In the Western world especially, we are by now firmly entrenched in what is known as the ‘digital age’; waves of technological innovation have continued to sweep the globe, each wave greatly altering aspects of how we interact with the world and with each other. Through these successive waves of technological progress, almost every aspect of human life has become increasingly digitised, producing today a HUGE amount of digital information reflecting our individual lives- in essence the digital you. Unfortunately, however, this data is largely abused by large companies, and even more concerningly people often don’t even realise the rights being taken away from them when using centralised ‘free’ services and websites.
Datum are envisioning a world in which digital data is decisively owned and controlled by the person/s who created it. To this end, the Datum team are building a highly secure and efficient decentralised data platform, governed by individual preferences set by individual users- all enshrined by concrete smart contract technology.
In the current online landscape users willingly, and often unknowingly or even without consent of any kind, give up the rights to huge amounts of valuable digital data and are routinely victims of the actions of unscrupulous actors who have access to this data.
As users engage in their daily online lives- browsing the web, using email, posting on social media- a shocking amount of data is being collected by large companies through the platforms and services used. Even more shocking is the extent to which the average internet user is aware of both their digital footprint, and that such extensive misuse of their data occurs routinely. Unfortunately, many people have still not grasped the concept of data autonomy and therefore simply don’t care.
Large private companies currently house the vast majority of user data, utilising at will depending on their specific motivations; many hoard vast amounts of data within their own centralised data silos to attempt to maintain a competitive operational advantage over their competitors, whilst others simply profit financially by selling users’ data to willing buyers. Often, a mixture of the two occurs when a large centralised entity is left in control of a valuable pool of user data.
Amongst the countless ‘blockchain for the sake of blockchain’ projects which undoubtedly exist in our space, there also exists, of course, true blockchain-based innovation which is providing value way beyond speculative interest, ands are firmly entrenched in the realm of innovation striving to truly positively alter aspects of the current human experience.
Datum is without doubt one of these projects. By utilising technologies and resulting possibilities never before available, one of the most pressingly pertinent issues affecting users in the online space- data misuse- can be effectively quelled.
Features of the Datum ecosystem, taken from the Datum website: https://datum.org/
The Datum ecosystem provides users with an inherently and verifiably secure decentralised platform for hosting their data, alongside an inbuilt mechanism for monetising whichever such data, if they so wish, with pre-determined conditions enforced by smart contracts.
The very fundamentals of the technology utilised to store data on the Datum network means that users can be verifiably confident of the security, immutability and user-determined accessibility of their data within the network. Each piece of data stored within the Datum network is necessarily supplied with user-determined accessibility and usage terms and, powered by inherently tamperproof smart contracts, the user can be confident their wishes will be enforced.
Besides from fundamentally secure data storage, Datum is proposing a new mechanism for the monetisation of personal data which ousts the valueless middlemen and provides ultimate autonomy for users. Datum’s utilisation of blockchain and smart contract technology means that users can be sure of ultimate control over the data which comprises their own digital self.
Buyers of data, by the same token, can be assured of the obviously higher quality data as provided on a voluntary and mutually beneficial basis.
Datum’s open, secure, mechanism for the voluntary sale or purchase of personal, and corporate, data is a genuinely potentially revolutionary mechanism.
Snapshot of the Datum client, as illustrated for iOS, taken from the whitepaper: https://datum.org/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf
The DAT token itself is the fuel which powers the Datum engine; the native ERC20 token utilised within the Datum platform. DAT is the means of payment for buying storage space or available data within the network, and is also an incentivisation mechanism for users to choose to store and motetise their data within the Datum platform.
There are a total of 3 Billion DAT tokens created to power the Datum ecosystem, with 1.53 Billion of those available to the public during Datum’s previously held public crowd sale. DAT tokens have since been listed on various exchanges, with a full list of DAT tradable markets being available here: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/datum/#markets
Of course, anybody can write an impressive whitepaper and create a persuasive website; the idea is the easy part, it’s implementing the idea which is difficult. When evaluating any company, or project, in the Wild West of crypto, it is always crucial to ensure that the team have the expertise and proven ability required to carry out their proposed vision.
In the case of Datum, the team is certainly impressive to say the least. With a truly global reach and spearheaded by the capable CEO and co-founder Roger Haenni, the Datum team consists of an array of impressive individuals who combined possess extensive experience and resulting highly refined skills in building large-scale data processing and management solutions. A description of each team member, alongside a link to their LinkedIn profile, can be found on the Datum website.
Datum team snapshot, as taken from the Datum website: https://datum.org/
Datum is a project with a vision which is not only notably revolutionary from a decentralisation standpoint, but is also becoming increasingly necessary as we progress deeper into the digital age. Datum are providing a solution which aims to facilitate the maintenance of users’ autonomy over their own data in a way only made technologically possible by the utilisation of cutting-edge blockchain and smart contract technology.
In a world where our every online- and increasingly offline- movement and intention is recorded by one entity or another, autonomy over one’s own data will be a fundamental element to retaining true freedom as technology becomes more pervasive and more important to the human experience. We must assure a safe, secure and mutually beneficial mechanism for user storage and sharing of personal, and corporate, data if online experiences are to continue to be positive in the future.
The next upcoming segment of the Datum Spotlight Review will explore the importance of Datum’s decentralised solution within the broader context of the emergence and continual advancement of our digital identity.
Have any questions regarding Datum? Join their active community on Telegram where you can discuss anything Datum-related: https://t.me/datumnetwork
Learn more at their website: https://datum.org/
You can also find their whitepaper here if you want to dig in deeper: https://datum.org/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf
Get connected to Datum on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/datumnetwork
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/datumnetwork
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