Interoperability

Cortex is designed so that the identity of each participant and the datasets published can be recognized and consulted beyond DEDOMENA.AI's own platform, relying on open standards instead of closed, proprietary mechanisms. This avoids dependence on a single technology vendor and makes it easier to connect with other data spaces in the future.

Identity Recognizable Outside the Platform

Each participant receives a decentralized identifier (DID), a unique, public identifier that allows their identity to be verified from outside DEDOMENA.AI, without relying on a centralized third-party database.

Along with the DID, the participant has:

• A digital certificate that certifies their identity to operate within the data space.

• A digitally signed participant self-description (PSD), in an open format, downloadable at any time.

• Verifiable Credentials (compatible with the W3C standard and with the European GAIA-X trust framework) that certify their membership status in the data space and other relevant attributes.

All of this information can be consulted openly through public, auditable access points, with no need to be a participant in the data space, so that third parties (other data spaces, verifiers, auditors) can independently verify identity.

Catalog Available Externally

The metadata for each published dataset is exposed following the open data catalog vocabulary (DCAT): title, description, publisher, dates, coverage, format, license, and associated policies.

This makes it possible for:

• Authorized external applications to query the catalog (or parts of it) through the interoperability API, with filters by country, industry, or provider.

• Other data spaces to display, within their own catalog, the datasets a participant chooses to also make visible in that space (catalog federation). This capability has already been tested with external data spaces as a demonstration of real interoperability between catalogs.

Standards Adopted

• Identity and credentials: DID + Verifiable Credentials (W3C), compatible with the GAIA-X trust framework.

• Catalog metadata: DCAT.

• Data space protocol: the Dataspace Protocol (DSP), which governs negotiation and transfer between different participants' connectors.

• Policies predefined in ODRL are embedded into asset contracts through connector-to-connector negotiation.