What is the Community Attestation Protocol?

To extend the opportunity for the community at large to be involved in the supply chain of data, we have also developed the Community Attestation protocol.

The Community Attestation protocol is an added layer of community-wide scrutiny and validation of any data on the blockchain. The decision of the Attestation does not override the fact that a state update has been made successfully via the multisig protocol. The data update is stored on the blockchain through the multisig protocol; the community attestation process adds a layer of qualification.

The mechanisms explained

Community Attestation is an application in applied game theory / mechanism design.

For the present version, we have applied a simple Schelling-inspired approach to incentivising the convergence on a ‘common truth’ from a group of strangers.

The mechanism is straightforward:

1. Data state update proposers submit the data update to a Community Attestation, and pay a Proposal Fee. Note that the proposal can include what we generally call ‘evidence files’ (more on this below);

2. Any member of the network can participate in the Community Attestation. To do so, they pay an Attestation Fee when they submit their vote. The vote options are binary: affirm / reject.

3. The Attestation process is open for a fixed duration of time. This is presently hard-coded for 24 hours.

4. At the conclusion of the Attestation period, the Attestation Pool (the Proposal Fee + Attestation Fee) are distributed as follows:

5. Attesters in the majority = their own Attestation Fee + a pro rata distribution of 75% of the Proposal Fee + 100% of Attestation Fees of those that voted with the minority; and

6. BeefLedger 25% of the Proposal Fee.

All network fees and payments are made in $BEEF tokens.

Votes are secret. Network members cannot see who voted which way.

How can the community submit evidence around data validity?

Attestation is a public good, as a common basis of valid data is required by all network participants as a basis upon which they go about their business in the supply chain and with others.

Enabling proposers to submit ‘evidence files’ is an important part of the process. Here, ‘evidence files’ would typically be application documents or photographs / videos of events. We encourage proposers to submit ‘evidence files’ that are human-centric, meaning that the evidence is readily meaningful to other members of the network.

This approach to data state validation opens up many areas for further research and development. For example, we will continue to explore the relative benefits / costs trade-off between these two processes. Additionally, we are mindful of the importance of additive learnings or experiences emerging from different agents utilising various processes, and how these may be rendered as ‘value’ over time. In particular, we are cognisant of the role of earned reputations, not to mention ‘referred’ reputations, in social information systems.