Ruby Protocol — Keys to Privacy
Even in a technical recession, if you follow the tech industry, you are probably overwhelmed by the daily deluge of news on blockchain and cryptocurrency. The debate is heating up. No matter which side you prefer, there’s no denying the promise of Bitcoin, cryptocurrency, and Web3: its vast potential in terms of digital, peer-to-peer payments, the future of currency, and, most importantly, the data control of ordinary users.
This is the promise of returning data ownership to the people while having complete transparency regarding blockchain transactions. To fulfill these contradictory goals, privacy is the key.
However, the reality is bleak. The Dark Web Price Index 2022, scanning dark web marketplaces, forums, and websites, showed the world that criminals could acquire credit card details and online banking login information for as little as $50. It is incredible how dirt cheap stolen data is.
The research revealed that hackers on dark web forums sell stolen data, such as:
- Credit card details and associated information. Cost between $17-$120;
- Online banking login information costs $65;
- Hacked Facebook account: $45;
- Cloned VISA with PIN: $20;
- Stolen PayPal account details, minimum $1000 balances: $20.
- A full range of documents and account details allowing identity theft for $1,010
Fraudsters can buy credit card details, including CVV number, card number, and associated dates, enabling them to penetrate the credit card processing chain and override security measures.
The sheer volume of sales on the Dark Web is even more concerning — underpinning the call for more innovative and technical safeguards for online personal information.
Before Web3 matures, how do we protect ourselves in the evermore competitive digital world? We’re now living in an age where everything is mechanical and digital. For example, in the world of e-commerce, there’s barely any human connection, and to understand customers, you have to collect data. This is where privacy problems start.
And in the context of the crypto movement, when everything is transparent, privacy must become an integral feature of any application. If your real-world identity is linked to your address without your control or knowledge, the promise of crypto empowering individual sovereignty begins to unravel.
Crypto and Web3 represent a chance to reimagine the internet and rebuild platforms from new principles. But to do that, we need to agree on what those principles should be and why. Below are Ruby Protocol’s propositions.
Studying Ruby Protocol Technologies — The Right Tool
At Ruby Protocol, we believe the following features are indispensable to a promising privacy-first tool, and we build this private data management framework for Web 3.0 entirely around them.
- A privacy-first approach to preserving anonymity must hide individuals through its privacy-preserving technologies. (Ruby utilizes Functional Encryption (FE) that enables users to encrypt sensitive information)
- To enable the privacy-first feature, the data processing must be decentralized to avoid one single point of failure and inefficiency. (Ruby is a private data management framework for Web 3.0, built on the blockchain)
- Privacy is intimate, whose definition differs from one to another. It must allow users to customize its control. (Ruby will be compatible with different blockchains and offer access control)
- It must be compatible with larger organizations in preserving data privacy to avoid adoption friction. (Ruby is ready to open a brand-new chapter for regulation-compliant decentralized financial services and institutions)
Collaboration Is Critical
In the Web2 world, data is an Internet company’s only real weapon. Unfortunately, this incentive design encourages them to collect and hoard data to the extent that data collection and hacks have become a common practice.
A lot of organizations are siloed and talk to each other very infrequently. As a result, we do not see many conversations among organizations. We believe that enabling a great user experience and maintaining proper privacy require various products to work together. Therefore, privacy and security providers must partner with different product owners and lines of business to help them understand privacy needs, change awareness, and meet those requirements.
Winning Minds
Even if people have a theoretical interest in keeping their privacy when acting on the Internet and do not want everybody to know their data and private information, studying their real online communication often shows different behaviors. This seems to be a paradox.
We argue that the state of being aware of something fades away as soon as there is no longer any stimulus present, which is why the privacy paradox is so ingrained in a world filled with digital stimuli.
One of the most important battles we, the privacy advocates, must win is the battle of winning the minds. We must do whatever it takes to educate and train future users on how to ignore insidious stimuli and inculcate them the importance of privacy.
This is what we are doing with Ruby Protocol.
References:
https://www.csoonline.com/article/3673943/collaboration-is-key-to-balance-customer-experience-with-security-privacy.html
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/you-are-worth-1-010-on-the-dark-web-new-study-by-privacy-affairs-finds-301627171.html
https://venturebeat.com/virtual/going-incognito-how-we-can-protect-our-privacy-in-the-metaverse/
https://techbeacon.com/security/go-beyond-policy-5-keys-data-protection-compliance
https://www.ftc.gov/business-guidance/resources/protecting-personal-information-guide-business
https://ikeepsafe.org/keeping-private-anonymous-6-keys-protecting-privacy-students/
https://www.cisa.gov/uscert/ncas/tips/ST04-013
https://www.reviewofophthalmology.com/article/the-keys-to-protecting-privacy-in-research
https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/978-3-642-03315-5_17.pdf
About Us
Ruby Protocol is a cross-chain, privacy-first infrastructure, powered by Polkadot. Our layer-1 protocol utilizes Functional Encryption (FE) cryptography, which allows users to adopt a modular approach to data privacy and ownership. This novel solution will allow users to encrypt sensitive information on-chain, which can only be decrypted by holders of an approved private key.
Ruby’s FE Substrate-pallet will serve as the building blocks for privacy-first smart contract DApps building on the native Ruby Chain, while also acting as a privacy layer for Parachains and Web3 DApps across the Polkadot ecosystem.
