Redefining Geolocation Compliance: Witness Chain & Predicate
Witness Chain Enables Onchain Geolocation Verification for the Predicate Ecosystem
Geolocation Systems
Geolocation is widely used across industries. In the blockchain space, geolocation primarily serves to restrict user access from certain jurisdictions due to legal and regulatory requirements. The most common method of geofencing relies on IP addresses. However, this approach is neither robust nor suitable for decentralized systems. IP addresses are collected at the application frontend, meaning the enforcing entity must control the frontend itself. This introduces a centralization risk and makes the system vulnerable to circumvention via simple methods such as VPNs.
Smart Contract Level Geolocation Verification
Witness Chain introduces a decentralized proof-of-location (PoL) system. Its network of watchtowers, called InfinityWatch, observes event requests and generates cryptographic location proofs. These proofs offer a robust alternative to traditional geofencing methods.
The Predicate Network enables developers to integrate pre-transaction logic into their smart contracts. Using Witness Chain’s proof of location, developers integrating Predicate can add geolocation requirements for transactions. This integration allows developers to take a more robust and decentralized approach, avoiding reliance on IP addresses—a mechanism that is easily bypassed.
Witness Chain’s PoL system can be used to verify the location of swappers in a decentralized exchange pool through Predicate for assets that require geofencing. Location based policies can ensure fair incentive distribution for protocols during major events such as airdrops or token launches—discouraging farming and sniping.
The Future of Decentralized Geolocation and Policies
Witness Chain’s PoL system offers a geofencing solution designed for decentralized environments. Similarly, Predicate policies are designed to be censorship resistant through a distributed network of operators. This allows policies to exist as critical infrastructure for onchain applications.
As risk management practices evolve, traditional, centralized solutions will become obsolete. Decentralized risk management systems, like those enabled by Witness Chain and Predicate, will set the new standard.
About Witness Chain
Witness Chain is a network that enables verifiable observation and actuation of the real physical world. Observability in the real world ensures protocols can correctly incentivize, regulate, and activate communities that are best suited at the right location at the right time. Witness Chain lays the groundwork for a future where digital agreements are seamlessly anchored in physical reality, driving smarter, more responsive coordination systems.
About Predicate
Predicate is a network for simplifying transaction prerequisites. Through Predicate, users, developers, and communities define rules for on-chain interactions, integrating expressive pre-transaction logic into decentralized applications. These rules, like legos, can be stacked to form policies, which are enforced by the Predicate Network. For more information, visit: predicate.io.
Last updated
