Yale University and TCS develop Blockchain powered Private Off-Grid Networking Platform

Tata Consultancy Services and Yale University have now jointly developed Blockchain powered Private Off-Grid Networking Platform.

The new platform intends to address the trust and privacy issues in peer to peer digital networks.

The team plans to enhance the blockchain solutions even further as the current solution does not fully address the issues which are being faced by the individuals and businesses across the time delays increase in costs, middlemen, and trust concerns.

Professor Leandros Tassiulas, Yale University, said, "Existing technologies have forced users to choose between trust and maintaining control over their own data. But this first-of-its-kind platform we’ve created with TCS can establish trust while upholding user control of data. It’s a platform that will enable markets where they weren’t previously possible and give people sovereignty over their own data once again."

Lakshminarasimhan (Lakshmi) Srinivasan, Global Head, Blockchain Services, TCS, said, "We believe that decentralized identity is a compelling use case for blockchain technology, and identity platforms and related solutions are already part of our platform and solution strategy. We are delighted to work with Yale University in proving that use of decentralized technologies can improve security of community networks while preserving individual privacy."

On the framework part, TCS developed the identity component; while on the other hand, Yale University researchers built the core service and integrated the software components required to give it the ability to share data and services via a decentralized ecosystem.

According to the announcement, most blockchain solutions rely on a centralized management system that prevents users from controlling their own data. To address this, TCS and Yale, who have partnered since 2016, collaborated to create a new architecture. The team used the de-centralized storage provided by Hyperledger Fabric and InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) to build the platform.

The partnership also used the two decentralized identity solution tool kits – Hyperledger Indy and Hyperedger Aries. 

The new framework provides the benefits of scalability and identity verification present in traditional blockchain solutions along with the trust and decentralized provided by the public blockchain systems notes the announcement.