Overview & Vision
In the Western world especially, we are by now firmly entrenched in what is known as the ‘digital age’; waves of technological innovation have continued to sweep the globe, each wave greatly altering aspects of how we interact with the world and with each other. Through these successive waves of technological progress, almost every aspect of human life has become increasingly digitised, producing today a HUGE amount of digital information reflecting our individual lives- in essence the digital you. Unfortunately, however, this data is largely abused by large companies, and even more concerningly people often don’t even realise the rights being taken away from them when using centralised ‘free’ services and websites.
Datum are envisioning a world in which digital data is decisively owned and controlled by the person/s who created it. To this end, the Datum team are building a highly secure and efficient decentralised data platform, governed by individual preferences set by individual users- all enshrined by concrete smart contract technology.
Current Situation
In the current online landscape users willingly, and often unknowingly or even without consent of any kind, give up the rights to huge amounts of valuable digital data and are routinely victims of the actions of unscrupulous actors who have access to this data.
As users engage in their daily online lives- browsing the web, using email, posting on social media- a shocking amount of data is being collected by large companies through the platforms and services used. Even more shocking is the extent to which the average internet user is aware of both their digital footprint, and that such extensive misuse of their data occurs routinely. Unfortunately, many people have still not grasped the concept of data autonomy and therefore simply don’t care.
Large private companies currently house the vast majority of user data, utilising at will depending on their specific motivations; many hoard vast amounts of data within their own centralised data silos to attempt to maintain a competitive operational advantage over their competitors, whilst others simply profit financially by selling users’ data to willing buyers. Often, a mixture of the two occurs when a large centralised entity is left in control of a valuable pool of user data.
Datum’s Solution
Amongst the countless ‘blockchain for the sake of blockchain’ projects which undoubtedly exist in our space, there also exists, of course, true blockchain-based innovation which is providing value way beyond speculative interest, ands are firmly entrenched in the realm of innovation striving to truly positively alter aspects of the current human experience.
Datum is without doubt one of these projects. By utilising technologies and resulting possibilities never before available, one of the most pressingly pertinent issues affecting users in the online space- data misuse- can be effectively quelled.
Features of the Datum ecosystem, taken from the Datum website: https://datum.org/
The Datum ecosystem provides users with an inherently and verifiably secure decentralised platform for hosting their data, alongside an inbuilt mechanism for monetising whichever such data, if they so wish, with pre-determined conditions enforced by smart contracts.
Ultimately Secure Data Storage
The very fundamentals of the technology utilised to store data on the Datum network means that users can be verifiably confident of the security, immutability and user-determined accessibility of their data within the network. Each piece of data stored within the Datum network is necessarily supplied with user-determined accessibility and usage terms and, powered by inherently tamperproof smart contracts, the user can be confident their wishes will be enforced.
Monetise Your Data on Your Terms
Besides from fundamentally secure data storage, Datum is proposing a new mechanism for the monetisation of personal data which ousts the valueless middlemen and provides ultimate autonomy for users. Datum’s utilisation of blockchain and smart contract technology means that users can be sure of ultimate control over the data which comprises their own digital self.
Buyers of data, by the same token, can be assured of the obviously higher quality data as provided on a voluntary and mutually beneficial basis.
Datum’s open, secure, mechanism for the voluntary sale or purchase of personal, and corporate, data is a genuinely potentially revolutionary mechanism.
Snapshot of the Datum client, as illustrated for iOS, taken from the whitepaper: https://datum.org/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf
DAT Token
The DAT token itself is the fuel which powers the Datum engine; the native ERC20 token utilised within the Datum platform. DAT is the means of payment for buying storage space or available data within the network, and is also an incentivisation mechanism for users to choose to store and motetise their data within the Datum platform.
There are a total of 3 Billion DAT tokens created to power the Datum ecosystem, with 1.53 Billion of those available to the public during Datum’s previously held public crowd sale. DAT tokens have since been listed on various exchanges, with a full list of DAT tradable markets being available here: https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/datum/#markets
Team
Of course, anybody can write an impressive whitepaper and create a persuasive website; the idea is the easy part, it’s implementing the idea which is difficult. When evaluating any company, or project, in the Wild West of crypto, it is always crucial to ensure that the team have the expertise and proven ability required to carry out their proposed vision.
In the case of Datum, the team is certainly impressive to say the least. With a truly global reach and spearheaded by the capable CEO and co-founder Roger Haenni, the Datum team consists of an array of impressive individuals who combined possess extensive experience and resulting highly refined skills in building large-scale data processing and management solutions. A description of each team member, alongside a link to their LinkedIn profile, can be found on the Datum website.
Datum team snapshot, as taken from the Datum website: https://datum.org/
Verdict & Summary
Datum is a project with a vision which is not only notably revolutionary from a decentralisation standpoint, but is also becoming increasingly necessary as we progress deeper into the digital age. Datum are providing a solution which aims to facilitate the maintenance of users’ autonomy over their own data in a way only made technologically possible by the utilisation of cutting-edge blockchain and smart contract technology.
In a world where our every online- and increasingly offline- movement and intention is recorded by one entity or another, autonomy over one’s own data will be a fundamental element to retaining true freedom as technology becomes more pervasive and more important to the human experience. We must assure a safe, secure and mutually beneficial mechanism for user storage and sharing of personal, and corporate, data if online experiences are to continue to be positive in the future.
The next upcoming segment of the Datum Spotlight Review will explore the importance of Datum’s decentralised solution within the broader context of the emergence and continual advancement of our digital identity.
Have any questions regarding Datum? Join their active community on Telegram where you can discuss anything Datum-related: https://t.me/datumnetwork
Learn more at their website: https://datum.org/
You can also find their whitepaper here if you want to dig in deeper: https://datum.org/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf
Get connected to Datum on social media:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/datumnetwork
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/datumnetwork
cryptoleonidas
Thanks Spartan great analysis! Online data is definitely getting to be more important the more we depend on technology. The sooner people wake up to data misuse the better!
I agree 100%- the best way to make people aware is through education and tools such as Datum to help them explicitly visualise and manage their online data.
Love Datum, I saw Roger on boxmining a while ago now and he struck me as an intelligent guy. Sold my stack in the chaos but not long bought back in. Thanks for covering!
Thanks for reading!
importance of personal data will needs to be realised before it is too late, it baffles me people are so passive when being abused and just dont care. i deleted my fb account a long time ago!
really glad you decided to review datum man been following them from day. one of the only bags I've held through this dip
Great to hear! Thanks for reading!
cool so its kinda like Sia but more geared towards individual users?
They are similar concepts but with explicitly different target user bases and mechanics- remember, crypto is never a zero sum game, there will be many similar successful blockchain based businesses just as there are many supermarkets in the 'real world' for example.
But Datum had its ICO ages ago already??
They did indeed- I generally review new projects but whenever there's a particularly significant use case of blockchain being pursued I will be the first to spread the word!
This post has received a 10.16 % upvote from @boomerang.
like the concept, app looks clean BUT how can you stop the data these companies already have?
Great question. I suppose you can't affect the data already collected as you have already given up your rights to that data previously, but remember you generate HUGE amunts of data which becomes outdated very quickly - so that old data will be very limited in its use, and will quickly become largely valueless.
For sure it's only right people are masters of their own data (the digital you is a big part of you) but I'm just not sure of the mechanics, how will this actually stop companies using your data?
Of course you can't stop them using data legally acquired already, but if you refuse to allow these copanies to harvest more data from you through their 'services' then they will have to acquire it your way if they want to attain your data from now. Data gets outdated quickly too, so never data is much more valuable!
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STOPExcellent insight, I have followed. I would appreciate a follow back, thanks.
this was a great review, a good read man.