FACTS: Federated Agile Collaborative Trusted System
Obstacle
The Eclipse Dataspace Connectors (EDC) technology still faces several challenges, including issues related to GDPR compliance, especially with regard to the exchange of personal data in the context of contract negotiation and formalisation, as well as the weak resilience of the system due to its highly centralised structure, which creates single points of failure.
Solution
AD4GD proposes an alternative solution to the conventional approach proposed by IDSA that substitutes the need for Dataspace connectors in general and the EDC in particular. It is called FACTS and implements Integrity, Provenance, and Trust as essential elements of a resilient data service, offering significant value for both clients and services ensuring data reliability, traceability and trustworthiness.
Description
FACTS, was firstly demonstrated in the OGC Testbed 20 IPT (OGC, 2025) by Secure Dimensions. FACTS’ architecture includes an Immutable Catalogue, based on blockchain technologies, and implemented based on the Open Source Hyperledger-Fabric project. It ensures that the metadata record representing an asset cannot be tempered with, and its integrity is preserved by calculating a hash with the actual data. To avoid complexity, FACTS offers an STAC interface where assets in the blockchain are presented as resources in API-accessible collections.
FACTS also implements smart certificates issued by entrusted entities, that can be considered contracts between the user and the data producer. Unlike the IDSA approach, these certificates are prenegotiated with the entrusted issues and stored in the user wallet, instead of in the EDC, avoiding any personal data flow. Certificates can be revoked or limited to data processing, ensuring sovereignty.
Usage in the project
FACTS was implemented by Secure Dimensions as part of an exploratory subcontract that CREAF had with them in the AD4GD project, and in the context of OGC’s activities where the project participated.
Foreseen applications
After experimenting and demonstrating with FACTS, AD4GD believes that FACTS could serve as a federated alternative to the traditional Dataspace infrastructures more respectful with GDPR.