A Public Distributed Infrastructure

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The baseline where GLASS components are built is the Peer to Peer (P2P) network architecture. A number of participants (nodes) that join in an open network, have equal functionalities, equally share the computational workload of the services without a central management authority among them. GLASS aims to combine the functionalities of an unstructured P2P network (IPFS) and a distributed ledger into a single framework.

InterPlanetary File System (IPFS)

IPFS includes a public governance model and a distributed public file storage network under the same umbrella. By establishing IPFS as the backbone file storage of the GLASS model, we provide a novel file storage and sharing internal policy, where the files, the information and the generated building blocks of the network are given a unique fingerprint, called the cryptographic hash. IPFS gives the opportunity to users to search files and documents by its content, instead of the traditional approach where the documents are searched by the location of the server. A major advantage of this distributed approach is that it enables functionalities such as downloading files directly from network’s nodes which are not centrally managed by one organization.

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Distributed Ledger

The distributed ledger will support the open source, scalable and distributed nature of the network, providing complementary functionalities and benefits to the IPFS. Ledgers can only be built on P2P decentralized or distributed architectures, thus making it the most suitable mechanism to support our public infrastructure, by ensuring the integrity and validity of all the transactions. The back-end module of the validation ledger technology will use an energy-efficient consensus protocol. It will be custom designed to match the authenticated data sharing needs of the project (deployed on GLASS’ P2P network) under the same nodes which host the IPFS protocols, presenting a hybrid distributed and decentralized public infrastructure. The consensus protocol will define the sequence on which the nodes will validate the transactions, thus the time/speed that the network reaches consensus.

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Single Sign-on Wallet as a Service (WaaS) 

GLASS proposes a multifunctional single sign-on wallet that will provide users with the ability to gather their personal documentation eg. digital ID, digital passport, validated birth certificates, validated marriage certificate, etc. In general terms, the single sign-on wallet as a platform will manage users' transactions from interactions with multiple services delivered through dedicated Distributed Applications which are hosted under GLASS’ ecosystem, designed by public authorities and private organizations designed to meet the specific needs of citizens. The wallet offers citizens permission to decide what information to share, with whom and when.

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GLASS’ Wallet as a Service transforms the day-to-day internal protocols of public bodies as well as their daily interaction patterns with large numbers of citizens who request their public services, enabling a two-way digital interaction path, without central authorities, making citizens owners of their personal data.

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Distributed Application (DAPP) Ecosystem

The ecosystem of DAPPs, libraries, files, reusable smart contracts, piece of software, etc. will be designed, developed and deployed by the GLASS stakeholders. DAPPs are basically pieces of software that run on a distributed protocol. Because of the distributed architecture of the network, DAPPs share the burden of the computational load for their services with multiple nodes, thus providing a continuum of service without a central point of failure. Compared to centralised applications, DAPPs are more reliable, in terms of scalability and security.

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Artificial Intelligence Data Schema Transformer

There is a need for high interoperability of all involved in the eGovernance model systems, in order to create a multidimensional, hybrid architecture that can be adaptive to the specific needs of public administrations. Since the different types of information to be exchanged are not determined a-priori, the definitions of the semantics have to change dynamically.