The IoT sector is vast and diverse. This technology shares data constantly in order to operate. This data is then stored on the provider’s servers to improve products or develop user experience. If such a database is centralized, it could be attacked and the data could become compromised. Devices also could be backdoored through a malicious update or receive malicious communications without knowing their validity.

A decentralized protocol for IoT requires a fast and scalable system. IoT has also often been associated with micro-payments, but current systems are cost prohibitive, slow, and centralized.

Unlike current systems, Aleph Zero is fast, highly scalable, secure, decentralized, and allows low-cost value transfer for any size of transaction. Once it is implemented on IoT networks, with an open-sourced community, we can collaboratively contribute to and produce compelling solutions which cater to devices.

Distributed ledger technology will make a global impact across many industries, increasing efficiency and encouraging collaboration across systems in which entities do not have to trust a third party. Smart contracts open the way for developers to create almost any kind of application, for any business. This is why Aleph is committed to their development.

In Aleph, we are creating fast, secure, and Turing complete smart contracts that will scale for applications that require high computing power. This opens a new world of possibilities for systems with complex machine learning components and other high-scale automated services. In the future, it can allow the deployment of trusted and fully autonomous agents. 

It is impossible to predict all of the ways this technology will be used. However, smart contracts running on a decentralized network that provides real-world performance is the best chance of realizing new possibilities.

Supply chain management is extremely complex. The process of creating and distributing goods involves payments, invoices, multiple entities responsible for providing services, and thousands of computational decisions across multiple international locations, and it can cost significant capital and time to be custom tailored. 

Aleph Zero can solve many problems within supply chains. For example, a currency stored on the Aleph Zero protocol could simplify payments and accounting. The full history of production, logistics, and distribution could be added to the Aleph Zero network, creating a consistently synchronized and fast distributed record that can be trusted.

Everyone would be able to track down the product from the shop shelf, to it’s transportation, to the origin of where it was produced. This might incentivize companies to transparently prove they aren’t doing things like testing cosmetics on animals or using child labors for their products. An entity could award certificates by verifying vendors’ activities. 

Additionally, further simplification of supply chains might lead to lower prices of products and improved quality.

Paid extensions and rare items often give a serious advantage to the players who obtain them and can have significant financial value. A theft of such items by hackers lowers the positive gaming experience, reducing trust with in-game purchases.

To prevent such situations, a tokenization system could be created on the basis of the Aleph protocol. It would store the complete history of item ownership and would allow free in-game and out-of-game trading with other cryptocurrencies. A cross-game item exchange could be established to allow players to be able to trade value between the games.

This would broaden the options for players to buy in-game items. Speculation on an item exchange could bring a new forms of rewards for players by exchanging their in-game efforts for other forms of value. For the game developers, it would create new revenue streams, higher engagement, and higher competitiveness. If the game studios will be able to create more value for the players, the whole industry might benefit. Additionally, the tokenization of virtual game assets could bring security and transparency to the gaming industry, especially to multiplayer and casino games, which would also be beneficial for the whole industry for users and developers. 

The decentralization of virtual game assets would have to be based on a platform that would not negatively affect the gaming experience. We see Aleph Zero as the best platform to suit these needs; besides its high speed, scalability, and security, its interoperability would enable players to exchange their assets conveniently.

DNS is what translates domain names into IP addresses. It powers the internet as we know it, and this makes it a potential point of failure. That’s why DNS servers are distributed around the globe, but their decentralization is only technical as most of the servers are maintained by large organizations that are influenced by governments and large companies.

Since DNS providers can monitor internet traffic, they can potentially hijack users’ internet usage, spy on users and companies, or censor the Internet. We have to trust the organizations in control to not perform malicious actions. In this case, we believe it’s better to trust math and have provable decentralization than have these risks.

Aleph Zero can become the foundation for a truly decentralized DNS service built into web browsers. This would become the technological trust layer of the internet. It would not allow maliciously altering the end IP address on the DNS side, and it would not need certificates vouching for websites’ legitimacy or to encrypt the connection, as it would be a standard. The connection information wouldn’t be stored anywhere, improving privacy. It could even speed up the connection, compared to traditional DNS servers.

Under development by Cardinal Cryptography

 

Creating a true universal wallet for cryptocurrencies is one of the major directions of Aleph Zero development.

The problem with many current solutions is that although they are used to store keys for decentralized currencies, they are centralized themselves. This makes them easier to attack or manipulate, and therefore the security of the assets is not guaranteed.

That’s why we propose a truly decentralized wallet – Common Wallet – running on the Aleph Zero protocol that can technically operate with any other cryptocurrency, starting from the most popular Bitcoin and Ether to other less popular ones.

Thanks to Aleph Zero being a DAG, the protocol is mining-free, meaning minimal transaction fees. Its decentralized security brings it to the completely trustless level, while the speed of Aleph let’s you finally transact with Bitcoin in just a few seconds.

This subsequently allows creating decentralized exchanges for high-scale cryptocurrency trading as well.

You can read more about Common on getcommon.com

Blockchain technology is seen as a way to simplify many legal processes – such as buying and selling real estate, applying for and receiving a loan, or holding stocks and bonds.

Today, to buy a home – anywhere in the world – apart from the transaction, the buyer and seller need to take care of title management, which involves hiring lawyers and brokers, finding insurance, and so forth. The paperwork complicates the process, but on the other hand, this is the only way to perform these massive transactions while not completely trusting the other party.

Getting a loan for buying a house complicates the process even more. It involves providing documents that could stand as a proof that the one applying is able to return the loan and for what amount. 

For stocks and bonds, there might be a need for accreditation, but it also involves receiving dividends and transferring the assets if needed.

Ultimately, looking at these processes on a higher scale, and having a centralized entities to validate the transactions and proofs, exposes the major inefficiency of the current setting. The processes take too many steps and involve too many people for what should be a simple exchange of value.

That’s why a decentralized platform like Aleph Zero can make asset exchange and transaction validation much more efficient. It brings security and speed to the process, but at the same time, its smart contracts can be used in the form of “code as law”. Therefore, a lot of the paperwork can be completely automated, simplifying the transactions to just “You give me the money – I give you the asset,” with a guarantee that everything runs as it should and there’s no possibility for manipulation.

But there are still challenges that need to be solved – connecting the real world exchange to the “digital paperwork” done by smart contracts. In this case, there still might be some need for a trusted entity to supervise the processes, but we believe this field can also be revolutionized.

In the current system, a notary is responsible for witnessing that the sides are willing to sign an agreement with their own will, while being conscious, of sound mind, and so forth. That’s why it’s still necessary to visit a notary public in order to transfer a title, declare power of attorney, and perform other similar activities.

However, with the technology we already have, it can be done 100% online with a simple video call that would be recorded on a secure, decentralized ledger and stored there as a file, together with the information about the transaction and the identities of the people involved. It could be then accessed at any point in time if any doubt occurs.

Such a solution could eventually replace the need for notary publics, but before it can be achieved, the new system would have to ensure that the transaction and the parties involved are honest. This is a complex problem that could be solved by utilizing Aleph Zero, Image Recognition, AI, and other means.

Government transparency that enables trust and accountability is one of the pillars of democracy. Such transparency allows media, independent auditors, and regular people to assess the government’s actions and, before they are assessed, to discover them. Although some bad actors might hide parts of their activity for political or financial gains, every time such manipulation is disclosed, trust in the government falls rapidly. 

The same issues happen too often in business, as well. Dieselgate was one of the most recent examples of such activity. Volkswagen intentionally cheated on laboratory emissions test and distributed millions of vehicles that far surpassed the limits outlined in the Clear Air Act. When it was exposed, the manufacturer lost trust and had to pay enormous fines. Such activities are usually exposed at some point in time.

In a world where trust is highly valuable, losing it can end up with major revolutions, both in governments and businesses. After all, that’s why blockchain emerged. DLTs could impact this area heavily by replacing trust with secure, decentralized platforms.

For example, copyright and patent claims could be easily assessed by data timestamps that can’t be altered. It’s one of the simplest features of DLT and some entities are already using it. A general transparency might not be suitable for all cases – for example, national security. But there are many areas which might benefit from total or partial transparency.

The Aleph Zero network can be both a public and a private ledger. Therefore, the public network can work as a hub and is suitable for holding the data that can and should be accessible by the general public. Some private chains (the “spokes,” as we call them) connected to the public record can enhance the security of other aspects of governing while still operating internally, with access control.

Using Aleph Zero on a public layer can improve efficiency in many areas of governing and business and improve the communication of the two with citizens. Besides the obvious benefit that a decentralized ledger can reduce the amount of paperwork and compliance, it can also bring innovations like algorithmic laws that would be sufficient for emerging technologies, rather than putting them into grey areas as often happens now.

Unless the trust aspect can be handed over to decentralized technology like Aleph Zero, we will continue to witness trust crises for governments and businesses. Only with broadly implemented open data access policies (where needed), we can innovate and legislate faster to grow the global economy.

Tax payments are fuelling the economy on many levels, but for an average person, they are neither transparent enough nor easy to understand if they have to calculate them themselves. Making a mistake in this area can be very costly, as many have unfortunately discovered.

This is why there is a strong need to simplify and automate this area. At the World Economic Forum in Davos in 2016, 800 attendees took part in a poll on blockchain-based taxes, and 73% of respondents expected that the most developed countries will create blockchain-based tax systems by 2023-2025. It’s no longer an ‘if’. The government of Estonia has already enabled their e-residents to pay taxes online with their decentralized solution.

Such a system requires a major infrastructure revolution. Just as in Estonia, it would require the provision of a digital layer to the citizens’ identities, to know who or what entity is paying the tax, and then have the record of the amount that needs to be paid or that has been paid automatically.

A centralized solution would – most probably – be insufficient. Such a centralized database can be a desired target of hackers, who after breaching the security, could steal identities, create fake ones, or extract information about the incomes of individuals, along with their identities and addresses. A decentralized solution would be much more secure.

With Aleph Zero, the room for tax optimization can still be preserved but the security risk eliminated. With all transactions held on Aleph Zero, and a public ledger and smart contracts enabled on the platform, taxes could be calculated and charged automatically and always correctly.  Automatic tax payments could also make cross-border VAT settlements seamless, and with a broad implementation, it could even completely remove the need for accounting, or at least for issuing invoices.

With its scalability, speed, security, and interoperability, Aleph Zero is an ideal solution for creating such an innovative and efficient worldwide-adopted ecosystem.

Data collection has become one of the biggest trends in almost any industry. So-called Big Data is what many business people see as the basis to make well-informed decisions.

The problem is that such big databases are constantly growing in size, collecting lots of data. This leads to overcomplication and makes retrieving actionable insights from the data extremely difficult and time consuming, which makes managing the database inefficient.

Current centralized solutions are fast, and if speed is the priority, no blockchain solution has developed a good alternative, although Aleph is capable of offering similar UX and speed. The centralized databases are permissioned, which usually supports business needs, but require database administrators and other maintenance costs to keep them running. Centralization also means that the system may have a single point of failure, or be the single point of failure.

Not every database should be redesigned as distributed ledger, but migrating them to Aleph Zero could bring much benefit to their owners. A decentralized ledger located on servers in multiple geographic locations is more difficult for cyberterrorists to attack. Additionally, there is no need to consider everything “decentralized” as “public”. Aleph is able to run in public or private environments, using the best of these two worlds, while its interoperability allows for a seamless integration of businesses operating on different types of blockchain.

This might bring a great advantage to business partners. A group of companies could share some parts of the Aleph Zero database, gaining efficiency and transparency in their operations. In this setting, the companies wouldn’t have to trust each other, and could make better decisions, possibly speeding up their growth. 

Blockchain databases are considered inefficient also due to their transaction and mining fees, but as Aleph is completely mining-free, it could lay the foundation for minimal-fee decentralized databases.

Ultimately, Aleph can create a completely new ecosystem that allows businesses to cooperate in new ways, for transparency and higher profits of all sides.

As Bitcoin is becoming an increasingly valid currency to the general public, it – or any other cryptocurrency that could take its place in the future – could be used to do automatic payments with a set of smart contracts. 

Of course this is nothing new, and we are used to it with bank accounts and credit cards – and that’s why we have a particular interest in using cryptocurrencies as a development of shared revenue agreements. Revenue sharing models involve taking part in operating profits – or losses – among associated financial actors. This requires the participants to be clear about how the revenue is collected, measured, and distributed. The events that trigger revenue sharing, such as online sales or advertising interactions, and the methods of calculation are not always transparent to everyone involved. Currently, the solution lies in detailed descriptions of the methodology written in the contracts, and the parties in these processes are subject to audits for accuracy assurance.

Aleph Zero could bring transparency and efficiency to revenue sharing models, removing the need for trust or audits. It could simplify the agreements. The parties involved, after discussing the aspects of their cooperation, could use a simple UI that would allow them to create smart contracts for their own purposes. They could generate such a contract for a given period of time and from that point, they would be able to receive mutual benefits without unnecessary additional work.

Although many blockchain enthusiasts see this technology as the ultimate cure for almost any problem, and many projects would like to see their protocols as having the potential to be used in any case, we prefer to think about the use cases of Aleph Zero reasonably.

Distributed ledger technologies have many advantages over centralized solutions – they are much more secure and can speed up or automate many processes and paperwork. They have the potential to further shift the economy, bringing back honesty and transparency to businesses and governments. And a permissionless distributed ledger with minimal to no fees such as Aleph Zero is promising for securing IoT networks. 

In some cases, however, a centralized systems can be faster themselves. If there’s not much data to process, decentralizing the architecture just complicates operations. We have also heard concerns from enterprises about their need to keep some data private as it is their competitive advantage that can be worth billions.

That’s why we designed Aleph Zero to enable enterprises to use many different solutions that suit various needs but placing Aleph as the interoperating hub, combining these blockchains into one ecosystem. This way, both private and public ledgers could be created to suit more needs. As much as we’d love to say that Aleph is the perfect solution for any use case, we also believe the use of DLT in projects should be well analyzed and tested before their adoption and utilization, and fortunately Aleph does indeed apply to a high number of use cases, offering many opportunities to take advantage of its novel algorithm and technology.