Name of the participant: Martin Westerkamp
Description of the IT research project: Distributed-Ledger-Technologies (DLT) enable the decentralized storage and processing of data between different entities without requiring intermediaries. While the technology is increasingly used in the financial industry and in supply chain management, for example, there are technological hurdles that make further adaptation difficult. There are various DLT implementations that differ in terms of scalability, data model, or security aspects in order to meet the requirements of different use case scenarios. Often these DLT networks are operated without access restrictions or within consortia. There are overlaps, so entities participate in different networks and exchange data within them. The trustful exchange of data between DLTs without intermediaries or economic assumptions is an unsolved problem which shall be addressed in the DISCO project.
The goal of the DISCO project is the implementation of interoperability for DLT with focus on Smart Contracts. While Smart Contracts are currently highly dependent on the Distributed Ledger that executes them, the project will develop methods to mitigate or overcome this dependency. For example, smart contracts can be migrated between different DLT networks if new demands are made on the underlying technology or if their security guarantees change. In addition, possibilities for trustworthy access to transactions, status and events across the boundaries of a network should be made possible. For this purpose, for example, the applicability of zero-knowledge proofs will be investigated to allow cryptographically secure access without having to make economic assumptions.
Software Campus partners: TU Berlin, Huawei
Implementation period: March 2020 – March 2022
