What is Smallworld?

Smallworld is a global decentralized network built to carry all the shared information of the world in one large interconnected web of databases.

It combines the core ideas of blockchain networks such as immutability, decentralization and trustless collaboration — with the expressive structure of databases, the flexibility of programmable transactions and enables direct on-chain value exchange over shared information with the support of a native network currency.

At the core of the network is a shared layer of structured information — owned, validated and exchanged across the world by the participants without any middle men.

Everything in Smallworld happens and is stored directly on the network, enabling a transition from existing business models built around disconnected data sets, to an interconnected global information network where new and more efficient business models can be born.

Much in the same way as the internet has transformed more or less every existing industry in the world, a shared and structured information system like Smallworld will enable the next step in that transition.

Networked, structured information

Smallworld treats information as a first-class citizen. Every piece of information in the system is declared within a templating system that describes structure, relationships, permissions, and rules. .

Templates are similar to, but more powerful than, traditional relational database structures. Templates define how information is structured and can be transformed, who can interact with it and under which conditions.

Rights management and governance

Access and permissions are built into into the network and governed in the same way as much everything else. Templates and individual data instances define fine-grained rules for the life cycle of individual bits of data - creating, updating and deleting. But it also defines things such as who has the right to link to a certain piece of information, and how rights can be transferred over time.

Rights themselves are first-class objects as any other type of data in the network and all the concepts described here can be applied to them as well. That means that rights can be referenced, shared, revoked or traded as any other piece of data.

Digital identity

Every participant in Smallworld interacts with the network through a digital identity, tied to an on-chain account. This identity governs all actions — from creating data to signing transactions — and as such has a number of roles and functions.

Smallworld identity can replace existing login systems such as Google or Facebook login, interact with services like banks or tax authorities, or enable autonomous applications that act on their own behalf.

It can be tied to ownership and rights, both on the network and in the real world, for holding a wallet online or as a source of truth for identification and many other purposes.

Native currency

Smallworld has an integrated currency, used to pay for transactions on the network — but also to enable programmable trade, on the network or in the real world. It can be used to pay for licenses for intellectual property, trading of real world assets like gold or stock and as the medium of exchange for decentralized marketplaces and exchanges, with everything agreed and settled directly on-chain. Other applications that it enables is for data gathering, processing or collaboration, where both the instructions, the tasks performed and the compensation could happen directly on the network.

Since information and value live on the same network and in fact in the same network transactions, payments and information can be atomically linked — enabling exchange of value directly on the network, without middle men and with instant settlement.

The global network

Smallworld is made up of interoperable databases managed by individuals, in isolation or collaboration. Since they all act on a shared decentralized network, they can cross-reference, relate, and interact with one another on one global information layer created for human and machine integration and collaboration.

In a sense, it is the internet re-envisioned and integrated with the surrounding world.