Streamr
Today it is time to cast an eye over another potential investment, Streamr.
Streamr was set up in the belief that the existing traditional and centralised infrastructure for managing data flows worldwide are simply not up to meeting the needs of the data-rich world we are entering, where the Internet of Things grows every day. The project team’s response has been to build a new, decentralised infrastructure that takes advantage of Web3.0, which offers anyone who wants to use it an open-source and vendor-neutral means of transmitting real-time data. By building this service on a peer-to-peer network it offers almost limitless scalability.
It’s worth pointing out that the Streamr network isn’t itself built on a blockchain but does, instead, run in parallel with Ethereum and xDai, which it uses for certain key features.
With users of the service paying for the pleasure, this provides funds to incentivise people to run nodes and the more of these there are the greater the network capacity. These fees and payments are made in Streamr’s own DATA coin.
There is also a marketplace that brings data owners together with prospective buyers and one particularly interesting feature of this is the ability for any group of people with a common source of data to get together and offer their data for sale. There must be almost limitless opportunities there, so long as there are parties wanting to purchase the data on offer.
Streamr has been going for a few years now and they are a long way through their current roadmap, so we’re looking at an established player here, not something that should be expected to disappear overnight. Full rollout is planned for 2022. But is it worth my money?
For now, I am going to ignore the fact that DATA is an ERC-20 token, which means it comes with the usual high gas fees whenever you want to do anything with them, and focus on other points of interest.
Having recently written a couple of pieces about Nodle, it is easy to see they are in the same space and have some similarities. I also know of but, as yet, know little about IOTA. But that’s fine because this is a rapidly growing market and so offers plenty of business for multiple suppliers.
I noticed that one of the services already up and running on Streamr is Swash, which lets anyone install a browser extension that is used to monetize their data as they surf the web. By happy coincidence, I started trialling this a few weeks back, so have some sort of acquaintance with the sorts of services that will be running on Streamr, although it is too soon yet to pass comment.
If you’ve been reading my other posts in this monthly series, you will know by now that when assessing a project I look for utility, an active community, a quality team and clear signs of delivery. This is one ticks all those boxes and I can’t ignore the fact they are operating in a market that is growing at a blistering pace.
Does all this make it one to add to my little portfolio of investments? Maybe. I like it but I’m not going to rush in. For one thing, I usually prefer to let these things ‘brew’ in my head for a while (it gives the little grey cells time to quietly do their thing) and that’s what I’m going to do with this one. For now, I’ve added it to my watch list.
Until tomorrow…
Renaissance Man
Why this Diary?
I thought it might be an interesting exercise, as much for myself as anyone else, to keep a diary of my interests and activities in the land of the blockchain and all things crypto, so I’m going to give it a go at writing a short diary entry each day for the current month, November 2021. It will give me something to look back on and assess and it might offer up some entertainment and topics of interest to anyone who happens to read it.
The Usual Disclaimer
Please don’t take any of the above as financial or investment advice. It is intended to be nothing other than a little entertainment and information sharing. Always, but always, do your own research before committing your money to anything.