Hedera Hashgraph to be used for crowdsourced airstrike warning app in Syria

Sentry is an an app developed by Hala Systems that has been providing civilians with a crowdsourced and sensor-driven early warning system against airstrikes during the protracted civil war in Syria.

Live since 2016, the system has evolved to become more accurate and complex, using a sensor network, artificial intelligence and blockchain technology to provide a strong, technological underpinning for analyzing data on the ground and distributing critical alerts.

The data inputs for the warning system include individuals' observations and reports, like sightings of overhead aircraft, and sensor modules placed in trees or on rooftops, which collect acoustic data for analysis.

In addition to this, neural network systems trawl local social media for keywords that can provide further clues as to the timing and locations of possible attacks.

As a private enterprise whose custody of the data could prove problematic in this regard, Hala Systems has therefore been working with decentralized technologies such as Ethereum.

Speaking to Cointelegraph, a representative for Hedera Hashgraph said that Hala Systems has now chosen to discontinue its use of Ethereum in favor of the Hedera Consensus Service, having found the former to be insufficiently tamper-proof.

"Hala Systems found probabilistic consensus, smart contracts with highly variable fees, and slow confirmation times unsuitable for their use case."

The Hedera Consensus Service, the company claims, provides a more efficient, immutable chain of custody for the data that is input to the system - providing evidence that can be trusted by third parties as to the who, where and what of an event.

"Hala Systems can provide real evidence and verification for exactly when and where media originated. Each event logged to the HCS is signed by the issuing camera's keys and receives a consensus timestamp by the whole Hedera network."

In addition to its technology partnership with Hedera Hashgraph, Hala Systems is also working with the United Nations, United Kingdom Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office, the United States State Department and other foreign ministries.