NG-SC
NG-SC is a protocol that focuses on providing user privacy while incentifying users to share existing sensor data. A decentralized market is put in place to provide financial incentives for users contributing existing data in order to avoid the high infrastructural investments commonly needed to operate a smart city.
- Motivation for the project: Sensor data is ubiqutous but many times redundant. We continously add new devices, which operate in silos due to technical and privacy reasons. However, a sharing economy paradigm is possible if sharing is incentvised. NG-SC develops privacy preserving protocols coupled with a sustainable economic model that adds value to data from existing devices in a privacy preserving way. The protocol is device agnostic and adds considrable value to the TrustChain ecosystem where it can be used as a general purpose data sharing protocol.
- Generic use case description: NG-SC’s goal is to provide smart cities with an alterantive to the commonly required sensor/IoT infrastructure. A simplistic example is commonly installed GPS sensors in public transportation (i.e. Buses), that offer better scheduling to the public. However, would be redundant if the driver or passengers simply shared their phone’s GPS. If only there was a reward for that.
- Essential functionalities: - Decentralized privacy preserving computation - Protocol level incentives for sharing device data - Reduces CaPex for adopting smart city projects
- How these functionalities can be integrated within the software ecosystem: The protocol can be used on any compatible device both joining the public network as well setting up a private one. On the data layer, a set of smart contracts allow easy integration to any data provider or processing service.
- Gap being addressed: NG-SC addresses the lack of privacy in existing data sharing protocols by shifting the common paradigm. Instead of migrating data to a central server for processing, the protocol migrates computation to the devices. This guarantees the highest level of data privacy since data never leaves the device.
- Expected benefits achieved with the novel technology building blocks: We expect our smaller cities which frequently lack the necceasry funding neccasary to develop smart city infrastructure to join the protocol by developing programs for their inhabitants incentifying them to join their IoT devices in their network and provide an infrastcuture (from the public) for fruitful application development (for the public).
- Potential demonstration scenario: tbd
Team
Aleksandar Tošić
Researcher at the InnoRenew CoE, and assistant profesor at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, of the University of Primorska
Niki Hrovatin
Researcher at the InnoRenew CoE, and assistant profesor at the Faculty of Mathematics, Natural Sciences and Information Technologies, of the University of Primorska
Mihael Berčič
Technician
Entities
InnoRenew CoE
InnoRenew CoE is an independent research institute established in 2017 through the InnoRenew project. Research targets renewable materials and sustainable buildings, specifically innovative approaches to wood and its use, with the goal of transferring scientific knowledge into industrial practice. InnoRenew CoE’s international, interdisciplinary team of scientists and professionals is available for independent consultation, project work or Living Lab InnoRenew collaboration.
Website: https://innorenew.eu/
