by Rebecca Johnson | 27 October 2021 | Autonomous Agents, Blockchain, Featured, MOBIX, SSI
In this blog post, we look at the potential of service automation through autonomous economic agents in Blockchain-based systems. Datarella’s partner Fetch.ai has made it their mission to combine intelligent agents with blockchain technology in several use cases. Deep Parking is one of them, and using a specific example from MOBIX here you can get a feel for the potential of autonomous agents.
The path to the fourth industrial age is being paved by the interplay of Big Data-driven automation, robotics, IoT and Distributed Ledger Technologies, aka Blockchain. Given the increasing amount of data, and the number of digital services that go hand in hand with this progress, the need to automate them is also growing. Users should be relieved of unnecessary work and offered optimal results.
Agents take on the role of autonomously performing tasks on behalf of their clients (individuals or objects). For this purpose, they can also interact with each other. Intelligent agents can make complex decisions by using ML, i.e. AI-powered algorithms, based on large amounts of data.
A blockchain, with its data supply, offers a particularly favourable environment for intelligent agents. The data of a blockchain are permanently available and are logically related to each other. Decentralisation can offer robustness (no single point of failure) and lower transaction costs. Agents can assume a fully autonomous identity on a blockchain through private keys. They can use it to authenticate themselves and communicate their suitability for certain tasks. Agents can use shared protocols (possibly through smart contracts) to coordinate, collaborate efficiently, e.g. by distributing complex tasks among themselves. They can negotiate and make distributed decisions (even though voting processes use their blockchain). Tasks, goals or motives of agents can be recorded in the blockchain and economic incentives can be set for optimal task performance.
With regard to the IoT, a blockchain (as a single point of truth) can integrate various sub-systems, s.a. smart household appliances, smart buildings, smart districts and smart cities, and create added value for all agents participating in the network. Fetch.ai is an example of how intelligent agents can realize automated services based on blockchain technology.
Among the use cases of Fetch.ai, we would like to highlight agents for mobility services – traffic sign agents, parking agents for Deep Parking, agents for eMobility, agents for trains and stations that could even form a decentralised train network. In the process, increasingly intelligent autonomous agents interact on behalf of people or infrastructure, searching for each other, negotiating with each other in the interest of offering their users optimal solutions. In such a case, an autonomous agent of a car could, on behalf of its owner, seek and negotiate with agents working on behalf of parking lots to navigate the car and its owner to a quick and cheap place to park. With Deep Parking at the IAA in Munich 2021, the potential of agents for such use cases becomes clear.
There it was demonstrated how agents negotiate their resources on behalf of vehicles, their owners and the infrastructure to find an optimal solution for everyone without further efforts for the users. The following graphics show an excerpt from the exemplary communication between the agents involved.
In this case, a user named Jane is looking for available parking space in the city centre. Without Jane having to do this herself, the agent in her car (My Agent (Car)) looks for another agent who offers a parking space via a specific (agent-)network (SOEF). Using Blockchain technology, agents handle authentication, price negotiation, reservation and even payment, autonomously according to their client’s preferences. When Jane approaches the parking lot, access is automatically granted to her car without further ado.
As shown, the scope of tasks autonomous agents can perform and the added value they can contribute is without limits. So, by using autonomous agents, the potential of Blockchain technology can be leveraged for all use cases where handling of huge amounts of data in real-time or near-time is needed.
by Michael Reuter | 16 April 2021 | Blockchain
Datarella is joining forces with Ocean Protocol to expand the Open Data Economy. moveID, our first project will be under the umbrella of GAIA-X, the European Association for Data & Cloud, as part of the GAIA-X 4 Future Mobility Project, which aims at bringing cloud applications to autonomous & networked vehicles.
The project’s overall goal will be the creation of a decentralized ecosystem of data & services that allows autonomous & networked vehicles to integrate into smart infrastructures and third-party services, following GAIA-X’s design principles. With mutual trust as its core concept, its stated goal will be achieving data sovereignty.
For Datarella, technology is an instrument to increase the quality of living, by supporting human beings in all kinds of professional and private activities. The growing complexity and diversity of our ecosystem require technological infrastructures that facilitate collaboration and cooperation. By planning, developing and implementing blockchain solutions worldwide, Datarella meets this requirement: in the fields of Finance, Supply Chain, and Mobility, we enable industry participants to join forces and create sustainable, crisis-proof business models. GAIA-X is the perfect environment for true collaboration. – Michael Reuter, CEO of Datarella
Data generated by network actors or Autonomous Economic Agents (AEAs) in the ecosystem can be useful to 3rd parties, and thus has value as an asset. Ocean Market unlocks the value of these by enabling every authenticated user to put their data up for sale and to monetize it. Vehicle data, for example, could be (re)used for traffic analysis for the generation of better traffic models such as optimized traffic light switching.
Different market actors will price data differently, depending on the method of data generation, data quality, and its utility to the potential buyer. Ocean Market allows for dynamic pricing and thus for optimal value generation for data generators and data curators, in a privacy-preserving manner.
This project will use Datarella’s Enterprise Blockchain Solutions, which serve as the foundational, underlying protocol for digital business transformation with converging technologies such as AI and autonomous machines. Datarella’s future mobility solutions are fueled by blockchain technology, real-time decentralized data management, transparency and GDPR compliance. Given the natural synergies between Ocean and Datarella, this partnership is the first of many that will drive enterprise adoption of Ocean Protocol technology in Datarella’s client base.
Our mission is for data to be treated as an asset. By tapping into underutilized data from mobility IoT sensors, AI can uncover mobility patterns and optimize services / reduce waste. Machines can speak to each other and algorithms can make optimizations – all in real-time. Ocean can tokenize mobility data from devices, thereby creating an opportunity for these tokens to be used as instruments in DeFi projects. This is one of the many ways in which we enable data owners to share in the value their data creates. – Razvan Olteanu, COO of Ocean Protocol
Ocean Protocol is a Day 1 Member of GAIA-X Association AISBL, an international non-profit organisation established to achieve the GAIA-X project goals for the development of an efficient, competitive, secure and trustworthy federation of data infrastructure and service providers for Europe – fostering digital sovereignty of European cloud service users.
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About Ocean Protocol
Ocean Protocol’s mission is to kickstart a Web3 Data Economy that reaches the world, giving power back to data owners and enabling people to capture value from data to better our world. Data is a new asset class; Ocean Protocol unlocks its value. Data owners and consumers use the Ocean Market app to publish, discover, and consume data assets in a secure, privacy-preserving fashion. Ocean datatokens turn data into data assets. This enables data wallets, data exchanges, and data co-ops by leveraging crypto wallets, exchanges, and other DeFi tools. Projects use Ocean libraries and OCEAN in their own apps to help drive the Web3 Data Economy. The Ocean token is used to stake on data, to govern Ocean Protocol’s community funding, and to buy & sell data. Its supply is disbursed over time to drive near-term growth and long-term sustainability. OCEAN is designed to increase with a rise in usage volume.
