Notarizing Professional History With Blockchain Technology

One of the significant problems with privatized professional networking platforms is that you don’t have control over your data. Therefore, you can’t transfer the professional history and reputational value that you’ve built on one platform to another.

For some, transferring data is simply a tedious and annoying process. But for others, this can be quite debilitating professionally as employers may not know you come highly regarded in your field because of your newly created account.

Dock.io plans to address this problem by utilizing Ether’s public blockchain to notarize a person’s work history and reputation through a new blockchain technology called Chainpoint.

What is Chainpoint?

Chainpoint links a hash of your data to a blockchain and returns a timestamp proof. A Chainpoint service receives hashes which are aggregated together using a Merkle tree. The root of this tree is anchored in the Bitcoin and Ethereum blockchains. -chainpoint.org

In order to understand chainpoint, let’s briefly talk about what a hash is. A hash is created when you take data and then apply a mathematical function to it to create a seemingly random string of alphanumeric numbers.

One unique characteristic of hashes is that they are unidirectional. This means if you have the data used to create the hash, then you will always be able to reproduce the same exact alphanumeric numbers over and over again.

For example:

Let’s say your data is “A”

You then apply a mathematical algorithm to “A”

You now have the hash= “H”

Now you can always get “H” if you have “A.”

But it is nearly impossible to get “A” if you have “H.”

Chainpoint will leave these hashes on the public blockchain which can then be later verified without having to rely on a third party to validate the information.

However, blockspace is valuable in blockchains that are widely utilized such as ether. While hashes are useful to notarize, it takes up space in the block that could be devoted to processing transactions. In order to work around this problem, chainpoint will utilize “Merkle Trees.”

What are Merkle Trees?

Merkle Trees are an efficient and secure way to store data.

Let’s say you want to input 4 different sets of data (A, B, C, D) into the blockchain. This would take up a lot of blockspace and therefore push out transactions that could get processed. Now rather than individually leaving 4 different hashes and taking up all that blockspace, what if you could clump them together?

This is exactly what Merkle Trees will do by adding an extra component “E” to the “H” and then hashing the whole data set to create a Merkle Root.

Merkle Tree: Chainpoint Whitepaper

By knowing the Merkle Root, you can independently verify that A, B, C, or D, all were recorded in the blockchain because of “E.” This is how Chainpoint will efficiently use the blockchain.

Chainsplit and Dock.io

Dock.io’s protocol will leverage the blockchain technology Chainsplit by using professional history, user information, and professional endorsements as the data set for Merkle Trees. This will make transferring profiles between the different networking platforms utilizing Dock.io’s protocol easier as the information has already been notarized on the blockchain with hashes. These platforms will then be able independently verify and validate that the information in the profile they are accessing is trustworthy and not fictitious.

In this way, Dock.io will set a new industry standard in professional networking by offering the notarization of relevant profile information for networking platforms that utilize Dock.io’s protocol.