General baseline question

Hi,

after doing the baseline course… I attended some of the Baseline summit last week. I was telling my business partner about some of the baseline features and how we should think of building something with it. But he keeps asking me the following question:

What’s the difference of building an API product / integrating with third party APIs and baseline? For example salesforce has an API. So why would I baseline it versus just integrating my own api ?

This also got me thinking… so far I have the following understanding I think:

  • baseline is an integration layer with no lock-in

  • lets you be transparent with records with the companies you want to be transparent with - record by record

  • uses the blockchain to ensure and enforce that the data in one database is verifiably identical to data in another remote database

  • allows you to put proofs of consistency onto blockchain so that there are no new integrations needed every time you have a new partner. No silos, it uses the ethereum blockchain as the always on tamper proof state machine. The ‘proofs’ put on the blockchain don’t give away any secret information (surveillance resistant)

  • allows a big player to be more confident in dealing with a small player (confident in their baselined records) as the data is secret but provable via the blockchain. E.g. Big ERP usually just interfaces with other Big compatible ERPs

  • allows a small player to build something inexpensive that can interface with much larger systems

  • allows multiple parties access the same synchronized data over the public mainnet… but securely

But lets say I build an plugin for Salesforce and put it on the salesforce app exchange. This app then as far as I know would typically talk to my own centrally deployed baseline stack (probably using the provide stack) deployed on some server - say aws. My middleware serves as the broker into the eth mainnet.

This is all good, but isnt the communication from salesforce to my middleware a real security vulnerability ? How would salesforce even know that my middleware is even doing any legit blokchain stuff ?

@RuudHuisman
confused :confused: