Aisto® is a new, patented, blockchain enabled service from meshIP®. More than just the underlying technology for Bitcoin or other tokens used to facilitate transactions, the blockchain has many practical uses, including within the corrections industry.
A Blockchain Definition
A blockchain is a database that is distributed among multiple computing devices. A blockchain is formed from blocks, with each block having information related to a transaction and linking the block to a prior block in the chain. The computing devices can each have respective copies of the blockchain, so that no centralized or official copy of the blockchain exists and no computing device is trusted more than any other computing device. When a user initiates a transaction, some or all of the computing devices can verify the transaction. After verifying the transaction, the computing devices can include information related to the transaction into the respective copies of the blockchain. This can be more robust and secure than many other approaches. At a high level, blockchain technology allows a network of computers to agree at regular intervals on the true state of a distributed ledger. The ledger is distributed across many participants in the network — it doesn’t exist in one place. Instead, copies exist and are simultaneously updated with every fully participating node in the ecosystem. A block could represent transactions and data of many types.
How Does Blockchain Improve Inmate Communications Systems?
In the traditional telecommunications systems of correctional facilities, the administrative costs involved in call and video recording as well as associated metadata are limited by the number of communication kiosks in the prison. This number is typically small and therefore makes it reasonable to maintain such administration via a single conventional, centralized computing center, whether located on-site in the correctional facility or in a remote site. However, as the number of these telecommunication devices and the complexity of the system increases with the introduction of mobile devices, such as tablets, to prisoners, the cost and complexity involved in capturing recordings, metadata and monitoring permissions increases significantly.
Blockchain technology deployment in a multi-path wireless network can apportion the requirements of a telecommunication system across many distributed nodes. Blockchain will therefore the reduce the burden on the processing, network, and storage systems of a correctional facility. By enabling the mobile devices within a prison as blockchain and multi-path wireless network nodes, not only can much of the computing requirements be offloaded from a facility’s centralized systems, but the facility can safely and securely maintain the same control and oversight as previously available.
Transaction record-keeping, recording and regulation of inmate device use may be distributed, with security and computing power increasing as a system grows. By implementing a blockchain ledger among mobile nodes via a mesh network in the closed system of a correctional facility, not only is the computing power and network access distributed across these nodes, but the control and records of any transactions within a system may also be distributed and replicated. This structure promotes redundancies and fail safe options not previously available in the traditional centralized architecture.
Blockchain Enhances Security and Cost Effectiveness
A distributed blockchain system creates a more permanent and unalterable record than a single database could, while allowing more nodes to function simultaneously. Distributed systems promoted by blockchain technology combined with mesh networking provide correctional facilities the potential to distribute management of the system by giving the nodes the ability to regulate themselves anonymously from each other but transparently to those administering the correctional facility. Not only can more devices be supported, but they can be supported with fewer resources, enhanced redundancy, and increased security.
Blockchain may also reduce the costs of running a secure network, which is important in publicly funded institutions such as correctional facilities. Because blockchain verifies trustworthiness, a centralized server does not need to handle this task. The friction of transactions is reduced, promoting cost and time savings. Key benefits of this system include providing for the wireless communication device to record a voice or video session instead of at the central database, allowing inmates and their families to schedule and pay for voice and video calls via a smart contract, as well as allowing nodes on the network to validate and control permissions, rules and transactions.
Contact Us For More Information
To obtain Aisto® service and learn more about how this revolutionary blockchain enabled wireless service can strengthen the security of inmate personal communication devices while reducing deployment and network operating costs in your correctional facility, please contact us at [email protected] or at 1.214.447.0200. Also, please visit www.meshDETECT.com to learn more about our Secure Prison Cell Phone Solutions™.