Validation of Blockchain Data

What does Validation of Blockchain Data mean?

The means by which blockchain transactions are checked for correctness according to the protocol rules and written into the block.

Main Idea:

Instead of a centrally designated authority deciding whether the data you have submitted to a database are acceptable for entry into a database (such as government employed customs agents who are reviewing your invoices and paperwork), a blockchain database is intended for users to submit their data directly to a network of computers, run by a group of people who may include non-centrally designated authorities, to validate your data in order to enter it directly into a database. These computers are called validators.

The resulting data in the blockchain should be available to you and anyone else with permission to see it, at any time, in a provably unaltered fashion. Therefore, the blockchain network’s role is to provide attestation that the data exist as you submitted it. The nature of how blocks are written into a blockchain also give proof that it was entered before or after other events, as revealed by its position in the blockchain.

Alternatively, a user may submit an invalid transaction. In that case, honest validators should reject it by not including it in the blockchain. By rejecting invalid transactions and attesting to valid transactions, a blockchain is constructed to provide a common source of truth.

The Value of Blockchain-Based Applications for Economic Coordination

When you submit a valid transaction to a blockchain-based application, there is evidence in its database to eliminate confusion over what you submitted. Among the many use cases for blockchain, the ability to provide evidence of compliance, documentation for following proper business procedures such as logging valid receipts and payments, and providing a clear and convenient trail for financial audits are ideal use cases.

In addition, blockchain-based applications provides a way for economic parties in a competitive industry to cooperate for social benefit. Whenever a validation network is permissionless such that ordinary persons anywhere could be a validator, there is added confidence the validators were neutral when they attested to the data.

There are also ways to design blockchain databases paired with blockchain applications such that neither the validators nor outsiders are aware of who you are or the data you are entering. Parties interested in the effects of technologies with social impact should find this method of accumulating de-identified data with independent attestations valuable, convenient, and inexpensive.

The Problem:

Despite the promised convenience and potentially greater privacy, an end user still does not have control over the behavior of all the validators participating in the validation network. Those validators have their own incentives and levels of competence about providing the blockchain services that honest users expect.

Most blockchain protocols assume a sufficiency of validators will work toward the end users’ interests. However, if enough validators decide to circumvent those safeguards, they may write data into the blockchain maliciously. At that point, it is very difficult to correct the record. Sometimes, a change in protocol is required or a rewriting of the blockchain. However, that begs the question of whether a blockchain has provided an alternative worth the costs, compared to a trusted intermediary.

Geeq’s solution:

Geeq has designed a blockchain protocol that protects the end user, regardless of how validators behave. We make the realistic assumption that validators may choose to do anything at any time. However, we provide the end user with (1) the ability to find a provably honest node to whom they may submit a transaction and (2) the ability to find, at any time, a node that is able to show proof the data have been validated correctly.

Geeq’s blockchain technology is singularly focused on providing valuable blockchain data services for end users. Every blockchain and blockchain-based application is powered by its own validator network, reducing costs and overhead, enabling applications to scale, and providing the opportunity to customize independent or interoperable blockchains as desired.

Used in a Sentence:

Geeq uniquely aligns the incentives of all blockchain participants, including validators, to provide an economically valuable, dependable data set acceptable to all parties who wish to coordinate with each other and do not wish to trust a third party.

Last Updated: June 12, 2023