Blockchain

How Goldilock’s Air Gap Technology Will Redefine Digital Asset Security

In the past few decades, the world has been increasingly moving away from paper-based records to more permanent, digital alternatives. However, while this shift has been rather convenient for individuals and corporations, it has also become a rather dangerous proposition. Data stored on the cloud or someone’s home computer can potentially be hacked into and manipulated.

At this point in time, it is no secret that user data is pretty much analogous to gold or oil of the past. In the wrong hands, online data can be misused for anything from identity theft to corporate espionage and can even lead to total financial bankruptcy.

The digital asset storage controversy

Bitcoin sought to solve this problem with its use of blockchain technology in 2009, at least in the financial realm. Banks that manage their money through potentially vulnerable and centralized systems now finally have a viable competitor. However, if the past decade or so has told us anything about the mass viability of cryptocurrency, it is that the onus of securing one’s funds is too big a responsibility for an average user or even investor.

For a while now, digital storage types have been rather binary in nature. To elaborate, assets can be left on a machine connected to the internet, which make them easily accessible but also vulnerable to attacks. On the other side of the spectrum, they can be stored on isolated systems like USB drives, which secures them as well as a bank locker but makes them much harder to manage and access.

Finding a middle ground

Goldilock is a new blockchain company that is aiming to strike the perfect balance between existing solutions with a robust air gap infrastructure instead.

An air gap refers to the measure of physically unplugging a computer from the internet or a local network until absolutely necessary. When external communication is absolutely required, a connection can be established for a short time frame. The concept is rather commonly used when highly sensitive is at stake. As such, air gaps are ubiquitous in military, government and finance-related computer networks.

Goldilock is built on a similar premise for digital assets. After all, users, investors and institutions often need access to their assets only occasionally and temporarily. In contrast, constantly connected systems can turn out to be a major security vulnerability. As a result, the security solution maintains a constant ‘airgap’ between itself and the outside world. Unless activated, the storage device will have no communication with the internet whatsoever.

How it works

Goldilock also uses a combination of biometric gateways, one-time codes, two factor authentication, multi-signature security and encryption to make sure that only the owner of a particular vault can access stored data. Importantly, Goldilock uses a non-internet based trigger, specifically the Public Switch Telephony Network (PSTN), to bring a vault online. Once the user has finished transacting, the vault will go back to being physically disconnected. This way, not even Goldilock itself can access sensitive data.

Users and institutions can also use Goldilock to store any digital asset they own, including cryptocurrency, digital media and collectibles. This has major implications for a variety of industries, including ones dealing with media, logistics and entertainment. Take, for instance, the fact that major film production houses have had entire movies leaked onto the internet before official release dates. Such an accident could alone lead to losses worth billions of dollars in potential revenue. Hospitals, government agencies, banks and public voting infrastructure can also each stand to benefit from this form of increased security.

The sheer number of use cases that Goldilock can capitalize on could very well lead to a faster, safer, and more efficient means of digital exchange. And perhaps finally, a world where data is completely secure.

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