Fog computing networks certainly bring innumerable benefits over the traditional cloud computing methods. Its idea to bring data processing at network level and distribute and perform it in smart devices make sense as the decentralization trend goes through the roof. Distributed computing still, however, has its share of flaws, mainly related to fraud.
Fog computing works on the basis of trust. And there can be events when the hub of your choice turns out to be a malicious actor in the network. This certainly puts your data at risk. There is a dire need of having adequate anti-fraud protection policies at place to rule out bad actors.
SONM has a working prototype of a unique anti-fraud protection system based on smart contracts, which will provide miners and customers solid protection from malicious nodes, clusters and pools within the system. The project proposes a simple data flow, according to which each hub is required to create a hub wallet and deposit a fixed amount. This amount, according to the SONM whitepaper, will be frozen as security against the hub’s malicious intentions.
In simple words, if the hub is caught cheating, DAO will be in adequate rights to blacklist it and freeze its funds. Those seized funds will also be frozen at the DAO account for some specified time. It is a smart move that ensures that even if DAO makes a malicious decision it doesn’t affect the value of tokens as a whole.
Whitelist — A Hub Rating System
A Whitelist in SONM’s world represents a registry contract containing information about hubs and their status. When a Hub Wallet is created by a Hub Wallet Factory, the wallet’s contract is created and registered in a ‘Whitelist’ contract.
This registry helps users choose between trusted and malicious hubs. Therefore, it also becomes a liability for hubs to ensure that their services to miners and buyers remain fair. Initially, ‘trusted’ hubs will be checked by SONM developers manually or by official SONM hubs.
Note: Anti-fraud system helps to identify fraudsters which act on hubs but it doesn’t guarantee privacy/security. This is a unique smart-contract based anti-fraud system which prevents fraud nodes, clusters and pools appearance within the net.