Analysis: Datum

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 

 
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