Posted by “We began with the aim to build tech elements that offer what we call ‘continuous assurance’ on digital transactions,” says Dhiway Networks’ Founder and CTO Satish Mohan.
Dhiway Networks is a startup that’s on a mission to revolutionise the digital transaction landscape with its innovative ‘continuous assurance’ technology. Founded in November 2019, Dhiway is combating the myriad of frauds that plague digital transactions today by offering real-time verification of documents and data. Their tech stack integrates seamlessly with existing applications, providing users and organisations with up-to-date information about the data they’re dealing with.
In this edition of CTO Talks with TechHerald, Dhiway Networks’ Founder and CTO Satish Mohan spoke about how the company is navigating the challenges of blockchain networks, their perspective on the Indian market, and their key initiatives for 2024. He also discussed Dhiway Networks’ Mark Studio platform, its technology perspective and how organisations are leveraging it and more.
Edited excerpts
Q1. Could you provide a brief overview of Dhiway Networks? Specifically, what sector does the company operate in, and what products or services are you offering currently?
CTO Satish Mohan: Dhiway is a startup that kicked off in November 2019. We began with the aim to build tech elements that offer what we call ‘continuous assurance’ on digital transactions. Today when we talk about digital transactions, there’s a whole lot of different types of fraud that can happen, from phishing to identity swapping. Now, when it comes to verification, there are models out there that verify documents or data, but they only give you a status at a specific point in time.
Let’s take a driver’s job as an example. The most important document that gets verified is the driver’s license. The system today verifies the license and if it’s valid, the person gets the job. But what happens if the license gets suspended the next day? The employer doesn’t get to know. This is where our continuous assurance comes in.
We’re building a stack that integrates this feature with all existing applications. It’s not just about building a new application but integrating it with all the existing ones out there. This way, they can leverage this capability to understand who they’re dealing with, what data they’re dealing with, and what’s the state of the data as long as they’re processing that particular data. This stack has three fundamental elements.
First, there’s the blockchain, which we call ‘CORD’. We run CORD as an open-source project. This project can be taken up by ecosystems, at the national level, or an enterprise level, and they can bootstrap their network. Even though it’s open source, we also provide subscriptions or support for commercial use.
Second, we have a middleware, ‘Mark Studio’, which allows applications to integrate with one or multiple networks. We anticipate that there will be multiple networks that will come up using CORD. Lastly, we’re also building a consumer product, a digital wallet, which allows users to request, store, and use credentials to interact with various services. Think of it like a digital locker.
Q2. So, Mark Studio is an integration application that allows organisations to integrate various applications, right? Most organisations start their journey from a Mark Studio perspective, correct?
CTO Satish Mohan: Exactly. organisations typically don’t want to run a blockchain network. They’re more interested in leveraging verifiable credentials with continuous assurance. That’s where Mark Studio comes in. They can integrate it with their existing application, providing a seamless experience for their customers.
Alternatively, Mark Studio also has its UI that helps manage the entire lifecycle of the credentials. It’s like Gmail – you just start with the application, design your credentials, share them with users, and manage the entire lifecycle. So, we have two products live in the market – CORD, our blockchain, and Mark Studio, our middleware. We’re also building a digital wallet, kind of like a DigiLocker Plus Plus.
This wallet not only helps you request and store credentials but also ensures these credentials help you discover opportunities. And when the wallet comes in, it also benefits service providers. When they engage with their customers through this channel, they get a list of qualified customers. It’s a win-win.
Q3. Are current blockchains, whether proprietary, outsourced, or open source, lacking data verification features?
CTO Satish Mohan: You’re right. There are multiple blockchain networks available across the world, like Bitcoins or Ethereum. These are public blockchain networks. However, these networks are designed for participatory rewards, so the currency or the cryptocurrency becomes a requirement to participate in these networks. They’re not designed for the data models or the data exchange models we’re talking about, because they’re designed more in terms of currencies and cryptocurrencies and tokens. So, the features around data verification are not available at the current stage.
Q4. Did they expand these networks using contracts?
CTO Satish Mohan: Yes, contracts extend the blockchain’s capabilities beyond tokens or currencies. When we began our open-source enterprise blockchain project, we prioritised privacy, scalability, and participation. Firstly, it should support various data types and ensure privacy. The blockchain only retains proof of data, while the actual data stays with the user or institution. This allows for secure data exchange and verification.
Secondly, scalability is crucial. Public chains today struggle with transaction volume. In India, we need to support thousands of transactions per second. This network isn’t just for ONDC’s needs but can be leveraged by other institutions for their use cases. Lastly, we’re not focusing on cryptocurrencies or reward-based economics. Instead, we’re fostering a participatory network model. Everyone contributes resources, making it a large, shared network. This avoids burdening a single entity with managing or investing in the network.
These three aspects weren’t present in other projects. Our approach allows enterprises or regulatory agencies to easily adopt it and run it within their local infrastructure, considering data locality is key when running data networks. I hope this answers your question.
Q5. Can you highlight the main challenges enterprises encounter when using blockchain networks, particularly in terms of data?
CTO Satish Mohan: We can categorise challenges into four main areas. The first one is about the access or usage of cryptocurrency. It’s important to consider whether an enterprise is legally permitted to use cryptocurrency within its ecosystem. The second challenge is about the scale of transactions that the network needs to support. Can it become a back-end for a system that operates at a population scale? The third aspect is data localisation. Can the network ensure that the data remains in the region where it’s supposed to stay?
And the fourth challenge is about the network’s ability to treat both Web3 and Web2 applications equally. As we know, the world is not going to transition into a Web3 application overnight. So, it’s crucial that this network can support existing applications to integrate and also assist in building the new generation applications gradually. There needs to be a migration path that it provides. These are the core things that we need to focus on when we talk about why we need an enterprise-grade blockchain.
Q6. Can you share some perspective on the Indian market?
CTO Satish Mohan: In India, we see a lot of potential for localised blockchain projects. One such project is an open-source enterprise blockchain framework started in India, where organisations have two options when considering a blockchain network. They can join an existing network like Confidex, which reduces overhead as it’s shared among all participants. Alternatively, they can use Confidex as a blueprint to build their network if they want more flexibility and control.
For instance, a bank might want a private blockchain to share data across departments. Similarly, an insurance regulator might implement a blockchain at the ecosystem level to streamline processes and improve transparency. Networks can also be built at a country level. For example, Confidex aims to become a national blockchain framework.
Interestingly, at a recent conference in Ethiopia, there was talk of blockchain networks spanning entire continents. This would allow citizens to move seamlessly between countries, using their identity documents to open bank accounts or start businesses in other countries. So, blockchain can support various use cases, enhancing security and facilitating frictionless transactions.
Q7. What are your key initiatives for 2024, particularly in terms of budget allocation and growth strategies?
CTO Satish Mohan: Our plan for this year is to enhance the blockchain framework and ensure networks like Confidex become operational. The real challenge isn’t just launching the network, but observing how the ecosystem grows once it’s live. We’re interested in who starts using it, who benefits from it, and what applications get enabled. Our primary focus this year is to start building an ecosystem on these live networks.