Get under the bonnet to understand the mechanics of OpenBrix and how it will work by MD Sadek Ferdous, CTO OpenBrix & UK Cabinet Office Fellow

OpenBrix is the first decentralised and distributed digital property portal in the EMEA and Asian region. The current model of centralised property portals gives too much power to the portal provider, who exploits this to exercise unwanted control over different entities in portal domains, and often creates monopoly or duopoly in the market it operates. Even with these limitations, this property portal market stands at about $100 billion. OpenBrix aims to disrupt the current model by introducing a decentralised and distributed portal which will ensure an equal level of control, distributed to different entities within the network.

Built on the foundation of a smart-contract supported blockchain platform such as Ethereum, OpenBrix will use a utility token called BRIX which will work as the fuel for all of the interactions among different entities in the network. To facilitate different interactions, the OpenBrix architecture (Figure 1) consists of several layers, identity, reputation and transaction layers and different smart-contracts. The Identity Layer will be used for a rigorous KYC (Know Your Customer) verification process for each entity in the network. It will enable the anchoring of the physical identities of entities, with their corresponding virtual identities in the underlying blockchain platform. The Reputation Layer will be responsible for assigning an objective reputation score, based on their interactions, for each actor. This score can be an ideal indicator of the risks associated for interacting with the corresponding actor. The Transaction Layer will facilitate the flow of transactions and utilising BRIX, between different actors to initiate and maintain different interactions among them. Finally, the Smart-contracts will be used to support its decentralised protocol flow.

Figure 1: OpenBrix Platform

The platform needs to be integrated with other external components as illustrated in Figure

2. The OpenBrix DApp (Decentralised Application) interfaces between a web end-point and the smart-contracts of the underlying blockchain platform. A user can either use a web- browser or a mobile app, to interact with the OpenBrix DApp in order to initiate or maintain a transaction in the network. Another crucial component is an external production-ready fault-tolerant distributed database, which will be used to store large volumes of data, in order to avoid any scalability issues or associated cost to store such data in a blockchain. The integrity of such data as well as the interactions of different entities, will be recorded in the blockchain in an immutable and transparent fashion.

Figure 2: OpenBrix with other components

Maintaining the security and privacy of all users in the OpenBrix platform is of highest priority. The platform will be developed with state-of-the-art secure technologies supporting 2FA (Two Factor Authentication) and other relevant technologies. Data stored in the external database will be encrypted to the highest possible standard, and in such a way that it will be only accessible by the respective owner and sharable with the explicit permission and knowledge of its owner.

The transparency of stored data in blockchain comes with the cost of privacy for their respective owner. To mitigate this privacy risk, the OpenBrix platform will store data only within the blockchain in a pseudonymous fashion, to ensure that a blockchain analysis will not reveal any sensitive or unwanted information regarding an actor of the platform to any unauthorised entity.

Let us illustrate how different actors (entities) can utilise the OpenBrix platform to interact with each other, leveraging the platform using two different use-cases. In the first case, Alice is a renter who would like to rent a flat. John is a flat owner who would like his flat to be rented. Both Alice and John register via the OpenBrix web portal or the OpenBrix App. During the registration, they also submit the images or scanned copies of their driving licence, passport or identity card for identity verification. Once verified, both of them are notified. At this point, John pays the membership fee which is agreed upon by the network members. However, Alice does not need to do provide any membership fee as a normal customer. As part of their registration process, both of them also receive a base reputation score to start with.

Following this, John uses the OpenBrix web portal or the OpenBrix App to list his flat in the system. The user-experience will be very similar to the experience that people have while using the current system. However, the simplicity of use does not reflect the underlying processes within the system. As soon as John submits to list his flat, a transaction consisting of different metadata, signed by John’s private key (created during the registration process) is submitted to the network to record his immutable interaction. Most data (e.g. images of the flat) is stored on the fault-tolerant distributed database, however, the core of this data is stored in the blockchain to guarantee its integrity.

Alice has the opportunity to browse through the listed available flats, including John’s. She can check John’s reputation score to implicate the risk associated with John. With the assumption that Alice chooses John’s flat to view, she submits her request which is also then stored via a transaction in the blockchain to ensure non-repudiation. John also has the opportunity to check Alice’s reputation score to implicate the risk associated with Alice. The

viewing arrangement is carried out off-chain and off-platform and henceforth, is not considered here.

After viewing the flat, if Alice chooses to rent the flat, she can initiate the process via the OpenBrix platform using the web portal or the app. They can sign a contract using their corresponding private keys. Alice can utilise the BRIX tokens to pay an advance and on-going rental fees. An additional option could be that Alice needs to provide a certain amount of BRIX to be put in escrow which will essentially act as a deposit. Alice would get back her deposit automatically when the contract ends. In this way, she will not need to rely on a third-party to return her deposit, as is the case in the UK.

With each positive interaction, the reputation score will increase. For example, Alice can increase her renter reputation score by paying the rental fee in advance. This will instil trust on Alice as a renter. John can increase the reputation score by acting benevolently and performing his duties as the flat owner.

If John wishes, he can delegate his tasks to estate agents who are acting on the platform, who would perform their required duties. Based on their performance, they can also build up their reputation score as estate agents. Like before, all the interactions among different actors will be stored in the blockchain in an immutable fashion, providing the accountability and transparency for others. There is no way for a bad actor to cheat and remain unnoticed.

The open nature of the OpenBrix will attract innovations. In particular, we are excited at the possibility of new knowledge being generated from the data created in the OpenBrix platform. This will allow third parties to utilise this data set to create overlay applications. For example, a third-party application could leverage the reputation scores generated in OpenBrix to improve the credit rating of their corresponding users. In contrast to this, such third-party applications could bootstrap better reputation scores, specifically for the newly registered users having base reputation scores, by aggregating credit scores into the platform.

OpenBrix is focused on innovation that is aimed towards disrupting a lucrative niche market. We would like to welcome all to be part of this innovative idea. For further information, please read our whitepaper. Alternatively, reach out to us using our social media channels.