Datum is a blockchain-based marketplace and data management system that aims to turn data into a secure, tradeable commodity. The aim of the platform is to help users govern their personal data in a very secure, private and decentralized way. As the Datum website explains, “data is the new oil”. The platform has created an exchange for that commodity powered by Ethereum, BigchainDB, and IPFS.
The Datum network provides individuals and bodies such as researchers, companies, startups the best and easiest way access to data while respecting the data owner’s terms and conditions. This exponentially growing mass of data has become a important source of value and economic power for those who are able to control and monetize it. Presently, the business of data sharing is a one way street being ruled by information monopolies with resources and access to users’ personal data via social networks, etc. These social network companies then go on to sell this data to advertisers for an huge amount of money. There are also big security lapses when it comes to where data goes and what is done with it. But by becoming a leading data marketplace, Datum aims to revolutionize the current data market where data creators are hardly ever paid for their data and the monetization happens by middle men who do not add any value.
The approach for monetizing the data is built around a Blockchain platform where client data is protected on a decentralized NOSQL database. Consumers are able to take advantage of the platform by storing any sort of structured data, social media data, wearable device data, or IOT data from smart devices.
Datum believes that if there was marketplace for data that worked in both directions, data could be used in a fairer way. Datum’s stresses on fairer data usage and dissemination is believed to help specific users better quantify and monetize their content, making the entire system more valuable.
A user, for example, John, submits data and gets paid by a consumer;
1 . John submits a piece of data to the Datum Network using the client software. John pays gas to submit the data. As the data is encrypted, only John can provide a decryption key to all the interested parties.
A Storage Node receives the data and stores the data. The data is replicated to many other storage nodes.
A Data Consumer declares interest to purchase the piece of data.
John then receives a data purchase request with the details such as purchaser and price offered. He can agree to the purchase request or counter offer with a modified proposal.
If John accepts the proposal, John receives DAT Tokens and the decryption key is sent to the Data Consumer who pays in DAT Tokens.
| Allocation | DAT Tokens | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Pubic Contributors | 1,530,000,000 | 51 |
| Reserve Fund | 870,000,000 | 29 |
| Datum Core Dev | 600,000,000 | 20 |
| Total | 3,000,000,000 | 100 |
Datum is going to change the way we manage and control our data. It puts users back in control of their data, letting users choose which data they wish to share, and with which parties. Users can profit off selling their wearable fitness tracker data, for example, while preventing companies from viewing their social media information. Datum really has the potential to change the way we manage personal data
For more info, check out their Website and Whitepaper
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