW) protocols, why doesn’t Geeq?

The short answer is: mining creates problematic incentives from the point of view of the user of a blockchain-based application.

Who Benefits from Mining? Miners.

Mining can be profitable for miners, who are in charge of the construction and maintenance of Proof of Work-based blockchains. That is why they do it.

An interesting feature of the mining market is that profits can be uncertain. The rewards change and sources of income are also fairly dynamic. In fact, the “block rewards” portion of their earnings are explicitly based on a mechanism that is a bit like playing a lottery. In a competitive market for mining, miners are incentivized to adopt strategies that give them an advantage.

We have already seen miners’ strategies adapt over time to maximize their profits. One response to the bitcoin blockchain, in particular, has been to set up mining “farms” comprised of many high powered computers. As the owner of many computers, a mining farm increases the odds it will make profits. This should not be surprising: it is like someone who buys many tickets to a lottery in order to increase their chances of winning.

For the user of PoW-based blockchains, these two features of the mining market introduce risks to the users that are out of their own control: a) miners have incentives that diverge from the users’ and b) mining sets up an uneven playing field. A more concentrated market for mining also concentrates power over the construction and maintenance of the Proof of Work-based blockchain. This means a PoW-based blockchain database is vulnerable to attack.

The most well-known vulnerability is the 51% attack, which has happened several times. There are other threats that are more complicated and also relatively unknown, so we will not include them here. Suffice to say that every potential threat introduces risk of disruptions in service and controversy, especially when attacks within protocol yield unexpected results. Some of the outcomes may result in transactions that are rolled back or censored, which is exactly what blockchain-based DApps are supposed to disallow.

Geeq is focused on providing value to the end user of any Geeq-enabled service.

As you use the Geeq platform, you have the security of knowing Geeq’s blockchain-based payment system is at the leading edge of blockchain technology. All Distributed Applications (DApps) built on the Geeq platform are based on underlying blockchain databases that have the integrity and dependability blockchains are supposed to have. As a result, DApp providers and consumers are able to focus on the quality of services DApps provide, with an emphasis on making them useful and easy to use.

Conclusion

Geeq’s Proof of Honesty^TM (PoH) is a next generation, proprietary blockchain technology that enables a new hybrid platform. The platform itself is truly decentralized.

Geeq was built with the end goals of a blockchain-based, decentralized economy in mind. In order to arrive at that destination, we had to re-think all the layers of the blockchain “stack”, from the market for nodes and validators up through the final markets for new DApp-based goods and services.

Simply put, Geeq doesn’t have miners because their incentives are not aligned with our vision of a decentralized economy. In Geeq’s ecosystem, all incentives are aligned with those of the honest user, including the nodes and validators who construct and maintain the blockchains. At Geeq, market power doesn’t matter. Honesty does.

Traditionally, blockchain protocols make security assumptions that are, at best, unverifiable, such as assuming less than 1/3 of the network will be malicious. These security assumptions introduce tremendous uncertainty about the future. At worst, the many assumptions required for the security of a blockchain platform are unrealistic. In order to mitigate those risks and improve function, most subsequent work has inadvertently introduced new attack surfaces by adding complexity, rather than addressing the root problems inherent in the way they define consensus.

Geeq’s mission is simple: we put the well-being of end users first. Achieving such an idealistic goal required preparing for the worst case. Here is the breakthrough: Geeq’s technology works even when we have no idea who is in a network and what they may or may not choose to do. We know we can’t control others’ choices in a decentralized world – nor would we want to. The bottom line is this: the only thing that matters about blockchain is whether it is able to provide us a better way to organize economic activity compared to using a centralized database.

By re-examining the data that honest users will need to make decisions, rather than what network participants may want them to believe, we found a way to solve the information game by re-engineering the idea of consensus.

Simply put, Geeq’s protocol requires each node to work independently. Honest nodes are able to deliver Proof of Honesty only if they’ve arrived at the singularly honest conclusion. As a result, all honest nodes arrive at the same, provably honest blockchain on their own, and the information coordination problem is solved when users interact only with honest nodes.

Consensus, at Geeq, is the product of honesty.

Blockchains based on Proof of Work, Proof of Stake, or Proof of Authority work on the assumption that power – in terms of hash rate, financial muscle, or institutional standing – produces truth. At Geeq, we believe that only those who are truthful should be powerful.

Geeq’s technology addresses an old problem: lack of trust due to asymmetric information. How can parties feel comfortable negotiating or transacting if one feels the other has an advantage in manipulating information?

Thus, Geeq is a new information and communications technology.

The primary economic value of services powered by Geeq is that they provide access to dependable, neutral, and correctly validated data sets.

In so doing, these data can be acceptable to all parties who wish to coordinate on some, but not all, dimensions with each other and do not wish to trust a third party.

How do we identify potential pain points?

There are five key criteria that make it likely that Geeq has a better approach to addressing a problem than conventional data systems or centralized cloud-based software as-a-service (SaaS) solutions:

1. The problem requires secure transfer of value, possibly in very small increments; for example, micropayments for content or web services and machine to machine markets, and person to person payments such as small charitable contributions or sharing the cost of a meal among a group of friends.
   
2. The problem involves agents who do not know or do not trust each other; for example, peer to peer markets for goods and services, escrows, and providing proof that all parties are what they say and behaved honestly.
   
3. The problem involves many different actors from different organizations whose interests do not align; for example, logistics or chain of custody applications that transfer responsibilities from party to party.
   
4. The problem requires objective provability of facts or data; for example, audit trails and telemetry collected from connected industrial, medical, and infrastructure devices.
   
5. The problem involves agents who might wish to censor, alter, or hide data; for example, securities, land title, and financial transactions where theft and fraud are real possibilities.

For blockchain to offer a viable solution to these problems it must be secure, inexpensive and scalable. For Blockchain as a Service (BaaS) to become a realistic alternative to private databases, it needs to be flexible, upgradable, environmentally sustainable, and protect users from unreasonable volatility in token value.

Geeq has invented the technology for a decentralized, secure, and efficient multi-chain platform that is able to scale without limits. Our original inspiration was to imagine how to support the exponential growth of data services from IoT. Once we understood the solution to that problem, we knew the same architecture will be able to accommodate any and all blockchain-based applications you might imagine.

Take smart cities, for example. IoT is used already to improve traffic control, emergency response, public utilities, and air quality. Experiments in smart cities have shown IoT can help reduce traffic accidents, use energy more efficiently, and optimize grid data collection and sharing for better urban planning.

Geeq’s Proof of Honesty Uniquely Provides Transparency

Concerns about security and privacy are the largest roadblocks to the public’s acceptance of IoT in their everyday lives. We understand it’s natural for people to question how this new technology could be used against them while also wishing for the benefits this same technology could provide. People want the best of both worlds and at Geeq we won’t settle for less!

As long as there are concerns about who might misuse data to spy on them or track them, people will be cautious. However, smart cities that use Geeq will have an easier time surmounting those barriers. Geeq’s blockchain ecosystem provides smart city builders ways to prove their practices are transparent and accountable. No other blockchain platform provides their clients with more credibility.

How does Geeq help? Geeq’s Proof of Honesty (PoH) makes it easy for any user to tell if the data they observe has been compromised or not. Geeq’s Edge Security means the information recorded by any IoT device is independently verifiable. In short, the full benefits of Geeq’s cutting edge security extends to every device that uses Geeq, anywhere in the world.

All The Capacity a Smart City Will Need

As Seasoned Investor Jorge Sebastiao noted, Geeq’s secure PoH consensus protocol is innovative and sustainable. In addition, he noted how important it was that Geeq’s multiple chain architecture scales to accommodate all the transactions a smart city would need.

Even a million transactions per second is simply not enough, and the simple reason for that is, imagine a smart city of today, you have tvs, you have parking sensors, you have safety sensors, water meter sensors, and a whole multitude that need to come together to kind of drive the data that powers the smart city, but it needs to be trusted data – otherwise the smart city collapses. So I think there are plenty of use cases.

Jorge Sebastiao, Board Member of Confidential

Geeq Lowers the Costs of Doing Business

Geeq’s core business model is built around the ability for businesses to outsource permissionless validation of blockchain services to Geeq. At Geeq, clients can focus on their areas of expertise – traffic, public safety, or green spaces – without worrying about the hidden costs that may well be imposed by other blockchain platforms.

Geeq’s multi-chain approach allows developers, businesses, and cities to set up blockchain applications that are validated independently by their own networks. That means a client does not have to endure bottlenecks or suffer latencies when there is activity on someone else’s application. Applications do not share overhead which greatly reduces costs. As you might imagine, these are highly desirable characteristics for smart city applications.

If you’re in Dubai, you might have a blockchain that handles a thousand transactions per second and is focused on traffic. You don’t really need to mix together what happens on London bus transport with the Dubai chain.

John Conley, Geeq Founder and Chief Economist

Geeq is an Enabling Technology

Why else might a developer, business, or city like to build on Geeq? Because Geeq’s business is to put its enabling technology to work for others, without interfering in the business decisions of others. Builders who benefit from the efficiency and low costs of using Geeq will have, in turn, more room to set their own prices or taxes according to their own local conditions.

Low costs, limitless scalability, credible accountability and transparency for IoT? What’s not to love? Smart city builders, you have a green light to build all the networks you need, using Geeq’s decentralized, secure, blockchain ecosystem.

Thanks for reading about Geeq: an ecosystem of interoperable, customizable blockchains built with real world use cases in mind.

The early empty promises of blockchain

The first idea, that John dispatched with speed, was the mythology around early blockchain as some sort of brand new technology with mysterious healing properties. Although all the investors on the panel knew better, business leaders at home have seen blockchain hyped for years: sometimes as one of the key engines of the fourth industrial revolution; the technology that would propel unified world currencies such as Bitcoin and its successors to dominance; or the force that would reorganize entire industries and government processes nearly overnight.

This enthusiasm reached into the business world at the highest levels. At Davos in 2015, blockchain was noted as one of the technologies that would bring on a world tipping point, where a World Economic Forum survey suggested 10% of global GDP would be stored on blockchain by 2027.

In an excellent McKinsey Digital Report (2018) by Brant Carson, Giulio Romanelli, Patricia Walsh, and Askhat Zhumaev, the optimistic predictions from Davos 2015 were revisited. The authors concluded blockchain technology, while having potential, was still immature.

Indeed, blockchain’s practical value (here at Geeq, in 2020) is exciting. However, it is not because blockchain is a new invention out of whole cloth, like the transistor radio or the computer chip. It is because blockchain combines existing components to fashion a new, versatile, cheaper and decentralized data service in ways that suit some purposes better than traditional, centralized databases. However, these valuable properties of blockchain are only realized if, as John pointed out, “it is done well”.

The essence of blockchain: its security model

John explained it is only possible to unlock the new and valuable properties of adopting blockchain as a decentralized data backbone after re-evaluating the traditional approaches to cyber-security. Only then would blockchain be able to prove its worth as a reliable, cost-saving, and efficient new kind of data service.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FagK75p8SRQ

While the blockchain and crypto fields are filled with brilliant and innovative futurists who have pushed the frontiers of cryptography, finance, and development, some of their attitudes toward securing the blockchain databases were old-fashioned. Broadly speaking, the two approaches used were either (a) to make attacks increasingly expensive or (b) to build up more elaborate methods to try to keep cyber-attackers out.

The fatal flaw? In the new digital era, the only rational expectation is that cyberattacks will become more sophisticated and powerful. New data structures, such as blockchain-based services, cannot be adequately protected with cybersecurity arms races. As John explained,

Building walls is ultimately a self-defeating technology, because someone could always get a bigger gun. It’s a race of cannon versus fortress.

Geeq Chief Economist and Proof of Honesty protocol creator, John Conley

Furthermore, if a security strategy is based on adding cost or complexity, it increases the total cost of using blockchain. Why would anyone be persuaded to adopt a database that might fall behind in a security race? After all, robbers choose to attack the least well-defended houses; muggers choose the weakest targets.

Geeq’s Unique Approach to Security

Geeq is a company dedicated to providing blockchain data services that are clearly superior to conventional, centralized databases when the situation is right. The key to Geeq’s technology is its innovative and proprietary security model. Proof of Honesty does not rely on firewalls or permissioning. It is designed to provide security even if, as John says, one assumes that barbarians are already behind the gate.

In addition to added security, reliability, decentralization, and lower costs, Geeq’s Proof of Honesty is an enabling technology that scales without limit to billions of commits. As Ric was quick to remind their listeners, the combination of innovative technology, added value, and need provides the basis for a very solid business model indeed.

Conclusion

Those who are just beginning to learn about blockchain technology will find this video an interesting introduction to the debates behind the scenes. Even blockchain experts may enjoy John’s use of fake news as a metaphor for Proof of Honesty’s 99% Byzantine Fault Tolerance.

Geeq’s technology is certainly suited for these times and beyond.

Geeq thanks our friend, Sonny Mohanty at LATOKEN for organizing yet another, smoothly-run, globe-spanning, live stream session on the Laws of Investments During the Covid-19 Pandemic.

The Security of Geeq’s Public Blockchains

If blockchain is truly permission-less, or public, then anyone can participate. There are no laws, no rules, no stopping anyone from participating or attempting to do so.

The genius behind Geeq’s public blockchain platform is: EVERYONE gets the same, clear opportunity to behave well and reap the rewards.

Geeq believes in freedom of choice – a clear upside for all.  The downside, of course, is there are others who may try to do you wrong. It’s rational to be wary of what others might do. In fact, uncertainty about the security of blockchain was one of the major barriers to adoption in 2019.

Introducing Edge Security

Geeq solves this with its many security layers, the last of which is Edge Security. Edge Security empowers you with clearly defined tools that allow you to distinguish whether any node is worthy of your business or not. You simply need to learn the two habits needed to use our blockchains with confidence.

All users who are honest – and always practice these two simple habits – have proof their tokens are safe. In short, all honest users’ transactions will be validated correctly and their tokens cannot be stolen.

What are these two habits?

 (1)  Keep your private keys safe.

Yes, this rule is true for every blockchain or cryptocurrency. 

If you share or lose your private key, then your tokens can be stolen on any platform, including Geeq’s . Some users will, unfortunately, attempt to trick you for your information that is not meant for them or may even try and brute force their way into your wallet. Practice safety and good security measures like never having text files with your key information anywhere open to the internet.

Tokens also become inaccessible if you lose your private key. Because the Geeq platform is decentralized, there is no way we can recover your private keys for you. The good news, of course, is Geeq has no access to your account. So – this is really important – keep your private key information safe. (Here’s a handy guide at the time of this publication.)

(2)  Use Geeq’s Edge Security. Only use honest nodes. 

Geeq’s proprietary technology is the only one that allows any customer to find provably honest nodes. Which makes it easy for users.

Demand that a node provides you proof that it’s honest before you rely on it. That’s it. If it does, you’re safe. If it doesn’t, putting it bluntly, don’t have anything to do with it – you can’t trust it. Find another node.

The Edge Security Habit

A user of a permission-less or public blockchain contacts the blockchain by querying a node.

Geeq blockchains are completely permission-less at both the validation and the application layers by default. That is extremely convenient because any node can enter or exit at any time. However, it means nodes are able to be anonymous, which is a way that blockchains without Proof of Honesty open themselves to security issues. These blockchains either close their ecosystems and become private, which defeats the purpose of blockchain as a decentralized technology, or require their users to assume there are a sufficient number of honest nodes in the network to ensure the security of the overall blockchain.

Information is an Advantage

Geeq, however, provides a user interface that allows the user to check the node you’ve reached first.

It’s as easy as looking both ways

before crossing the street.

To illustrate, this is what happens when a user contacts a node for a Geeq blockchain.

Protect Yourself

What happens if the person running a node on the blockchain is either dishonest or otherwise is unable to provide proof of its honesty? (The latter case covers an honest node that is trying to participate, but is somehow prevented from joining the network.)

From a user’s point of view, it doesn’t matter why a node won’t offer you proof. Don’t use it. Ask for another.

All Clear? Go!

Conclusion

Demand a node’s Proof of Honesty and act upon the response accordingly, On Geeq, using blockchain with confidence is as simple as making sure to look before crossing the street.

Edge Security is the feedback that non-technical blockchain users needed, to feel secure about truly decentralized blockchain.

Photo by Kristin Charleton on Unsplash

Proof-of-Honesty (PoH) is the proprietary protocol that sets Geeq™ apart from the existing field of blockchain platforms. Many ambitious projects that were deployed on early blockchain platforms have failed to achieve mass adoption. The reason for this is due to the shortcomings in Proof-of-Work (PoW) and Proof-of-Stake (PoS) based systems, which limit the amount these platforms can be trusted, scale, and remain cost-efficient. Geeq™ and PoH will provide future blockchain projects with the infrastructure and platform to truly deploy their vision and achieve their goals. Resulting in more projects making a positive impact, driving us towards mass usage of products and services that are based on blockchain, the future of many industries.

This article will look to explain PoH, how it is a more secure and scalable solution to existing blockchain protocols, and why it will make an impact in your day-to-day tech lives.

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Here is the Simple Description of a Blockchain

Before diving into explaining a blockchain protocol, we feel it’s a good idea to revisit what precisely a blockchain is. Even if you feel you already know, it’s always great to go over the details as we’re going to be referring to a couple of the main features of a blockchain in order to allow you to grip how Proof of Honesty unlocks its potential.

At their core, blockchains are simply online/electronic records that group ‘transactions’ together in blocks. (Transactions can be in the shape of things such as data, money, or online digital assets).

These blocks are connected in a time-based sequence which gives the appearance of a chain. Hence why they are called blockchains. (Which is far more catchy than ‘sequentially ordered electronic ledgers’ in our book).

Here’s An Example

Blockchains work a little bit like conventional databases, in the sense that they keep a record of all the comings and goings which occur through that database’s network.

As an example, your home insurance provider will have a record of all your personal details, what items you have in your home, and your occupation, as well as your insurance history. They’ll capture this data by you providing, and signing it off, in order to verify it is accurate.

Your insurance provider will then store this data themselves on their drives using their computing power to manage it. In other words, they have the ability to alter or delete records as they see fit, meaning the data they store is only as reliable as the people that input, protect and store it.

If you need to make a ‘transaction’ with your insurance provider, i.e. make a claim, you inform them that there’s been an accident, theft, damage to your property and they gather the details of the incident and then payout. They’re responsible to verify the transaction and add it to their records.

In short, they manage your data and transaction history and decide if your transaction is valid.

So what’s the difference between a conventional database and a blockchain?

Using the above explanation we get a good understanding of how conventional databases work. Blockchains achieve similar goals, however, they do it in a completely different way.

In contrast to the records stored by central authorities, the records which exist on blockchain ledgers are updated and stored by widely distributed sets of agents (sometimes called nodes or miners).

Explaining the way these agents verify these transactions is a tad complicated (but that’s what these Geeq™ explainers are for!), but it’s important to understand that these agents contribute their computing power to help verify these transactions. In return, they are reimbursed by the network in cryptocurrency. Combined, these individual agents provide the power which, if we look at our insurance provider example, would be provided by central servers owned by one party.

We’re going to simplify the process these agents go through to a few steps:

1. Transactions are sent in by users to the blockchain
2. These transactions are received by the network of agents.
3. They communicate with other agents through the blockchain to agree they each have the same transaction.
4. Each agent examines the transactions to see if it is valid.
5. The network of agents then come to an agreement that the transaction is indeed valid.
6. They then add this to the existing ledger of transactions confirming that it is valid.

While this is the process simplified, the element which makes one blockchain network different from another depends upon the protocols they use.

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What are Blockchain ‘Protocols’?

As explained above, blockchains are electronic records that hold groups of verified transactions chained together in blocks. But how do these agents ‘verify’ that the transactions added to the record are correct? That’s where the blockchain protocols step in.

There are various models of protocols that are popular in existing blockchain frameworks. The ones you may have seen mentioned by earlier blockchain projects, (or you read them in our introduction to this article!), these are Proof of Work (PoW) and Proof of Stake.

(While it would be great to explain how each of these protocols works, this is a subject for an entire article!)

However, for the purpose of this explainer, you just need to understand that these current protocols, whilst designed with the best intentions, offer relatively weak security guarantees and struggle due to low fault-tolerance. Meaning, they struggle to find a consensus that is consistently reliable. Additionally, these protocols restrict blockchain networks from scaling effectively, due to the high running costs per transaction.

These two issues combined hamper blockchain technology growth, stopping multiple businesses from being able to profit from its benefits. This is why the team here at Geeq™ has developed a revolutionary new protocol called Proof of Honesty.

What makes Proof of Honesty special?

The unique design of PoH means that in order to reach a consensus (on whether or notthe transaction placed on the network is valid), the agents on the network don’t need to communicate agreement in order to successfully validate it.

While this might not sound secure to the people thinking: “surely every agent agreeing that a transaction is valid is a good thing right?!” this is unfortunately not the case…

You see, with PoS and PoW, if malicious agents with a lot of stake on the network hold the majority they can wrongfully vote to approve a transaction as ‘valid’ when in reality it isn’t.

PoH is different in the sense that each individual validator has a set of rules that determine if the transactions they receive are valid or not (These are also understood by the customer). These sets of rules are undeniable, meaning that if every agent on the network agree with each other, it’s because they individually applied the PoH set of rules.

Alternatively, if misbehaving validators reach an agreement because they are trying to break the rules to manipulate the ledger, they will NOT be able to provide proof they behaved honestly.

The last piece of PoH, which deserves a highlight all by itself, is that the user is in control of the final decision about whether to rely on the truth of the blockchain themselves. Geeq’s final layer of security, called Edge Security, provides a simple piece of client software with the very same rules for validating transactions that were used in the network.

That piece of Edge Security provides the final check for honesty because if your computer, (following the rules), can check the proof that an honest validator sends over, and everything is in agreement, then you will know it’s safe to carry out that transaction!*

*Now, the determined techie may say the Edge Security is redundant, because to them the blockchain is “transparent”, but most of us do not know how to go through the tedious verification him or herself, but that’s a story for another day.

(Which is handy, because if you are wanting to sell something, it’s nice to know the account has enough to cover its purchase). This way, a Geeq has the ability to avoid any dishonesty in the system.

This ultimately makes the PoH the most secure, honest and reliable blockchain protocol available and we’re proud to present it to you as part of Geeq™.