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Our mission is to evolve how the world shares, consumes, and protects data.
Our vision is to build a future where the sovereignty of data owners is recognized as a global human right and where technology empowers them to enforce their rights effectively and efficiently.
We intend to disprove the belief that data breaches are an intractable problem, and that advanced technology requires sacrifice of privacy to ensure security, accessibility, and convenience.
The founders Michael and Caitlin Thoreson were victims of multiple data breaches that resulted in identity theft. This set the founders on a journey to develop a new cloud technology that does not require implicit trust of the cloud vendor and other third parties.
The company behind the KRATE Cloud is Krate Distributed Information Systems Incorporated. It is an international company headquartered in Canada, with legal entities in United States and United Kingdom.
Krate Distributed Information Systems, Inc. was launched on November 22, 2017, but the team behind the project began designing, architecting, and planning it in 2013.
The KRATE Cloud is a privacy-by-design cloud comprised of five independent networks each with a unique purpose.
Each network is decentralized, distributed, and self-governing, as explained by the following points.
Krate has adopted the principles authored by former Information and Privacy Commissioner of Ontario Ann Cavoukian. Below are the seven principles, and a copy of the original document is available here.
The Privacy by Design (PbD) approach is characterized by proactive rather than reactive measures. It anticipates and prevents privacy invasive events before they happen. PbD does not wait for privacy risks to materialize, nor does it offer remedies for resolving privacy infractions once they have occurred — it aims to prevent them from occurring. In short, Privacy by Design comes before-the-fact, not after.
We can all be certain of one thing — the default rules! Privacy by Design seeks to deliver the maximum degree of privacy by ensuring that personal data are automatically protected in any given IT system or business practice. If an individual does nothing, their privacy still remains intact. No action is required on the part of the individual to protect their privacy — it is built into the system, by default.
Privacy by Design is embedded into the design and architecture of IT systems and business practices. It is not bolted on as an add-on, after the fact. The result is that privacy becomes an essential component of the core functionality being delivered. Privacy is integral to the system, without diminishing functionality.
Privacy by Design seeks to accommodate all legitimate interests and objectives in a positive-sum “win-win” manner, not through a dated, zero-sum approach, where unnecessary trade-offs are made. Privacy by Design avoids the pretense of false dichotomies, such as privacy vs. security, demonstrating that it is possible to have both.
Privacy by Design, having been embedded into the system prior to the first element of information being collected, extends securely throughout the entire lifecycle of the data involved — strong security measures are essential to privacy, from start to finish. This ensures that all data are securely retained, and then securely destroyed at the end of the process, in a timely fashion. Thus, Privacy by Design ensures cradle to grave, secure lifecycle management of information, end-to-end.
Privacy by Design seeks to assure all stakeholders that whatever the business practice or technology involved, it is in fact, operating according to the stated promises and objectives, subject to independent verification. Its component parts and operations remain visible and transparent, to users and providers alike. Remember, trust but verify.
Above all, Privacy by Design requires architects and operators to keep the interests of the individual uppermost by offering such measures as strong privacy defaults, appropriate notice, and empowering user-friendly options. Keep it user centric.
The Krate Compute Network allows anyone to provide and/or consume idle compute resources from devices like computers and phones.
When you are not using your device, you can monetize the idle resources by providing them to the KRATE Compute Network. If you wish to provide compute resources, you must first enable the KRATE Compute Network. Then you will select which processors to make available to the network.
Likewise, if you are in need of compute resources, you can rent them for your purposes. In order to do so, you must first enable the KRATE Compute Network. Then you will be able to create a compute job.
All compute tasks issued to your device run inside a sandboxed environment to prevent them from interacting directly with your device. Your device and data cannot be read or compromised by compute tasks that it runs.
As part of compute job creation, you will be asked to choose a privacy level.
The KRATE Storage Network allows provides secure data storage.
It allows anyone to provide their own idle storage resources or consume those resources from others.
If you have free space on your hard drive, you can monetize your data storage by providing it to the KRATE Compute Network. If you wish to provide storage space, you must first enable the KRATE Storage Network. Then you can choose which drives and how much storage space on each drive you wish to provide.
Likewise, if you need additional data storage space, you can rent it for your purposes. If you wish to rent storage space, you must first purchase a storage package.
Your device and data cannot be read or compromised by allowing the KRATE Storage Network to store data on your device.
All files being uploaded are processed on the client device. It is a multi-step process that ensures only the data owner and users they authorize can find and use the data. Unauthorized devices only see encrypted data.
The KRATE Storage Network is designed to handle failed nodes. When a storage node has failed, the network reconstructs the data that was on the failed node using the remaining data on the network. The reconstruction process does not disclose anything about the data.
By default, the client device will be able to rebuild the original data if less than 30% is corrupted or damaged. Users can adjust this setting to increase the amount of corrupted data before the data can no longer be rebuilt. It is recommended not to set the threshold for missing or corrupted data lower than 30%.
The KRATE Communication Network routes all voice, video, text, and information moving throughout the KRATE Cloud.
All communication is encrypted before leaving the device and no other node can view, listen to, or access it other than the intended party. — not even nodes operated by Krate.
The KRATE Identity is a type of self-sovereign digital identity. Only one entity, be it a person, organization, or device, can have a particular identity. The identity is private and protected. It is only available to the owner of the identity and service providers who are authorized to view it as part of providing their service. The identity owner will be notified if any disclosure is required when signing up and can refuse to share the information.
Upon registering an account on the KRATE Cloud, the application will locally create a digital identity for both yourself and the device you are using. These identities are used to authenticate the user and the device when interacting with services on the KRATE Cloud.
To add value to your new digital identity, you can add trust anchors. Initially, there will be only two trust anchors available.
The KRATE Blockchain is similar in concept to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Signa, or Cardano blockchains with important differences.
Our consensus algorithm will be disclosed in an upcoming whitepaper that is currently still in development, but we can share some exciting details.
The KRATE Blockchain is green because it does not waste energy for the sake of doing Proof-of-Work calculations. All computation has a purpose behind it. Likewise, all data stored has a purpose and does not waste hard drive space to store random, complex data involved in Proof-of-Capacity. Tokens held by a user earn interest much like a savings account at a bank.
The KRATE Token is used for renting cloud resources which in turn compensate the nodes providing those resources. They can also be used for purchasing of applications and services sold by vendors utilizing the KRATE Cloud.
Unfortunately, no. However, if you have passed identity verification, you can sell them to Krate for Canadian or United States Dollars.
If you have passed identity verification, you can purchase KRATE Tokens directly from Krate. Other options are available as well, such as:
A validator node inspects KRATE Token transactions to ensure they are valid.
Masternodes work together to monitor the health of the KRATE Cloud and reconstruct data in the event of node failure. They also maintain a reputation and uptime tracking system that determines which compensation tier a node is in. The less errors that are generated and the higher the uptime of a storage or compute node, the more it can earn.
Yes, you can. This feature will be enabled after the launch of the first mainnet.
Yes, both are. This feature will be enabled after the launch of the first mainnet.
Yes. Smart contract specifications will be released when support is enabled after the launch of the first mainnet.
On–demand networks allow for construction of virtual private networks as needed to support secure operations between regional and satellite offices as well as at–home workers. Any entity using the KRATE Cloud is permitted to create as many on-demand networks as they need.
Private networks are a deployment of the KRATE Cloud within a protected home or corporate network. This private network may operate solely in this protected network or can connect to the public KRATE Cloud Network via a gateway device. Any entity using the KRATE Cloud is free to create a private KRATE Cloud Network within their protected home or corporate network as needed.
