SkyThread consists of two central components, The Utility Layer and the Transaction Layer, which work in conjunction with an independent industry consortium providing governance and oversight.
The Consortium
The founders’ vision is for the industry to form an independent, not-for-profit consortium to collaborate and solve for the trust issues related to the sharing of key data required to “know” the “near real time” position and condition of all aircraft and its parts. Current information systems across the value chain create an imperfect picture of exactly what’s on each plane and where it came from. This is critical information to have each time a plane returns to service or comes out of service for a transaction or event such as maintenance, upgrades, conversions, lease returns, aircraft sale, and eventually decommissioning.
The not-for-profit status of the independent consortium will allow members to come together, discuss, and rapidly solve for issues at the industry level while remaining independent with respect to their normal business operations. The founders intend for the consortium to have an important role in managing The Utility Layer that SkyThread is building. The blockchain architecture is comprised of nodes, operating in a proof-of-stake consensus-driven model, managed by consortium members. The founders intend for the consortium to co-create and manage policies for node access, data rights, data usage, and security.
The founders intend for neither SkyThread nor the consortium to own the data contained in The Utility Layer. All Utility Layer data will remain owned and controlled by the companies that submit the data into the layer.
The founders intend for the consortium to be governed by the consortium leadership elected by its members. The founders intend for it to be an independent, neutral, and trusted organization. Through execution of its mission, the founders intend that it will work together with other industry consortia to share information that would benefit the industry.
Utility Layer
Much like the Smart Grid is decentralizing and digitizing the transmission of electric power around the globe, SkyThread’s Utility Layer contains the master data required to create friction-free transactions related to aircraft parts, aircraft, and the technicians we rely upon to keep our planes flying. The Utility Layer contains information obtained from reliable data sources, curated data from 3rd parties, and unique data sets provided by the industry members who have a role in building, operating, maintaining, and financing our aircraft, engines, critical assemblies, and parts. There are four chapters in the data model we call “The 4P’s” – Planes, Parts, People and Places.
The Transaction Layer is designed to run SkyThread and 3rd party applications which leverage Utility Layer data. Access to the Utility Layer data will be governed by the consortium.
SkyThread enables a collection of value creating applications that unleash more than $30B a year for the global aviation industry. These applications reside within SkyThread’s Transaction Layer and access the data that we help collect and store in the Utility Layer.
Coming out of the global pandemic, there are certain industry transactions that are prioritized in our multi-year product roadmap. We’ve grouped the use cases into product bundles to account for similarities in data flow. This also considers similarities in process inputs, work processes, and outputs.
