Discussion
This forum post is a discussion thread for the GRC-20 knowledge graph standard. The specification can be found on GitHub. Please ask any questions, propose any changes, or point out any room for improvement here. The spec is currently in a draft stage. Once we launch Geo Genesis, we’ll freeze the spec and all future data service implementations will need to be backwards compatible.
Abstract
This GRC introduces a standard for storing and representing knowledge on The Graph. It can be used by any application that wants to create and consume interoperable information across applications.
Data is defined as raw bits that are stored and transmitted. Information is data that is decoded and interpreted into a useful structure. Knowledge is created when information is linked and labeled to attain a higher level of understanding. This document outlines the valid serialization format for the knowledge data that is anchored onchain, shared peer-to-peer or stored locally. Using this standard, any application can access the entire knowledge graph and produce knowledge that can become part of The Graph.
Motivation
Knowledge graphs are the most flexible way of representing information. Knowledge is highly interconnected across applications and domains, so flexibility is important to ensure that different groups and individuals can independently extend and consume knowledge in an interoperable format. Most apps define their own schemas. Those schemas work for a specific application but getting apps to coordinate on shared schemas is difficult. Once data is produced by an app, custom code has to be written to integrate with each app. Migrations, versioning and interpreting data from different apps becomes even more difficult as schemas evolve. These are some of the reasons that instant composability and interoperability across apps is still a mostly unsolved problem. The original architects of the web understood this and tried to build the semantic web which was called Web 3.0 twenty years ago. Blockchains and decentralized networks give us the tools we need to build open and verifiable information systems. Solving the remaining composability challenges will enable an interoperable web3.
Computer scientists widely understand triples to be the best unit for sharing knowledge across organizational boundries. RDF is the W3C standard for triples data. A new standard is necessary for web3 for several reasons: IDs in RDF are URIs which typically point to servers that are controlled by corporations or individuals using https. This breaks the web3 requirement of not having to depend on specific server operators. Additionally, RDF doesn’t support the property graph model, which is needed to describe facts about relationships between entities. Some of RDF’s concepts are cumbersome and complex which has hindered its adoption beyond academic and niche enterprise settings. For these reasons, a new standard is being proposed that is web3 native, benefits from the latest advancements in graph databases and can be easily picked up by anyone who wants to build the decentralized web.