MetroGnomo is an innovative open-source timestamping service based on a mutual distributed ledger or blockchain. Sponsored by the States of Alderney, this globally-available experimental service seeks to facilitate commerce through the provision of impartial timing information. It is the result of Z/Yen’s quest to design the most secure, high volume, and cost effective mutual distributed ledger possible.
The States of Alderney have committed to providing oversight of MetroGnomo's integrity until 2021.
Each timestamp is recorded as an entry on MetroGnomo's transparent authoritative immutable ledger. A ledger entry can be easily located using the timestamp’s officially recorded time (MetroTime) or its unique universal identifier (UUID). MetroTime is guaranteed to be unique.
MetroGnomo's mutual distributed ledger (MDL) provides proof of ownership, validates timestamps and demonstrates service impartiality. Uses for MetroGnomo include dating financial contracts, proving authorship of books and inventions, authenticating CCTV footage and facilitating information exchange between organisations. MetroGnomo provides a valuable mechanism to coordinate other MDLs and blockchains, such as Bitcoin, Ethereum or Ripple.
Z/Yen’s ChainZy technology allows MetroGnomo to utilise the benefits of mutual distributed ledgers while avoiding the costs, in time and computing resource, associated with conventional blockchain proof-of-work validation mechanisms such as ‘mining’. The public broadcast of information from MetroGnomo to mutually distributed ledgers gives proof of validity via a network of independently operated receivers, assuring users that the MetroGnomo mechanism has not been corrupted. This broadcast technology also simplifies the establishment and maintenance of this “network of proof”.