#	Pagina
attuale pagina	/open-h2020/projects/206387/results.html

Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - DECODE (Decentralised Citizens Owned Data Ecosystem)

Teaser

Summary

The DECODE project will develop practical alternatives, through the creation, evaluation and demonstration of a distributed and open architecture for managing online access and aggregation of private information to allow a citizen-friendly and privacy-aware governance of access entitlements. Strong ethical and digital rights principles are at the base of DECODEâ€™s mission, moving towards the implementation of open standards for a technical architecture resting on the use of Attribute Based Cryptography, distributed ledgers, a secure operating system and a privacy focused smart rules language.

In DECODE, entitlements attached to private data will be searchable in the public domain but will grant access only to those parties that have the entitlement to access it. This novel concept of data rights and entitlements also applies to data being sent to or consumed by connected IoT objects in order to perform actions on the real world, allowing citizens to manage and control their devices and the data they generate. DECODE enables participants to choose who they share their data with and what data is being shared with the recipient. By helping citizens regain control of their data, we aspire to generate public value rather than private profit. Our goal is to create â€œdata commonsâ€ from data produced by people, sensors, and devices. A data commons is a shared resource that enables citizens to contribute, access and use the data as a common good, without intellectual property rights restrictions.

DECODE main outcomes will be tested and scaled in 4 integrated pilots in Barcelona and Amsterdam. The pilots will involve real-use communities of citizens and will ensure that new technological tools are field-tested with a large community of developers and users that will engage with the project through a programme of challenges, meetups and hackathons.

Work performed

WP1 has brought together the technical partners through a strong collaborative process to arrive at the baseline architecture and design for the DECODE implementation. This has been done following an Agile methodology that is focused on real use cases that express concrete usersâ€™ needs and stories. This means that the technical architecture of DECODE is strongly coupled with the social requirements gathered.

In the WP2 in order to promote commons-based models that respect digital sovereignty of citizens, and to do so from a multidisciplinary perspective, we conducted an in-depht investigation of the data economy and data platforms. It has been also provided an economic regulatory analysis of the dominant, centralized and monopolistic economic models of data-driven platforms. Moreover, it has been then provided an overall framework of democratic qualities of commons oriented sharing economy models.

The efforts in the WP3 are being devoted to combine the privacy enhancing features of Attribute Based Cryptography with the autonomy that comes from using a distributed system. It has been set decode tools to enable users to define the entitlement policy regarding the access and control of their data using applied cryptography, and to manage it through a decentralised blockchain infrastructure. Many of the components envisioned to achieve this goal such as ABC, zenroom, etc; have been already developed.

The WP4 has been focused on completing the software development work that goes down to the level of the operating system and further to the hardware boxes deployed. It has carefully profiled hardware solutions that satisfy all requirements emerged in the course of the research. It has been integrated the components developed in the overall DECODE architecture. Besides, it has been developed a graphical interface design.

During this first period, in WP5 has explored, designed and decided on value propositions. An extensive liaising has taken place between tech partners and local communities to inform DECODE architecture. In both Barcelona and Amsterdam there are engaged communities that started the pilot process. Moreover, numerous user journeys, mock-ups, architectures have been developed for each pilot with the aim to facilitate mutual understanding, inform architectural decisions and enable decision making on scope and implementation.

In WP6 has been developed a dissemination strategy and communications plan for the project. It has been also created new website and strong project visual identity for the project. Co-creation framework, methodologies and templates, which provide tools and guidance for the consortium. Report on ecosystem bootstrapping activities, which details how DECODE will engage with relevant communities.

In WP7 has been maintained a high level of project management with respect to delivery the objectives and reports on time and at the highest quality. The consortium structure and specific roles were set out at the start of the project to facilitate this. Organisation of the kickoff meeting, two Technical Symposium and the first General Assembly enabled partners create an overview of the project and a shared structure. Moreover, the consortium maintains regular contact through online tools. During this first period an Interim report was produced to monitor the financial and the technical progress.

Final results

\"Developers, social entrepreneurs, crypto experts should be able to plug into the DECODE platforms and use its modules, protocols and languages to develop new applications, making sure that data rights of citizens are protected. In order to achieve that,it is being developed the following technology:

- It has been created a new distributed ledger technology \"\"Chainspace\"\". It provides for high scalability and integration with cryptographically secured Smart Contracts. The ledger is currently deployable in a test configuration, and in the future will be deployed dynamically and automatically.
- Smart Contracts were delivered with an initial implementation in python using a novel ABC scheme, \"\"Coconut protocol\"\". This contract has already been implemented for the Data Commons Pilot and it will be included in the next pilots too.
- DECODE Nodes that serve as the basis for the DECODE network incorporate several significant innovations, such as DECODE OS, ARM-Based Arduino boards and Tor-dam. The nodes have already been deployed by some Consortium partners.
- It has been created a mobile application which is the citizenâ€™s main point of entry to the DECODE universe. The DECODE Wallet App is currently configured to support the Data Commons pilot. A final step will be to describe the vision of how this application can later be expanded for any future development.
- Zenroom is a customised virtual environment to allow DECODE application to be developed, run and deployed in a wide range of contexts. It executes sophisticated cryptographical methods with minimal resource utilisation. It will be integrated into the Wallet App, and expanded for an even better developer experience.

DECODEâ€™s research has developed important new knowledge in how digital platforms operate and how decentralised and privacy-enhancing alternatives should look like. On the economic side, we have conducted a detailed analysis of the economic models behind well-known internet platforms, and an analysis of how power and decision making can be more equally distributed through different governance approaches. Our research has had an impact in interactions both with the academic world, with civil society, businesses, and policy makers.\"