Up to this point, dock.io has been presented as a protocol for professional networking platforms. However, the power of dock.io is not limited to just these types of services.

Because it is a decentralized protocol, any platform that wants to utilize dock.io will be able to. Yes, that means professional networking platforms. But it can also include social media services such as Facebook or Twitter. And if you are a user who values their privacy, this is something you would most definitely want. Here’s why:

Project Veritas has recently published a video that claims Twitter has approximately 300–400 workers who read the supposedly private Direct Messages of its users.

However, Twitter has come out to deny these allegations as factually incorrect:

“A limited number of employees have access to such information, for legitimate work purposes, and we enforce strict access protocols for those employees.” -Buzzfeed News

Whether or not the video was fabricated, this “Twitter Scandal” points to a larger inherent problem with centralized user platforms: Trust. There is no way of verifying that Twitter employees are not reading these supposedly private messages outside of hiring an independent auditor.

This problem clearly demonstrates a need for social networking platforms that emphasize the privacy of its users. But creating a whole new company to compete against a juggernaut like Twitter is a daunting task. This is why dock.io seeks to work alongside by offering its decentralized protocol instead of trying to compete against them.

Encrypted Data on IPFS

If Twitter were to utilize dock.io’s protocol, your information would be private and protected because:

Dock.io encrypts all information including Direct Messages. It hosts the data on InterPlanetary File System (IPFS), a distributed web network, rather than a centralized server like AWS. Specific user information (such as name and work history) will be hashed and permanently stored on Ether’s blockchain. This information can be decrypted through a private key that only you control.

In this way, you as a user would be able to rest assured that your privacy would be protected. Even if centralized platforms like Twitter had access to your Direct Messages, they wouldn’t be able to read it because it would be encrypted.

A Decentralized Identity Marketplace

Another way the dock.io protocol could be utilized is by building a decentralized identity marketplace. To be clear, users will not be able to sell their data through dock.io. However, you could build a platform on top of the protocol which allows you to do so. In fact, this very idea is the brain child of Justin Musterman, a dock.io community member. He describes his vision for his business below:

“For years, a shadowy underworld that monetizes identity has existed. Individuals and companies spend considerable time and money gathering disparate sources of consumer and business identity data.

Purveyors use techniques such as scraping, browser extensions, and social plugins to gather bits and pieces of data. These chunks are assembled into a messy blob, then segmented and sold, resold, and used. Each purveyor making a tidy profit along that way.

But what about the consumer? They receive no monetary benefit and very little benefit in terms of experience.

As data privacy laws such as GDPR come online, the incentive for data buyers to pay a fair price has arisen. A dock.io powered marketplace provides a scaled, transparent mechanism for doing so.”

Conclusion

Utilizing dock.io for social media platforms and decentralized identity marketplaces are just two more examples of how our protocol can be applied. This means that the long term scope of dock.io is much greater than just the field of professional networking. It’s scope is to work hand-in-hand with any and all platforms that choose to use its services to allow the porting of information in an easy, private, and secure manner. In this way, dock.io seeks not to replace but complement future and existing businesses by facilitating innovation through the incentivized sharing of user data.