ABOUT THE PROJECT
GraphChain – a framework for on-chain data management for ONTOCHAIN
GraphChain - a framework for on-chain data management for Ontochain addresses the basic technological proposition for the Ontochain project, i.e., the synergy between ontologies and the Blockchain mechanisms. Assuming the synergy between Blockchain and semantic technologies is of high importance for all high-level goals of the project, we address a foundational technological challenge for Ontochain: storing on-chain data in native semantic formats.
Semantic data stored on the Ontochain must conform to the fundamental rules of data integrity, confirmability, non-repudiation, and high availability. Storing and making available essential ontologies, managing data related to users' identification and authorization, data for reputation systems, or data used by Knowledge Graphs, must be fully decentralized. The data must be available across the entire network, without the degradation of performance or universality of search, the data use, or presentation. In our project, we propose extending the scope of graph data formats traditionally used in semantic technologies and investigating and prototype a solution that can adapt the newest graph database formats, i.e., the Property Graphs formats. This approach is forward-looking also from the perspective of the forthcoming GQL (Graphical Query Language) perspective.
This project avoids a simplified approach that assumes serialization of semantic data and then storing them in blocks of Blockchain. We believe that any such approach is not sufficient from on-chain data management perspective – particularly from the data querying and its availability for on-chain reasoning, human-oriented presentation, and smart-contracts standpoints. In our opinion, any design that assumes on-the-fly extraction of binary blobs from the chain and then their deserialization will not meet the high-performance perspective. Graphchain proposes a radically different approach – instead of encapsulating the semantic data into Blockchain blocks, we propose to design and implement the Blockchain mechanisms on top of semantic data.
Motivation for the project:
Because the synergy between Blockchain and semantic technologies is of high importance for all high-level goals of the trusted knowledge representation. We address a foundational technological challenge of Ontochain: storage the on-chain data in native semantic formats.
Generic use case description:
The generic use of our technology is the trusted, irrefutable, confirmable, and highly available dissemination of knowledge represented by semantic ontologies and Knowledge Graphs.
Essential functionalities:
- Hashing of subgraphs for the on-chain graph structures.
- Procedural smart contracts with access to the on-chain semantic data
- Identification, authorization and data provenance for the on-chain data
- Sharding mechanisms and strategies
How these functionalities can be integrated within the software ecosystem:
The whole idea of Graphchain is adding a new level of trust without sacrificing availability, queryability and performance of graph databases so the solution can be integrated in any software ecosystem that uses traditional LPG databases.
Gap being addressed:
The synergy between ontologies and the Blockchain mechanisms. The data must be available across the entire network, without the degradation of performance or universality of search, the data use, or presentation.
Expected benefits achieved with the novel technology building blocks:
The development of Graphchain for Ontochain will have considerable industrial impact, as it will open the path to the much wider use of semantic data formats on the Blockchain. Adding the Blockchain features to a knowledge graph, increases its users' trust in the veracity of data.
Potential demonstration scenario:
Decentralized ontology repository with versioning, smart-contract use of graph data and role-based authorized access.
PROJECT OUTCOMES
Demo:
TESTIMONIAL
Participation in the ONTOCHAIN project has greatly enhanced our flagship project, Graphchain, on both technology and application levels. We have rebuilt our entire project around third-generation Ethereum blockchains, heavily using Layer 2 concepts. On the application level, we have discovered new uses in copyright protection, e-commerce, and digital identity. ONTOCHAIN project offered an absolutely unique opportunity for making our ideas real.
- Dr Mirek Sopek, MakoLab CTO
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 957338
