Entities & Relationships

Entities & Relationships

Statements

A tuple containing:

1. Subject: Entity (full or URI). Can be blank if this is a first-person statement (i.e. the Author is the Subject)
2. Verb: Relationship
3. Object: Entity (full or URI)
4. Data: Optional additional data
5. Time: Stated UTC time at which the statement is made
6. Author: Public key of the identity making this statement
7. Signature: The above elements, signed with the author's private key

Entities

Any of the following, or a custom type.

1. Identity - a private/public key pair. Each device has a unique identity
2. User - an alleged natural person with Name, Photo, etc.
3. Statement

Relationships

Any of the following, or a custom type.

1. Is (Identity, User) - Used in the first statement made by an Identity, to begin establishing a connection between the machine-generated Identity and a User. Multiple Identities can exist claiming to be a single User. E.g. an Identity on a laptop and an Identity on a phone can both claim to be the same User.

2. Believes (Identity, Statement) - First-person only - Signifies that an Identity lends credence to a Statement. Note that recursive belief statements (e.g A Believes (B Believes X)) are unnecessary, because Believes statements are first-person-only and can be verified by a signature.

   The Data for such a statement can have a certainty (1.0 = definitely true; 0.0 = definitely false). This is only a statement of belief by an Identity, not necessarily actuality.

   The Data for a Believes statement can also have a reason, which is a list of other Statements supporting this belief.

   Examples:

   1. Identity Believes (Identity Is User)
      1. Used by a User that controls multiple Identities to link a new Identity. Order of Statements:
         1. A Is U
         2. B Is U
         3. A Believes (B Is U) { certainty: 1.0 }
      2. Used by another User to support someone else's Is claim.
         1. A Is U
         2. B Is V
         3. (B makes statements that lead A/U to believe B's claim to be V at a probability of 75%)
         4. A Believes (B Is V) { certainty: 0.75 }