DATA AS CAPITAL

Data has now become synonymous with money. Both money and data can be used to exchange value. Both can, with a simple keystroke, be easily mobilized — exchanged — aggregated — and directed. And both represent the key productive inputs that are fueling our information and knowledge-based economy. Data and information… because of their self-evident productive value to I.T and tech companies. And money… because it can buy data and information.

You pay for dinner with money and you pay to network online with your data. The primary (and critical) difference between these modes of payment…?

You actually know how much your dinner cost…

But how much have YOU actually paid Facebook? Instagram? Or Waze? And by how much have you overpaid LinkedIn, Uber, Experian, AMEX, or 23andMe? To name just a few… If you’re unsure, you’re not alone.

The largest and most profitable businesses today are often as eager to take your data as they are to take your money. In fact, many companies would actually prefer remittance via receipt of (your) data, rather than the cold hard cash you have on hand…

Why…?

Well…for one, data is a magnitude of order easier for them to acquire. And it is easier to acquire because most people (and most laws for that matter) don’t currently acknowledge data as a valuable and proprietary personal asset. An asset that you have created and should necessarily also own and direct as well (such as the money you’ve earned as recompense for the value you’ve likewise produced).

Nothing short of an economic revolution awaits; should we simply assert our current and obvious right (and now ability) to own, direct, and invest the valuable data capital that we ourselves serve to daily generate. Unlike digital fiat money (fiat data?), data is intrinsically valuable. Data is directly productive. And as such; represents a new form of capital. Data as a capital asset is capable of producing recurrent value and therefore recurrent revenue for the organization or individual who owns it and determines its rightful disposition.

In summary: data has become an investable asset.

To take this one further; at datavest we hold that in ten years there will be more people in the world investing their data than there are investing their money.

This is most likely to occur for the following general reasons:

1. More people will be able to afford data rather than cash investments.
2. Making a data investment will soon be as easy to make as a cash investment.
3. The quantity and value of our personal data is increasing at an exponential rate
4. Legal acknowledgment of data ownership is only increasing

Datavest, as a platform is designed to accelerate the process by which personal data becomes recognized as both a personal and investable asset. As the world’s first data investment platform, datavest’s mission is straightforward: our goal is to return the value of the data currently being produced — to the individuals who are currently producing the data.

Over six billion individuals currently have an extremely accessible and valuable form of capital. It’s time they have the rights and revenue entitled to data capital ownership.

In the coming weeks we will be outlining our ideas on how we think the transition to a new data-economy might most effectively unfold.

You’ve heard of Mutual Funds. We’ll introduce Datafunds.

You’re familiar with your Return on Investment (ROI), we’ll be highlighting the importance of your Return on Data (ROD).

We’ll discuss why…

1. Your health and fitness data will soon be able to subsidize your health care costs.
2. Your digital labor represents a new (and largely unacknowledged) form of value creation
3. We won’t be able to maximize the value of our data by negotiating its value alone/individually.
4. Together we can create a Universal Basic Income (UBI) that doesn’t require any redistribution, additional taxation, or subsidies.

….As we move forward — we may find that in the process of taking back ownership over our information, we have (in the same process) also taken back ownership over our economy — Our voice…And perhaps our collective digital future as well…

Let’s get started…

-Rob Nicholas Stone

https://www.datavest.org/