Open Call 3 (closed)

For this topic, the goal is to produce a service/application catalogue and expose its functionality internally and externally to facilitate software integration. The ONTOCHAIN network will embrace several applications and business cases; thus this topic must ensure that they will integrate smoothly together with the outside world. Of interest is also the accessibility of outside services within ONTOCHAIN, and of ONTOCHAIN services to the outside world.      

Interoperability whether or not cross chain but especially semantically and syntactically is thus a key aspect of this topic. The solution to be developed will have to be trustworthy, privacy-preserving, secure, transparent, democratic and consider traceability to manage access and operations over ontologies, metadata, data, knowledge and information for the ONTOCHAIN ecosystem.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

Schema matching is a critical step in many applications, such as XML message mapping, data warehouse loading, and schema integration. For this topic, the goal is to develop a marketplace where ONTOCHAIN users can buy or sell any goods or services that can be described with an ontological representation. The resulting software will provide services for publishing ontology-based descriptions of goods and services, creating and publishing market orders,searching through the orders based and complex criteria and matching sell and buy orders. Ontology matching is a solution to the semantic heterogeneity problem e.g., Pellet atop blockchain, schema matching/mapping, etc. In this topic, ontology matching is a requirement for finding compatible offer and demand (buy and sell orders) in semantic-based marketplaces. To guarantee the fairness of the transactions in the marketplace, the matching process should be fair to every party, e.g. preventing exclusion, censorship, price manipulation and fraud.  The goal of this topic is to design and implement prototypes that will provide ontologies management and setup for decentralized semantic matching of demand and supply for different use case scenarios (e.g., apartments, land, cars, etc.), even across chains.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

The intention of ONTOCHAIN is to produce a portfolio of software results that can be used to exemplify key technologies and solutions for trustworthy, decentralised knowledge management. 

The ONTOCHAIN project has witnessed several approaches to building an energy efficient, elastic and sustainable infrastructure that would be particularly suited to the ONTOCHAIN services and applications.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

In modern society a variety of products and services are centred on specific valuable entities, such as companies, buildings or cars. The trustworthiness of products and services that are involved in the process of interacting with such entities is of immense importance. Moreover, the immutability of the data, and the use of various application-level proofs can greatly contribute to knowledge sharing along the overall lifecycle of these entities. 

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

Social media platforms provide citizens with virtual spaces where they can share information, express themselves and organize social and democratic actions. However, the control of the largest platforms by a handful of companies creates an imbalance of power that is harmful to users: unverified/fake information, censorship, violence/bullying and scams are regulated behind closed doors, with little to no possible appeal.

In addition, all of the value created by social media platforms is kept by their providers, which creates an ecosystem in which there is little to no reward for good contributions, and where the exploitation of private information is the norm. Creating fair and sustainable social networks and social media platforms thus requires novel software tools and novel business models. DLTs and Decentralized Autonomous Organizations can support new governance structures for social platforms by placing information verification, moderation and censorship through a democratic process. Cryptographic tokens can help create a virtuous business model which rewards users and contributors fairly and discourages abuses.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

Distrust in the Internet is causing people to change the way they behave online, for example by disclosing less personal information. Users also express an increasing level of distrust of social media platforms. A decentralized semantic social network concerns an application where social profiles are stored in a decentralized manner, storage is secure and privacy-aware, and semantic content is highly available. The idea is that users have similar Quality of Experience (QoE) with centralized social network solutions, but even better/more services than those available therein. e.g., a trusted services exchange environment can be activated on top of this decentralized social network. The business viability of the solution has to be clearly described.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

Resources conservation, climate protection and cost savings are today the cornerstone of climate protection efforts, while allowing users to have permanent access to the energy they need. Renewable energy resources are currently being deployed on a large scale to meet the requirements of increased energy demand, mitigate the environmental pollutants, and achieve socio-economic benefits for sustainable development. In this context, efficient semantic energy data management is thus crucial. It includes the use of semantic data in the planning and operation of energy production and energy consumption units as well as energy distribution and storage. The microgrid concept that is a self-sustained system consisting of distributed energy resources becomes more and more popular and applications in microgrids are considered more and more common having the goal to minimise the cost of energy taken from the final customer. A number of actors are so enabled to be procurers of green energy themselves, putting into the grid the extra productions from renewable sources that they don’t use. If relevant, microgrid applications nonetheless need a semantic energy data management system for an optimal use of these distributed energy resources in intelligent, secure, reliable, and coordinated ways. This management system to operate in a trustworthy manner should incorporate features like Identity management, grid control, data interoperability, service accounting. Additional features could be also the control over the sustainability of the energy itself, checking the source of provenance (renewable vs. fossil ones).

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

Smart cities are places where traditional networks and services are made more efficient with the use of digital solutions for the benefit of its inhabitants and business. They go beyond the use of digital technologies for better resource use and less emissions. It means smarter urban transport networks, upgraded water supply and waste disposal facilities and more efficient ways to light and heat buildings. It also means a more interactive and responsive city administration, safer public spaces and meeting the needs of an ageing population. In this landscape, blockchain applications have the power to coordinate, integrate and control different city services with transparency, efficiency and privacy thanks to their features for identity management, service accounting, system control and analysis, payment system, privacy management, tokenomics.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

The automotive industry has always been at the forefront of technical innovation, with automakers constantly looking for new ways to utilize cutting-edge technologies to their advantage. And blockchain has the potential to bring significant benefits to this industry. Electric and autonomous vehicles are two emerging trends promising to transform the automotive industry and transportation. In combination with other technologies such as the Internet-of-Things, machine learning and big data, the blockchain in automotive can enable development of:

• Solutions that help owners of electric cars to more easily charge their vehicles;
• Blockchain mechanism for hiring smart autonomous vehicles
• Efficient ways for autonomous vehicles to collect, store, organize and share data, which, in turn, will help them learn how to better navigate any environment;
• Platforms for tracking and managing global or localized fleets of self-driving vehicles and more.

In general, a part from the specific use case of EV and autonomous vehicles, the blockchain technology can also help develop other solutions for this sector as:

• For ensuring trustworthy, legal and ethical sourcing of raw materials to ensure that every step of the supply chain is documented and the resulting documentation is securely stored, forgery-proof and readily available for inspection.
• Digital passports for vehicles for ensuring trustworthy, legal resale of a used car or sharing relevant information about a vehicle with third parties, for example, insurance companies that need to avoid frauds.
• New type of ride/car-sharing services that run on a peer-to-peer network without the need for a central authority e.g management of car sharing among the members of an organization or a community

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

Distribution logistics, also known as sales logistics, deals with the planning, realisation and control of the movement of goods. It also includes the inventory stock management, the production planning forecasting and the cost control of the supply chain. Depending on the product, the supply chain can include many phases, multiple geographic locations, several accounts and payments, several individuals, entities, and means of transport. Blockchain has many potential advantages in this industry. It enables companies to increase efficiency (e.g. process automation, reduced paperwork, etc.), transparency and traceability, while also making supply chains more secure as the origin and authenticity of products is known, proven and shared.

Moreover, applications of distribution logistics can involve different kinds of actors, in particular those typically working in any part of the e-commerce supply chain. Cost controls over the supply chain, certification of the provenance of goods, price control to the final customers are building blocks suitable for a number of business cases needed by e-commerce portals, good producers (as local food) anche distribution logistic transport actors. A relevant issue that is possible to face is taking into account the pollution produced by the supply chain itself in order to minimize the environmental impact and maximize the green sustainability of the supply chain.
Overall, it involves mechanisms for data accountability, data interoperability, data anonymization, data privacy control, data orchestration, permission management and tokenomics.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

Data marketplaces centralized, decentralized or federated are currently very popular for exchanging private/proprietary data in a secure, privacy-aware manner. Dealing with data identification, data ownership, data provenance, data handling in compliance to GDPR, privacy-aware data processing, data valuation, data value sharing among data owners comprise issues to be dealt with in these marketplaces. Multimedia/digital content exchange could also be of relevance in these marketplaces with similar issues, e.g., video streaming exchange.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

DAO is an organization that is represented by rules encoded as a computer program, is transparent, managed by its members, and is not affected by a central government. The financial transaction and program rules of a DAO can be maintained on a Semantic Blockchain. We can think of DAOs as internet-native business model which is collectively owned and controlled by its members. This includes the use of high-quality semantic data (on-chain or off-chain) concerning all aspects of the DAO. They have built-in treasuries to which no one can have access without the group's permission. Proposals and voting are used to make decisions, ensuring that everyone in the company gets a say. Starting an organization with someone that involves funding and money requires a lot of trust. However, it’s hard to trust someone you’ve only ever interacted with on the internet. With DAOs you don’t need to trust anyone else in the group, just the DAO’s code, which is 100% transparent and verifiable by anyone.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

This topic aims to produce tools and services for supporting trusted information exchange at the local level, in communities and small organizations. Many local initiatives spawn at the local level to build and support social cohesion : local currencies support sustainable businesses; online platforms connect people who need help with school support, finding a job, lending tools, avoiding food waste and helping refugees. DLTs and Web3 applications can bring many tools that will help build stronger local organizations: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAO) can support democratic debate and transparent voting in local decisions; local crypto-currencies can support local businesses, fund local projects, track the way public money is being used and create incentives for local good; trusted information sharing, decentralized reputation, Web3 social media platforms can help organized local events and make local data open and traceable.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

The COVID-19 crisis has shown how important distance and innovative learning is for society, our children, their parents and their teachers, maintaining social and educational links under challenging circumstances. Emerging technologies such as virtual reality, eXtended reality or immersive environments provide numerous opportunities for personalised, innovative, efficient and inclusive learning, for learners of all ages, gender and condition. In Xverse applications, people may need to interact in virtual environments with third-party real-world data or avatars, which may be trustworthy or not. For example, remote engineers working on a disaster site with data from the field of interest and interacting with remote/on-site colleagues or remote/on-site workers. Applications that enable metaverse, Xverse interactions and remote working in a trustworthy, privacy-aware and transparent manner are needed.

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.

The B1-B11 examples above are only indicative. Applicants can submit a proposal under any different topics, as long as it serves the overall ONTOCHAIN vision and objectives and fits within the formula Semantic Web + Blockchain. It should use as much as possible existing concepts and technologies of ONTOCHAIN and fit within its vision and objectives. It can be for example in relation with decentralised market places, DeFi and for the healthcare, tourism, agriculture sectors etc. In any case, an attractive Level 7 open source solution, tested and evaluated by an adequate pool of potential users, with a self-sustaining business model to be exploited after the end of the project is expected. The proposed solution will have to use standard technology for full stack development, mechanisms that are already part of ONTOCHAIN services. 

Other specifications can be found under section 1.3.1 of the Guide for Applicants.