If you’re already neck-deep in crypto then this shouldn’t come as a surprise, but everyone and their mom on web2 is most likely selling your data, or at the very least, they’re probably utilizing your data (in ways that they won’t tell you) in order to profit off of you such as opening credit cards, getting you to vote for a political candidate, sell stuff to you, and the list goes on and on. In today’s article, I’m going to talk about Gateway, one of the newest layer-1 blockchains that’s aiming to serve as a privacy data layer that allows you to control who gets access to your data and specifically which data they get access to — all done by essentially making it an asset that you (and only you) have the power to control.
First, why is Gateway even needed?
Over the last decade, many of Web2’s most popular platforms have found themselves under fire for improperly using people’s data and in some cases, taking their data and essentially using it against them. Perhaps the most infamous incident is the 2018 Facebook-Cambridge Analytica scandal when Facebook, without permission, allegedly sold American user data that was then used for political manipulation of the US presidential election.
Even if they’re not technically selling your data, the biggest gripe is that there’s no transparency with the user about what information is taken and how it’s being used. The lack of transparency causes paranoia for many (including myself) when different protocols/platforms want you to KYC — for history tells us that we shouldn’t trust them with how that data is being shared or how it’s being used. With the advent of Web3, the belief has grown for people to be able to own and possess direct control of which information is shared and how it is shared. That’s where Gateway comes in…
What is Gateway?
In a nutshell, Gateway offers a solution to allow people to pick and choose, and more importantly which aspects/features of their data they want to share. On its own Layer-1, Gateway is able to achieve this by introducing some key features which include:
Encrypted Data Vaults (EDVs) —the main component of the data layer, EDVs are essentially the actors that store and maintain your encrypted data. The EDVs are rewarded for rigorously making sure your data is secured and accessible when its supposed to be accessed, and slashed if they’re not.
Decentralized Identity (DID) standards — all users have a private key, which authorizes all of the user’s on-chain activity, and an encryption key, which ensures the encryption of all data transmission and storage.
Personal Data Assets (PDAs)— the units in how Gateway organizes your data so you can easily controlled how it is shared.
Through PDAs, users can directly control how specific information is shared with 3rd parties, whether it be through a Spotify music list (see video above), or else through other specific purposes like medical histories or purchases on your credit cards.
Regardless of what information/PDAs you wish to be shared, the data is secured by the EDVs, where it’s only accessible and/or authorized by use of your private keys.
Applications for all narratives
If you take apart any of this cycle’s hottest narratives, Gateway offers a limitless number of applications that can adhere to each one.
No more blanket KYCs—Do you need to give proof that you’re over the age 21? Do you need proof of your nationality? With Gateway, you can set up a specific PDA that simply shares specific details like your birthday, full stop. Or your nationality, full stop. There’s no longer to handover documents with lots of inapplicable information such as your Driver’s License #, SSN, Passport number, etc.
Real World Asset (#RWAs)— Apart from simply proving that you’re a certain age, Gateway offers a solution to offer financial data or credentials easily and efficiently. Anyone that’s tried to open up a loan at a bank knows, the process can be painful and super-intrusive. With Gateway, this information can be transferred efficiently, securely, and with minimal bias.
AI learning models — Instead of sorting through tons useless data, through Gateway, AI learning models with specific use cases can abstract data quickly from specific types of PDAs. For instance if you’re trying to use AI learning models to help treat diabetes, through categorized PDAs the AI model can abstract specific aspects that they need from users’ medical histories such as age, race, etc.
Other things to Consider
Innovation always has its costs, and Gateway is no different. From my analysis of what Gateway is doing, there’s a couple of things that I think are worth considering…
A honeypot of data — With Gateway, in addition to being encrypted, the data is is essentially broken up across different Gateway nodes to where they are ultimately stored. The data itself is only accessible with the person with the right encryption key, and from there each node interacts with validators providing random proofs to give an attestation of the data that’s being provided. All this being said, Gateway’s setup is pretty secure, but imagine that this huge reservoir of personal/private data will make Gateway a prime target for wannabe hackers.
A single point of failure — Regardless of how secure Gateway’s setup is, it doesn’t remove the biggest single point of failure of all: you. If you accidentally give up your metamask seed phrase to a hacker they may drain your wallet, but if you lose your Gateway keys to someone else, your entire identity might be stolen
Limitations with an L1 — Although it seems like a trend for many protocols to be spinning up their own L1s, one of the limitations that comes alongside it is a lack of interoperability and mass adoption. Nowadays if you’re not a Cosmos SDK, IBC-enabled, or at least EVM compatible, then it significantly increases the friction (and security risks) of trying to bridge data or assets to other chains.
Conclusion
The bottom line is that Gateway still can’t fix stupid, but it sure as hell allows us to have better control of our data. Fitting in with the ethos of Web3, Gateway allows you to not only take control of your data, but ensures a way in which you can decide exactly how private and/or public you want to be. As more and more of our lives are inevitably going to go on the blockchain, Gateway provides the medium in which we can decide which part of our lives we decide to make public and with whom.
Interested in learning more? I’d recommend joining their Discord to get all their latest updates and where the discussions of all the new possible applications seem endless.
And as always, thanks for taking the time to read this and be sure to follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/CryptosWith) to get all my latest updates. Also, looking for a gift for your Crypto-loving/hating friend? Give them a REKT journal to cheer them up!
Disclaimer: And as a final reminder, this is not financial advice and this is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please as always, do your own research and find what investments are best for you. Cheers everyone! allocation, but I’m also earning some pretty significant yields on my assets at the same time.