The interest in cryptocurrencies has brought a lot of focus on blockchain technologies. However, one major area where blockchain can be used effectively along with geospatial technologies is the Internet of Things. As technologies and data collection and processing get more complicated, the questions are what is the data, how is it validated, how is the proof of location established, how are things and humans protected from illegal access and processes?
XYO Network is the world’s first blockchain geospatial network backed with cryptography that anonymously collects and validates data with a geographic component. XYO calls itself the Reality Oracle, a technology protocol designed to improve the validity, certainty, and value of data. It is seeking to build a data marketplace that gives users a gold-standard for any apps, websites, and blockchain technologies that rely on trusted data.
We caught up with Markus Levin, the Co-Founder XYO Network, for an interview. Levin also serves as Head of Operations for XYO’s parent company XY Labs. XY Labs provides a connection between the real and digital worlds through blockchain, IoT, and data-focused products, which can be leveraged to make human lives easier. For example, the COIN App empowers its over 3 million users to be rewarded for validating geospatial location and other data.
Levin has more than 15 years’ experience in building, managing, and growing companies in hyper-growth industries around the globe. He mined his first bitcoin in 2013 and has been captivated by blockchain technologies ever since.
In this interview Levin talks about his vision for XYO, the link between hyper location and blockchain, and how it is all addressing real-world challenges.
XYO’s decentralized network of devices anonymously collects and validates data associated with geography, temperature, humidity, and even speed, among other components. While the nature of geospatial data has been historically complex and cumbersome to leverage, XYO’s advancements in the area, along with industry collaborations, are allowing commercial enterprises to tap into and harness this information like never before.
Geospatial data is often used to develop consistent, up-to-date, and accurate representations of the physical and digital world, i.e., the metaverse and other virtual spaces.
Acting as a Reality Oracle, XYO harnesses the power of data to address real-world challenges in various scenarios — from directing disaster response to more accurately assessing underwriting risk, analyzing behavioral patterns, and even addressing supply chain issues.
Notable use cases include:
XYO utilizes proprietary data and all the data provided to the network is processed as real-time information, analyzed, archived, and then acted upon accordingly.
Our mission is to create software and devices that focus on location and geospatial data to build a global data network that connects the physical world to the digital world. With our community, we’re creating a system of location oracles that will improve current and future location data systems through data that can’t be changed.
XYO calls itself the world’s first Reality Oracle, which empowers people to participate in the global data economy through the validation of anonymous and secure geospatial data.
XYO has created a reliable Data Ocean, meaning it collects data from various sources and pools it together for verification and analysis. Just as rivers flow towards an ocean, “rivers” of data from the nodes in the XYO Network all run towards the larger XYO Data Ocean, providing an aggregated place for data. After the data is collected and aggregated, the cryptographic protocol can help validate and improve the trust for that collected data.
Data is the currency of the future. Ensuring people’s security and agency in the data economy is critical to the quality of life. XYO educates and empowers the people who will be most affected by the data revolution — those who create the data. We believe most people don’t fully understand the power and value of the data they generate every single day. XYO educates users about that power by encouraging them to harness it.
The XYO Token ($XYO) is an Ethereum-based ERC-20 utility token used to calculate smart contract agreements on XYO Network. With over four million nodes for the XYO Network, XYO Token is being rapidly adopted. An analysis of 500 users showed XYO-USD portfolio growth of over $14 million as of August 2021.
In January, $XYO was listed on Huboi, one of the leading and most secure digital asset exchanges in the world with over 10 million users.
The coin powers a decentralized network of devices that anonymously collects and validates geospatial data, and also prevents devices from spoofing their location. On the XYO World platform, XYO tokens can be traded for and staked against unique ERC-721 tokens representing real-world locations.
XYO 2.0 makes the data collected by our users easy for partners to access and utilize. By building functionality with JSON and accessibility through APIs, the data is secure and virtually tamperproof given XYO 2.0’s blockchain and cryptographic technology.
XYO provides SDKs ready for immediate implementation, so developers can plug right into XYO and produce cutting-edge solutions for their projects.
The technology protocol that we have designed is singular and can be implemented in any project, in any place, in many different coding languages. The data source doesn’t matter since XYO uses a unique cryptographic protocol to ensure data verification and trust.
February was an impressive month for XYO. We announced a strategic co-investment with Outliers Fund, a collective of joint research initiatives and venture funds with top blockchain ecosystems, and Analog, the first company that is a true Layer-0 protocol powered by blockchain technology—all of these developments, are to accelerate projects built around the XYO Network.
We’re also excited to announce our partnership with HERE Technologies, a location solutions company, last year. As leaders in location technology, the collaboration represents an opportunity to expand the availability of secure, verified geospatial data and to bridge real-world location data with blockchain-based smart contracts. With XYO’s ability to capture, index, and store location data and HERE Technologies’ powerful geospatial mapping capabilities, the partnership stands to unlock a treasure trove of advancements in location data and technology.
XYO has also developed and strengthened pivotal partnerships with key players in the web3 community, including Chainlink, Microsoft, Dispatch Labs, and Harmony. As we continue to focus on maximizing education surrounding our open source code protocol, we look to partner with more industry leaders in the future.
And, of course, a wide array of exchanges have recognized the value of the XYO Network and the XYO token in recent months. The accomplishment represented by these listings results from the forward-thinking nature of those exchanges and our diligent team.
As we look to the remainder of 2022 and beyond, XYO is excited about new projects and partnerships in the pipeline that will continue to drive blockchain technology forward. And as this technology continues to evolve, we’re aiming to have a say in how the global, cross-platform metaverse and other virtual spaces take shape—we aim to provide tested solutions to accelerate the growth we all know is ahead.
Here’s an example: $XYO is now more widely available, with more exchanges being added regularly. By combining the XYO Protocol 2.0 changes, COIN data producers and purchasers, and XYO Token Payment Channels, we are forging a revolutionary data marketplace that uses XYO tokens as the low-cost payment method for data exchanges without relying on the emergence of a cost-effective decentralized smart contract system.
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