The Datum network allows anyone to store structured data securely in a decentralized way on a smart contract blockchain. The DAT smart token enables optional selling and buying of stored data while enforcing data usage rules as set by the data owner.
Nowadays data is an asset which is as valuable as oil and machines used to be in the past. It has become a strategic asset that allows companies to acquire or maintain a competitive edge. User data can find many applications and uses, most important being advertising and research.
Internet conglomerates like Facebook, Google, Twitter provide their services for free but in exchange exploit a user’s personal data. Sensitive information like personal emails are accessed by Google to sell information to advertisers. The data ecosystem is now worth billions of dollars, however the most important component of this system i.e the user, is the only one who is not actively involved. Datum is creating a decentralized network where users will have all the control over their data and will get paid for sharing it.
Datum network is based on smart contracts which enable the sharing and exchange of data. Datum client will be a web and mobile based application where user submits the data along with its usage terms. The data gets encrypted and stored in decentralized form using IPFS and BigChainDB. Users will have to pay some fee to the network storage miners. Once buyers submit their requirements, smart contracts match the attributes and release data in exchange of access charges taken from the buyer.
Apple’s Healthkit is similar to what Datum aims to offer. However the data stored on Healthkit is centrally located and owned by Apple, and the users don’t get paid for sharing their data. The team has not given many usecases of the product usage in their short whitepaper apart from a few examples of data monopoly of internet giants like Facebook and Google. Newly launched AirToken also pays users for enabling access to data.
The concept of Datum is somewhat different, you can check our review of AirToken here. Companies like Papyrus,Qchain are creating digital advertising ecosystems in which users get paid for sharing their data to advertisers. They are limited to advertising ecosystem, while Datum aims to cover other domains as well, although we don’t exactly know which ones.
CEO Roger Haenni is a serial entrepreneur with extensive experience in big data systems. He has cofounded 4 companies one of which includes StockX. StockX is a venture capital backed e-commerce site for global sneaker resale market. The whitepaper lists 8 members in the team and 1 adviser. Adviser Daniel Saito is the cofounder of MySQL. A recent blogpost shows addition of 3 new advisers and a few more team members. The core team has no prior blockchain experience, they have hired 2 Stanford undergrads as blockchain engineers. We give an average rating to the team. The team’s lack of blockchain experience should have been compensated by having more advisers who have worked with the technology.
Even after a user downloads Datum, what is stopping Facebook, Google, Amazon from sharing user’s data. That’s how the internet economy works. Facebook, Google are providing free services to users only because they get the data. The “only users have access to their data” part of the advertising campaign is somewhat misleading.
IF very strict antitrust laws come up which prevent internet giants from collecting user info without their permission, then the business model might find value. Atleast for the decentralized digital advertising bit, companies like Papyrus, Airtoken seem to be much better placed. As for the other usecases, there is not much information available. There is a mention of car data, where users will sell data that their car generates using Datum. But then how are they planning to do that? Are they actively seeking partnerships with car manufactures like Dovu does? Overall we feel the idea is good, but the scope is too broad for a single team to handle. We hope the team shares some more details through blog posts etc.
Find out more about the company today by visiting
Website : https://datum.org/
Whitepaper : https://datum.network/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf
ANN Thread : https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=2049312.0
"This article was created in exchange for a potential token reward through Bounty0x"
Bounty0x Name - arturbonson