Lineage Tracking in the Seigr Ecosystem[edit]

Lineage Tracking is a core feature of Seigr's Seigr Urcelial-net, designed to track the lifecycle and evolution of each data capsule across Seigr's decentralized network. By creating an immutable record of actions, contributors, and historical states, Lineage Tracking ensures ethical accountability, version control, and tamper resistance. Each .seigr capsule’s lineage is encoded within the metadata schema, enabling precise tracking of changes, access history, and contributor actions over time.

Purpose of Lineage Tracking[edit]

The Lineage Tracking system fulfills several essential roles within Seigr's ecosystem:

Contributor Accountability: Each action, whether data creation, update, or replication, is attributed to a specific contributor, promoting transparency and ethical responsibility.
Data Integrity Verification: The lineage records help in validating each capsule’s historical state, providing a verifiable record of changes and ensuring tamper resistance.
Adaptive Replication Support: Lineage data guides the Adaptive Replication system by indicating which capsules have higher replication requirements due to their importance or access history.
Version Control and Rollback: By capturing multiple versions, lineage records allow capsules to be rolled back to previous states as part of Seigr's Immune System.

Structure of Lineage Records[edit]

Seigr’s Lineage Tracking system is built on a robust, Protobuf-based structure defined in the lineage.proto file, enabling precise and efficient lineage management. Each .seigr capsule’s lineage comprises multiple entries that describe changes and adaptations over time. Key components of a lineage record include:

Lineage Entry: Each entry represents an action taken on the capsule, including contributor ID, action type, timestamp, and previous hashes, ensuring a continuous historical record.
Unique Capsule ID: A unique identifier (typically generated by HyphaCrypt) links each capsule to its lineage, ensuring traceability.
Timestamped Events: Each entry records the time of an action in ISO format, allowing Seigr’s system to track capsule changes chronologically.
Hash Chains for Integrity: Hash chains connect each entry to the previous state, making any tampering attempts detectable and ensuring data integrity across the lineage history.

Core Components of Lineage Tracking[edit]

The Lineage Tracking system consists of the following essential components:

LineageEntry: A single action or change record, including information such as the contributor, timestamp, and action description.
Lineage: The complete history of entries for a single capsule, stored in a Protobuf structure, facilitating seamless serialization and schema evolution.
Seigr Metadata: Contains lineage references, allowing capsules to integrate lineage details and ensuring that each capsule is self-contained.

Example of Lineage Tracking with Protocol Buffers[edit]

Lineage Tracking records are encoded within Seigr using Protocol Buffers, which ensures minimal storage overhead, backward compatibility, and efficient schema evolution. Below is an example of how lineage information is structured within Protocol Buffers:

message Lineage {
   string creator_id = 1;
   string current_hash = 2;
   string version = 3;
   repeated LineageEntry entries = 4;

}

message LineageEntry {
   string action = 1;
   string contributor_id = 2;
   string timestamp = 3;
   repeated string previous_hashes = 4;
   map<string, string> metadata = 5;

}

This schema allows each Lineage object to hold an evolving record of changes, while each LineageEntry tracks an individual action, ensuring capsules have a well-documented and accessible history.

Key Processes in Lineage Tracking[edit]

1. Creation and Initialization of Lineage[edit]

When a new .seigr capsule is created, a lineage record is initialized. This record includes the creator ID, a unique current hash generated via HyphaCrypt, and a version number, providing a foundation for tracking subsequent actions.

Creator Attribution: The contributor who initializes the capsule is permanently recorded, supporting ethical transparency.
Initial Hash Generation: An initial hash uniquely identifies the capsule’s state at creation, establishing a starting point for the hash chain.

2. Adding a Lineage Entry[edit]

Every action taken on a capsule, such as an update, replication, or access log, is recorded as a LineageEntry in the capsule’s lineage. Each entry contains:

Action Type: A descriptor of the action, such as "replication" or "modification."
Contributor ID: Identifier of the user who performed the action.
Previous Hashes: Hashes of prior entries or capsules, creating a link in the chain and preserving historical continuity.
Timestamp: The time of action, providing an accurate chronological sequence.
Metadata: Additional information relevant to the action, which can include Access Context details, replication status, or node-specific metadata.

3. Verifying Lineage Integrity[edit]

Lineage integrity is maintained through the use of hash chains, ensuring that each entry connects securely to the previous state. This process involves:

Hash Recalculation: Each entry’s hash is recalculated and compared with its stored hash to confirm that no unauthorized modifications have occurred.
Historical Layering with TemporalLayer: Capsules that include historical layers (e.g., TemporalLayer) are validated across each layer, supporting Seigr’s historical consistency and rollback capabilities.
Cross-Node Validation: Lineage data distributed across nodes is cross-validated to confirm continuity across replicas, ensuring data remains accurate even under network fluctuations.

4. Rollback to a Previous State[edit]

The rollback functionality leverages lineage entries to revert capsules to a previous, verified state. This process is typically initiated by Seigr’s Immune System in response to detected data corruption or network threats.

Temporal Snapshot Verification: Using lineage data, the rollback mechanism locates an earlier capsule state and verifies its integrity.
State Restoration: The SeigrDecoder reconstructs the previous state from segmented data snapshots, ensuring accurate recovery.
Integrity Logging: The rollback event is recorded in the lineage, marking it as a verified and approved action.

Mathematical Model of Lineage Integrity[edit]

The Lineage Tracking model follows a hash chain structure, mathematically represented as a series of hash-linked events. Given a lineage of actions $A=\{a_{1},a_{2},...,a_{n}\}$ , each entry $a_{i}$ maintains an associated hash $H(a_{i})$ , computed as:

$H(a_{i})={\text{HyphaCrypt}}(a_{i}||H(a_{i-1}))$

where:

$H(a_{i-1})$ represents the hash of the previous entry.
|| denotes concatenation.

The probability $P_{\text{intact}}$ that a lineage remains intact, given a number $n$ of entries and probability $p$ of uncompromised nodes, is expressed by:

$P_{\text{intact}}=p^{n}$

As the number of entries increases, the hash chain’s resistance to tampering grows, highlighting the security and resilience of Seigr’s lineage structure.

Integration with Seigr's Immune System[edit]

Lineage Tracking operates as part of Seigr’s Immune System, helping maintain data integrity and security across decentralized nodes. The Immune System utilizes lineage data for adaptive replication, threat detection, and recovery processes:

Threat Detection: Compromised or suspicious capsules are flagged by the Immune System, using lineage records to verify and confirm unauthorized modifications.
Replication Scaling: High-demand capsules with critical lineage data prompt the Immune System to scale replication, ensuring that critical historical data is always accessible.
Adaptive Rollback: For corrupted data capsules, the Immune System initiates rollback procedures based on lineage entries, restoring verified capsule states.

Benefits of Lineage Tracking in Seigr[edit]

Lineage Tracking provides the following advantages within Seigr's ecosystem:

Immutable Historical Record: Each capsule’s lifecycle is fully documented, offering complete transparency and accountability for all actions and contributors.
Enhanced Security through Hash Chaining: Lineage entries create an unbreakable chain of historical states, preserving capsule integrity and reducing vulnerability to tampering.
Support for Ethical Data Governance: By attributing actions to specific contributors, Lineage Tracking supports Seigr’s ethical data principles and ensures accountability.
Scalability and Resilience: The ability to trace each capsule’s history and adapt replication levels based on access and importance enhances network resilience and scalability.

Future Enhancements and Applications[edit]

Seigr plans to expand the Lineage Tracking system with several future features:

Predictive Analytics for Adaptive Replication: Using lineage data to forecast access patterns and adjust replication in advance, enhancing data availability.
Community-Driven Lineage Governance: Implementing decentralized voting mechanisms that allow the Seigr community to oversee lineage actions, supporting transparent data management.
Cross-Layer Lineage Verification: Extending lineage validation across Seigr’s network layers, ensuring that every node participates in maintaining capsule integrity.

Conclusion[edit]

The Lineage Tracking system is a cornerstone of Seigr’s ethical and resilient data management framework, providing a transparent, tamper-resistant record for each .seigr capsule. By maintaining an immutable historical record, enhancing security, and supporting adaptive replication, Lineage Tracking advances Seigr’s vision of a decentralized, self-healing, and ethically accountable data ecosystem.

For additional details, refer to: