What is the role of the Publisher in Data Streams ?

Question

I have been using data streams in my Project and i have noticed that each item has a field called " Publishers " .

1. My question is, what exactly is the role of the publisher in a data stream ?

2. Why must every item, that is published in a data stream, needs a publisher specified for it ?

3. Is it possible for one item to have multiple publishers ? If so, how would that be useful ?

4, Do publishers take part in mining the transactions, which occur when an item is published on a data stream ?

Answer 1

The publisher of an item is the address that signed the transaction in which the item was published. Yes, it's possible for an item to have multiple publishers, if the item is in a transaction signed by multiple parties – this might be useful if multiple parties want to assent to a piece of data simultaneously. The publishers of an item have no necessary connection with the miner of the block containing the item.

Answer 2

Publishers are basically just some address of the node that is used to publish any item into the stream. The publisher is used to specify the address from which the publish transaction is used. 

It can be used to sort out transactions made by a particular publisher address. Suppose if some publishing cost is incurred while publishing a transaction then that amount is deducted from the publisher address.  

Yes, it's possible for an item to have more than one publisher, suppose if the publishing transaction is signed by multiple parties then it would be useful if multiple parties want to asset to a piece of data simultaneously. 

No, this is not what is meant by publisher as that published transaction can be confirmed by anyone and we can't specify any specific address to mine that transaction.

Hope this answers all your questions.