Datum
Some of us might be baffled – how (and perhaps why) does someone sell their own data?
Here is a steady approach to answer that question. Take a look at the advertisements that pops up and we see when we use search engines like Google. The ads, miraculously, is relevant and related with the keyword for our search – therefore, the ads are relevant with what we’re looking for. For example when begin the search on “snacks”, some ads that appear is very often, if not always, about snacks (Granted, the ads that appeared might not the exact type of the snack we specifically want, but hey.) This is the data we refer to before. The search query is our personal data and it was utilized by another party who exchanged it with “free” services – in this case, the advertisements – they offered.
Whether we want to sell this personal data is completely our decision to make. Some of us might don’t care at all. After all, why would we sell our personal data? Maybe the ads were relevant; maybe there are some of us who get what we wanted from it; and so on. The truth is, whatever the reason, Datum offers us a chance to regain control of the personal data we produce and even monetize it. Almost all people are motivated in their actions by reward or incentives of different kind – we want to get them when we do something: to get paid, to get praises, to achieve actualization, or simply being a good person increases our overall happiness and so on. In this case, the incentive offered by Datum for selling our personal data is The Datum (DAT) Tokens.
What is Datum exactly; and what services do they offer?
Datum is a project that has hosted a token generated event (TGE/ICO) last November and it has been listed in several major exchanges such as Huobi, OkEx and Kucoin. As mentioned before, the purpose of Datum is to create a breakthrough in the world of digital data that was controlled by third parties, signaled by the hashtag #takebackyourdata. The vision of Datum is clear and simple – to allow personal data owners to regain control of their data and even monetize it. Third parties, while they still have the benefit of using our personal data, will not be the only ones enjoying such benefit. With Datum, personal data owners are empowered to gain profit from said data as well.
But again, how does this scheme work – how does selling your data can turn into a profit?
Here’s the next approach to this. In a simple way, every activity in the Datum network is motorized by the DAT Token. The token acts as a “fuel” in the ecosystem. It is incentive or reward for people who participated in the ecosystem. As a daily user of devices such as smartphones and personal computers, we can control the data produced from our daily activities such as browsing and social media-related activities (e.g liking or commenting a picture, etc.). The data then can be sold to people who are interested to buy them.
We can see that the data produced inside the Datum network is a structured data in a form of numbers or digits. This structured data is what exactly companies or certain individuals needed who wanted to analyze something. How we want to sell the data (i.e deciding certain set of rules that must be met in order to sell it, or maybe whether we want to actually sell it or not) – the option is entirely up to us. We can also give our data for free for NGOs, where, for example, our data regarding our health might be useful for organizations active in the field of medics.
Within the Datum ecosystem there are four main elements, which are:
Users: As its name suggest, the users themselves. The controllable and securable data that will be sold or distributed is gained from these users.
Storage Nodes: The miners of Datum network. They have the task to give computational powers and media storage of Datum. Storage Nodes consisted of three things, which are computer power, storage capacity and bandwidth. The node runners receive incentive – the DATUM Token – from these three things in order to create stability and ensuring the continuation of Datum.
Data consumers: The users of the data available on the Datum network. Every user that conducts the sharing of their own data to the network can choose whether the data they offer will be free of charge or needs to be paid. These data consumers have direct access that has guaranteed authenticity. Furthermore, the method costs less than having a middleman, or a data broker, doing the work.
DATUM Token Holders
As said before, DATUM Token is the fuel of every activity on the Datum network.
Just like any other blockchain that has some sort of token, every activity done within the ecosystem of Datum uses DAT token.
Please see Datum whitepaper for more techinal details
Should you know the term masternodes in the world of cryptocurrency then the node storage staking feature isn’t that much different from it (albeit they’re technically not the same – Datum does plan to create incentive from masternode in the future). Node staking utilizes your computer to become a “miner” and the support of Datum ecosystem. Quoting the article made by the Datum team (https://blog.datum.org/datum-storage-node-staking-rewards-eb2096aa83cd), Datum is currently inviting the first 100 nodes to participate in the mainnet. The requirements needed to run storage nodes are as follows:
Filling and submitting the application form.
Test the node in the test net.
As mentioned before, 100 people will be chosen by Datum team in order of completed application and geographic distribution of nodes.
Once chosen to be a part of the node, participants are required to stake 1000 DAT token at a minimum.
What’s the use of running the node storage inside the Datum network?
Just as the same as masternode where we gain passive income from what we donate towards the Datum network, we’ll also get incentive in the form of DAT Tokens for supporting and prolonging the network. The tokens appear from saving the data and transferring it. Remember, when we “deposited” (at least) 1000 DAT Tokens as mentioned before in order to be a storage node, it’ll take 30 days – starting from the emerging demand to withdraw said 1000 tokens) in order to claim it back. These features can backfire, such as when we leave out storage offline that can cause us to be penalized.
The penalty is measured by the average income of our node for a month, and in accordance of a category of how many times has the node failed. This means that the longer our node fails to give the required service then the penalty becomes more severe. Currently saving 1 GB of data requires 500 DAT Tokens per month. For those who want to see the list of fee and other rules can visit this link:
The Datum Application
I have tried the Datum app.
The first impression given was the app was light and requires little resources. It managed to live to the standard announced by the hashtag #getbackyourdata. With just a few clicks from the main menu the data we want to monetize and the rules surrounding it are available on the interface. There are plans to integrate the Datum client on desktops and other internet devices aside from smartphones.
Since the app tested was in its early stages, the offer to collect data source by Datum is still limited to the data of our location and e-mail. Datum plans to unveil a new version of this app, called the DATUM ID, which will include UI fixes, boosted app speed and 100% operational on the Datum Decentralized Storage Network
Competitors of Datum
It is unavoidable how things have changed in the world of blockchain. According to Vitalik Buterin (for more information about Vitalik follow this link https://www.cryptomorrow.com/2017/11/11/vitalik-buterin/), who is the Founder of Ethereum, in his personal blog a new era emerges that defines the economic relationship between us, the users, and service providers such as Google or Facebook. Interestingly, users are no longer simply being an “economical object” where all the benefit goes to companies or hoarders of data. We as users are given power and option to actually use the data we produce ourselves, and the output is in the form of monetizing said data. Datum, in the world of data marketplace, can be regarded as one of the pioneers and leader compared to its competitions. This has been proven by the fact that Datum had managed to launch their mainnet, therefore, Datum is operating independently in their own blockchain.
The Enigma Project is a startup company that has one of its apps is in direct contact with the marketplace – but let’s take a look at the definition of Enigma Project itself: “Enigma is a blockchain-based protocol that uses groundbreaking privacy technologies to enable the scalable end-to-end decentralized application.”
First, the man focus of Enigma is to create protocol and app in a decentralized way. The data marketplace is simply one of the outputs of said app. We can see that the main focus of Enigma is not the marketplace itself. Moreover, the data marketplace of Enigma has yet to be as user-friendly as Datum’s, who already have an Android app for smartphones. Right now the Enigma marketplace is still entering the first of the total four phases of its development.
There are a number of startups in the field of data marketplace such as REME-coin that shares revenue from personal data with its community and Opiria that has the main principle similar to that of Datum, which is selling personal data directly to buyers with no third parties in play. However, these startups are still in the ICO phase and have yet to reach the level of enigma mentioned above, let alone Datum. What makes Datum different from other cloud-based storage projects is the focus that Datum has on the structured data, and the fact that it had the head start so Datum’s performance and results are more visible and measurable compared to projects or companies in the same field.
Datum was founded in 2017. It is located in multiple places – Zug, Switzerland and Hongkong.
Roger Haenni – Founder and CEO
Roger has had experience for at least 17 years in the big data system. He co-founds other companies such as Clever Baby and Bymo.
_Gebhard Scherrer – Co-founder
Gebhard, the co-founder of Datum, is experienced in the field of operations and sales.
There are several advisors from DATUM such as Chriss Miess, TenX’s CFO; Daniel Saito, who has had experience in big data; and Michael Egorov, co-founder of NuCyphe
With this solid team, Datum faces its roadmap challenge – the mainnet, the release of DATUM ID, launch of Datum SDK for mainnet, Datum Block Explorer for mainnet, and the presence of staking node rewards.
The change (or rather upgrade) in technology has been always meant to ease human life, but in the progress not everyone knows what exactly they are doing. Datum, in this case, the blockchain technology allows us the regular users to supervise our data output easier. All this time it seemed that we never really had a choice in terms of our personal data being used by the service provider. According to (https://calc.datum.org/) we can generate up to US$2000 for simply using all the features in our smartphone such as social media, Google Maps, Drive and so on. There’s no denying that we needed those features on daily basis and Datum offers us a choice to control the data we produce every day.
While this article refers to users in general throughout the course and the benefit they get, Datum actually offers benefit too for developerswho can utilize and create an app on the Datum network.
Taking a glance at the vast development of cryptocurrency, especially in the world of data marketplace, it is safe to say that Datum is one of the market leaders in the field, proven by the community, the exchange listing and a product that actually does what it’s supposed to do. Still, nothing and absolutely nothing is perfect, and the same goes for Datum. Datum currently faces the little amount of pre-screened partner. For us users, the data that can be sold is still limited to location and e-mail only, although Datum planned to add more type of data that can be monetized in the future. There’s also the possibility (or perhaps fact) that there are people who are being indifferent about whether they have their data being sold or not.
All in all we believe that as long as Datum being thoroughly consistent in giving pleasant results such as fulfilling the roadmap plans, the list of innovations present and to come, the nobility in #getbackyourdata that causes people to be more aware and giving them an alternative in the digital world – where your identity can be found in the mere reach of fingertips.
Please visit this link if you need more information:
Website: https://datum.org/
Whitepaper: https://datum.org/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf
Social media:
Telegram: https://t.me/datumnetwork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/datumnetwork
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/datumnetwork/
Author: mamacita (bounty0x)
