Datawallet and the Rise of the New Internet [PART 2]
Our previous post focused on the current data landscape and the risk data brokerage poses to our online economy and society as a whole. In this sequel, we will explore what Datawallet is, how it works, and how it is going to address the shortcomings of the current data brokerage model.
Part 1 can be found right here: https://medium.com/@DataWalletHQ/datawallet-and-the-rise-of-the-new-internet-part-1-56ccdb4a233d
The Datawallet Idea
We believe that data should be owned and controlled by the people who create it — the users. On this foundation we have built an ecosystem that enfranchises users while simultaneously providing superior data to consumers.
So what exactly is Datawallet?
Datawallet is a blockchain-powered data exchange that puts people in charge of their data and empowers developers to bring the next generation of world-class applications to life. Our exchange puts users in the driver seat; it gives them full control to decide what data to share and whom to share it with. It gives them full transparency into what companies want to source their data for. And most importantly, it allows them to reclaim the profits made with an asset that is rightfully theirs.
Why is the Datawallet model better than normal data brokerage?
As discussed in the previous post, data brokers are confined to sourcing only a fraction of the data people create (the Quality Problem). They also have to employ low fidelity probabilistic models to link data from different platforms to one profile (the Silo Problem) and they operate entirely without data creators’ expressive consent (the Ethics Problem).
The Datawallet model avoids each of these issues through our commitment to putting the users at the center of the exchange. Datawallet provides users with the tools to personally extract data from different platforms and link it all into one unified data profile. It may sound to good to be true, but by users sourcing and linking data themselves, all problems faced by the data brokerage industry simply dissolve.
First and foremost, whenever users extract data from any one platform (either via API, Email receipts, offline receipts, fitness data, etc.) they can extract up to 100% of the data they create on said platform. This data is completely of bounds for data brokers and fixes the Quality Problem that data brokers suffer from. Furthermore, data creators don’t face the issue of having to compensate for a lack of common identifiers by employing probabilistic models — the Silo Problem. They themselves are the only entity tying together all data points across platforms which allows them to establish deterministic links across data silos. Finally, if data is shared based upon expressive user consent, profits made in the data industry are distributed to the person who created this data in the first place, thus getting rid of the Ethics Problem endemic to the current data brokerage ecosystem.
An important idea to internalize is that when you bring data about yourself to market, this will, by definition, always be the best data about you. You own the monopoly about the best data about you. This means, that whenever a data consumer would like to purchase data about you, they have no incentive to go to any other entity but you.
The Datawallet Ecosystem
Now that we’ve established how precisely a data creator-driven data exchange model is more powerful than the current data brokerage model, let’s turn to how Datawallet allows you take ownership of your data and manage your own data exchanges. In order to do so, let’s take a closer look at the Datawallet ecosystem, which consists of three pieces: the Datawallet user app, the Datawallet API, and proprietary enterprise applications such as DX Insights.
The Datawallet App
The Datawallet App gives users complete data sovereignty, as well as access to a marketplace to make their data work for them. Data is collected through the app where users can link data across multiple platforms including Amazon, Uber, and Facebook. This can be achieved either through linking data from an API via OAuth or by linking emails from specific addresses, such as receipts@amazon.com. Off-line transactions can also be logged through pictures of receipts. All data collated in a user’s profile is encrypted, and cannot be accessed by anyone, including Datawallet, without the express permission of the owner. Users give permission to share their data with interested companies via an encrypted-data smart contract, in which users only decrypt the data points they want to share. The resulting data is held in escrow until the other terms of the contract are satisfied, which would typically be a payment in the form of DXT. The blockchain guarantees the security and transparency of these exchanges. Users alone control the key to decrypt their data in a sandboxed environment. Additionally the terms of data transactions made by the user are permanently stored on the blockchain. The transparent chain of processing steps from data source to collated data profile also ensures that data consumers can trust in the veracity of the data unlike any current data brokerage solution that relies on multiple unknown third parties.
The Datawallet API
The Datawallet API allows developers to surgically access the high quality data offered by our users on the exchange. Our RESTful API provides a developer-friendly abstraction layer above the smart-contract exchange that allows AI engineers, data scientist, and ML developers to do what they do best — -build innovative data products. The API allows them to do this without having to additionally be blockchain gurus, while still giving both sides of the transaction the assurances of the smart contracts. Additionally, the API allows Datawallet to incorporate pre-processing, collation, and insights into the transaction to provide developers with production-ready data right out of the gate. The API allows developers to offload the frustration of tracking the moving targets of social media data points and deal with our stable, curated endpoints.
Enterprise Applications
Through Enterprise Applications, data consumers will request certain types of data by offering tokens, services, or a product. If users decide to opt-in, a smart contract is initiated. Every data exchange requires the data requester to specify the type and quantity of data necessary for users to participate, whether the data is anonymous, whether the exchanged data will be used to augment existing data about each user, and the amount of DXT that will be received. The value of each type of data reflects the demand in the market. In this way, rather than entrusting their privacy to third-parties, data creators will be able to decide when it is worth it to them to share their data.
For now, these applications can be divided into three categories: Augmented Experience Apps, Direct Service Apps, and Channel Apps. Augmented Experience Apps allow Datawallet users to take advantage of their own data to enhance their online experience by tailoring the products they already interact with to their idiosyncratic preferences and personality. Direct Service Apps can be purchased with DXT and/or data and directly provide the data provider a service. These services range from allowing users to gain transparency about about the modern data ecosystem to learning about themselves through their online behavior and decisions such as calculating their Big 5 personality score. Finally, developers would be able to create Channel Apps, which would use the trove of quality and ethically sourced data to create AI programs with applications outside of the Datawallet exchange. However, with the current explosive growth in data creation, AI, and personalized data products, innovations outside of these three categories are inevitable.
DXT
DXT is the medium of exchange on the Datawallet Marketplace. It is a novel crypto-asset that can be used by companies and other data requesters to purchase data from users, and for users, in turn, to purchase advanced applications developed through the Datawallet API. Since companies need to purchase DXT in order to acquire data from users on Datawallet, we expect the majority of trading volume of DXT to be made up of firms buying DXT from the users who earned it. This virtuous cycle fostered by the interplay of two separate exchanges, Datawallet and the various token markets, will mean that the price of tokens will accurately reflect the increasing value of data as a digital asset.
In Conclusion
With data production projected to increase exponentially along with the tools needed to derive value and insights from this data, it is critical to reform the severely flawed existing data ecosystem. The Datawallet platform is up to the task. We are leveraging blockchain technology to guarantee internet users sovereignty over their own data and help them unlock the value of their data.
For companies, Datawallet constitutes the fuel source to power the new AI-driven online economy. Since the Datawallet model is based entirely upon users giving expressive consent to share their data, companies are able to access cross-platform, user-specific, historic and real-time data which previously was entirely inaccessible. By allowing users to link their data directly to their applications, companies will be able to train their algorithms right away and unlock the groundbreaking potential of this new generation of smart applications.
Datawallet has the potential to disrupt one of the most powerful and profitable sectors in our online economy through user empowerment and decentralization. Data Brokers sell thousands of dollars worth of data about each of us every year. If we took their work into our hands, we would be able to realize the vision of a self-bootstrapped universal basic income. With Datawallet we don’t simply provide internet users the tools to compete with data brokers. We give them the tools to beat them.
To stay up to date with our progress, please join us on Telegram: https://t.me/datawallet
