AMA RECAP : Data Lake x DeFi Raccoons

DeFi Raccoons
DeFiRaccoons
Published in
15 min readJan 19, 2024

Date: January 18th, 2024
Host: RaToon
Guest: Andrea, Marketing and WEB3 Lead

Hello, Raccoon family and crypto enthusiasts!

We recently hosted an AMA with Data Lake. Here’s the AMA transcript for those who missed the live session. We sincerely hope you have as much fun reading it as we did while running the AMA!

Table of Content

INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS
Twitter Questions
About Data Lake
About Crypto Raccoons

INTRODUCTORY QUESTIONS

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Hello everyone and thank you for joining the group today for a crypto educational session with Data Lake. While we wait for BTC to pump, let’s meet Andrea, Marketing and WEB3 Lead at Data Lake! *wait for applause*

As you probably already know, Data Lake is a DeSci project creating a decentralized global Medical Data Donation System to support medical research and AI. Fancy, innit?

Feel free to check out their

Website: https://data-lake.co/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DataLakeToken

Telegram: https://t.me/DataLakeCommunity

Welcome Andrea, please introduce yourself to the Raccoons!

Andrea | Data Lake:
Hello everyone and thank you for having me here today! 🦝

My name is Andrea Dicorato and I’ve been involved in crypto since early 2020.

I started working at Data Lake as Marketing and Web3 Lead in 2022, months before the IDO of $LAKE.

I am super glad to be among the racoons today to tell you more about the emerging trend DeSci, short for Decentralized Science, and Data Lake, LFG!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
It’s one of my guilty pleasure to have you guys here. I was super excited to hear you are coming up in our group because I have a lil bit of background in medicine myself! So uber happy with what you are building.

Andrea | Data Lake:
Awesome! You must know about DeSci already then ❤️

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Yeah, but I’ve never seen it in practice reallyBut until we get on what you’re up to, can you please enlighten the ones that haven’t heard about DeSci before — since it’s a fairly new, ready to hype concept!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Can you tell us more about DeSci? What is it?

Andrea | Data Lake:
Sure! It’s important to start from DeSci as it gives important context! Let’s make a step back: Today science is subject to centralized control in many ways. This causes it to suffer from many of the issues that are typical of centralized system, such as flawed funding and biased publications.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Sure, but I mean it’s science right, it should be the same for everyone. But I get what you mean, that’s not always the case.

Andrea | Data Lake:

With Decentralized Science, or #DeSci, we refer to a trending movement that aims at introducing a decentralized model to rewrite the rules of science by leveraging blockchain and Web3.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

And we’re finally at the stage where we can implement this, hopefully!

Andrea | Data Lake:

DeSci means inclusiveness, democracy, fairness. DeSci is using the blockchain to solve real world problems.

DeSci projects can be unlocking medical data (spoiler: that’s what Data Lake does), or DAOs that try to distribute in an efficient way funding to find new ways to treat baldness, to work on longevity, or even to attempt new space projects to discover the mysteries of the universe and much more.

Although super exciting, Decentralized Science only recently started gaining tractions as some of the big names in the space such as

- CZ (https://cointelegraph.com/news/changpeng-zhao-decentralized-science-medicine)

- Brian Armstrong (https://www.coindesk.com/business/2023/06/15/coinbase-ceo-brian-armstrongs-researchhub-startup-raises-5m-in-funding/)

- and Vitalik Buterin (https://www.molecule.xyz/blog/vitalik-buterin-on-decentralized-science-aging-ai-and-scientific-progress)

talked about it or got directly involved!

But overall, DeSci is still very early! To give you an idea, Coingecko added the DeSci category only few weeks ago, while CoinMarketCap still hasn’t 😁 https://www.coingecko.com/en/categories/decentralized-science-desci

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

So no more randomly buying off internet stuff that will only affect your life you mean? Dang it!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Always stay safu!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Spotless answer if I may 😄 — pun intended this time!

Raccoons, make sure to read what our lord and savior CZ has to say about DeSci while we move on to answering where Data Lake comes into play here!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Let me give you a warm welcome from the Raccoons around the world, make yourself comfortable! Can you briefly tell us more about Data Lake’s mission and vision? We’re interested to hear an elevator pitch.

Andrea | Data Lake:

Let’s get to Data Lake now, sure!

I could talk for hours just to answer that question, but I’ll try to keep it short for an elevator pitch :D

Data Lake was started by two medical doctors and entrepreneurs — Ligia Kornowska and Wojciech Sierocki, both Forbes 30 under 30.

The idea was born out of the need felt by two doctors for good quality, ethically-sourced medical data of proven provenance.

Together, our two cofounders created the initial concept of medical data donation system in which patients are sovereign and can actively contribute to research.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

When was this btw?

Andrea | Data Lake:

Getting into it!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Can’t blame a raccoons for its impatience, especially when we’re talking — and that’s my fav part — about real life brought to crypto/WEB3, not the otherway around. Too many DeFi projects are ‘limited’ to WEB3, but with you guys, we’re taking it to the next level!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Defenitely!

Sounds weird to be talking about “real problems” and doctors involved in crypto ngl, but that’s the magic of DeSci!

Data Lake was officially born in early 2020 and obtained European Union funding.

Today, Data Lake is a leading Decentralized Science (DeSci) project using blockchain for consent and data access management. We are also using our native token $LAKE for incentivizing healthcare providers and patients as well as to enable access to our unique consent collection technology.

I hope I will amnage to explain more in details what we do later in the AMA.

Let me add that Data Lake is a profitable company with a provable traction and over 30 thousand medical consents collected.

So far, we’ve worked with 2 out of 10 biggest pharmaceutical companies globally and delivered data for multiple AI development projects.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Hopefully you can name them, but until we get there!

I know you mentioned the 2 founders which, btw guys, I suggest you look them up, they are not your usual annon dev.

but now I’d like to dive a lil bit into the people surrounding them that are part of the project and actually make it happen — it’s never just a 2 men job!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Let’s hear about the team building Data Lake. We know that a few people from the team come from a medical and humanitarian background, with a bunch of Forbes 25 under 25 and 30 under 30 mentions. What’s the core team’s background, tho, and how many developers do you have on the team? Any notable advisors or VCs onboard?

Andrea | Data Lake:
This is one of my favorite parts!

Data Lake’s team is fully doxxed and composed by a mix of well-known medical doctors, healthcare KOLs, lawyers, as well as web2 and web3 devs.

You can see our pretty faces on data-lake.co/team

DeFiNaut | founder @DeFiRaccoons

Andrea is my favorite.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

He makes the top 3 for me too haha!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Ligia for example is a medical doctor and thought leader, featured in Forbes’ 25 under 25 and 30 under 30 lists, as well as being named in the top 100 Women in AI and the top 100 most influential people in Polish healthcare. She is also the managing director of the Polish Hospital Federation and leader of AI in healthcare coalition.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Omfg, wondering where does she still has time for saving the world, lel!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Wojciech is a medical doctor, humanitarian and serial entrepreneur. Featured in Forbes’ 25 under 25 and Forbes 30 under 30 lists, he led a telemedicine startup in Kenya, built a digital patient’s pathway solution for private healthcare, worked as an emergency medicine doctor and set up a training center for private ortopaedic clinic.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

See, that’s what I mean, this behavious, of saving others, came first, and then the need to create a project around it, in this case, for everyone in your team. Thanks for helping our, still young and small ecosystem get to the wide adoption it deserves!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Yes, just in case medical doctors who want to fix medical data doesnt sound convincing enough, our cofounders are also brillant entrepreneurs!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

And if you don’t trust him, just check their socials, website, and chart!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Oliver on the other hand, our CTO, is a fullstack developer with 7+ years experience in coding, seasoned entrepreneur and a blockchain expert. He has a successful track record as an angel investor and advisor in web3 startups. He is also a founding board member of a software house and blockchain consultancy company. Oliver leads our dev team’s efforts.

To conclude the answer, rather than the advisors, let me mention both the institutional as well as Web3 native VC funds who are invested in Data Lake: HV Capital, Orange DAO, Moonrock capital, and Boost VC.

Data Lake never sleeps

Good mix of team members, isnt it?

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Sure is!

While I was browsing your website, a specific featured popped in my eyes. Data Lake speaks for itself — it’s about collecting data, but most of the people, especially after the Facebook events, are quite reticent to data collection

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
So this brings to my next Q, how do you think the Anonymous Health Data Sets will help future PhD students with their research? Is there a market for institutions here as well?

Andrea | Data Lake:

That’s true, and it is part of the problem we are fixing at Data Lake.

Once again, let’s take a step back and start from the beginning: the doctor’s visits we have all had, the medications we have been prescribed, and the diagnoses we have received represent medical data.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
For sure, but don’t get me to the dentist!

Andrea | Data Lake:

This data, which in most countries is in the citizens’ hands, is invaluable for medical research. However, it is not easy for researchers to gain access to the data, as they would need to operate in a regulatory mine field and ask the patients to sign paperwork at their hospital or clinic (assuming then that they actually know how to resolve this practice) in a compliant way.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Agreed! and it seems a lot more like KYCing yourself if you need to do it like that — for each and every patient separately and in person, right?!

Andrea | Data Lake:

There is also a lack of incentives: why should a citizen bother and give away their data?

I think everyone who uses crypto and DeFi knows well about incentives problems.

Anw, that’s where Data Lake comes in. Data Lake has built Consentify, a platform that connects researchers to patients through clinics who act as intermediaries.

In the example of the PhD student you mentioned, such student can buy 10,000 LAKE and gain access to our platform, where they can then set the parameters of the study, set a bounty in LAKE tokens and wait for clinics to take the bounty to collect data directly from their patients directly from their tablet.

Our platform leverages smart contracts on Polygon blockchain to grant patients access to the platform and the possibility for example to revoke their consent.

This would do as general overview, note also that the medical data one is a $100 B market

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

That’s the most str8 forward system I’ve heard so far, especially for a real life issue! Well done!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Glad you said that! It’s an amazing feel when you use the blockchain to really make a difference.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Just one question! Would anyone be able to do it? If I’m a bad actor who wants to take advantage of this, is it possible?

Andrea | Data Lake:

No! We would never allow bad actors to use our platform! Let’ say you’re a tobacco company studying about how to sell more cigarettes, that’d be a straight no from us!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Aight, so everyone trying to get access will still go through a team — perfect!

You actually mentioned those juicy $LAKE tokens, why don’t we get more on that, shall we?!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Let’s talk now about $LAKE! What is it, how is it integrated with Consentify and where can one buy it?

Andrea | Data Lake:

Launched in December 2022, $LAKE is our utility token. LAKE is only available on Uniswap, Ethereum. We plan to get it listed on CEX during this quarter, by the end of march.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Are we looking for a specific CEX, or just keep an eye on socials?

👉https://twitter.com/DataLakeToken

Andrea | Data Lake:
🤐

Defenitely go follow us on X!

LAKE is among the best performers of the DeSci category, currently trading at around 13x from IDO price and at a market cap sub $20M. I have also personally noticed many KOLs showing interest in the project in the last 30 days or so, including Crypto Wizzard.

I would also like to mention that we executed a burn 🔥 of 66% of the total supply of LAKE last August, as the total supply decreased from 7.5 B to 2.5B tokens.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Raccoons fam, if you wanna read more about it, here it is

https://datalaketoken.medium.com/how-the-new-lake-distribution-looks-like-after-our-burn-of-66-of-the-total-supply-c00d122c30b9

Andrea | Data Lake:
$LAKE has two main utilities within Consentify

1. Access Token: As I mentioned earlier with the PhD student example, having a certain balance of the LAKE tokens in your wallet may allow you to create an admin account on Consentify.

Researchers may also be required to keep the balance of LAKE above a certain threshold to be able to use the platform and publish studies.

Therefore, LAKE token will democratize access to data and patients as it may allow ANYONE to use the platform freely (with ethical limits as I referred to earlier).

With time, several access levels mediated through the LAKE token could also be used for unlocking additional functionalities of the platform such as analytics, BI or better visibility of research to healthcare providers and patients. Researchers may also be required to deposit $LAKE token into their accounts upon registration.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

That’s already enough for a great economy tbh. not to compare it to Doge, but just imagine this hitting its MC. Aight, I’ll shut it!

Andrea | Data Lake:

This gives a hint on how much is still there to build! 🔜🔜

2. Incentive Token

Once onboarded into the platform, researchers can publish their trials with characteristics of the patient group they are looking for (so-called exclusion and inclusion criteria).

Researchers may be able to set up token-based bounties and rewards for healthcare providers for including patients into the trials and for patients for joining the research. That way, researchers might be able in real time boost engagement and recruitment into their trials.

The token may also be used in the Benefit Panel of the system. There, researchers can set up different benefits for providers (e.g. educational content) or patients (e.g. patient support programs), where they may be able to exchange their tokens for multiple different benefits and bounties.

And if these concepts sound a bit complicated, tell your friend into healthcare or research about what we do, and he will confirm that it all makes a lot of sense!

Another usecase worth mentioning is related to our ongoing LP incentives campaign!

An incentive program for liquidity providers of the ETH-LAKE pair on Uniswap, Ethereum, has started in August 2023 and will continue running for 12 months since then. The current APR is around 300%, you can check it live on our dapp app.data-lake.co! More details and tutorial in our docs: https://docs.data-lake.co/lake-token/lp-incentives-program.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Awesome! thanks!

Aight, I don’t want to run late on this one, I know you have a lot on your hands as well, please bear with me for another 2 questions, then we’ll move to the community side!

A very discussed subject the past months has been AI, so I know everyone will want to know.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Let’s get back to data. In a data-centric world, how do you envision AI implementations? Are you using any AI features with Data Lake? How can AI improve today’s medicine?

Andrea | Data Lake:

I’m glad you are mentioning this!

The market size of AI in healthcare was estimated at $15.1 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach $187.95 billion by 2030.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Here’s your easy 10x everyone, lel!

Andrea | Data Lake:

A fundamental assumption is that in order to learn, recognize patterns and make decisions, AI NEED DATA.

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

No that’s a fact! that’s basically the core of a learning machine right, data!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Despite this, there still isn’t any data access solution that allows medical research and AI to strive. With our platform, we at Data Lake have connected all the pieces of the puzzle and unlocked access to medical data. As a matter of fact, we are working right now as we speak with healthcare AI companies in need of medical data.

AI is inevitable if you ask me, but someone gotta train it too!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

For sure! I’m on the same page as you for this one, let’s bring in the big data!

Thanks again An for this!

Andrea | Data Lake:

You’re most welcome!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:

Moving to my final question, you’ll prolly know what I’m about to ask, but I’ll do it anyway!

You guessed it, it’s about the roadmap!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Lastly, can you share with us what the community can expect in the short term? What’s the next milestone on the roadmap? What exciting stuff do you have for us?

Andrea | Data Lake:

We will release our roadmap in the coming days, you’ll see everything in detail then. Unfortunately I won’t leak anything as we are very close to making it public!

Let me use this question to actually invite all the racoons interested in using blockchain for something useful for humanity with Data Lake to hop over to our Telegram Community: https://t.me/DataLakeCommunity.

We are also on X: https://twitter.com/DataLakeToken and other social media channels you can find on https://data-lake.co/social!

I’m sure the racoons are well navigated, but allow me to say that our team will never DM you first, also be aware of fake X accounts or telegram chats impersonating us!

RaToon | DeFi Raccoons:
Indeed, great point there, you can never be TOO SAFE

Aight, this concludes the first part of our interview, and tbh, I’m already sold for it!

Andrea | Data Lake:

Wow been 48 minutes already, time flies when you talk about DL :D

Twitter Questions

Chukky:

Could you provide specific examples of how Data Lake’s decentralized recruitment platform has successfully connected researchers with the right patients, and what impact has this had on the efficiency of clinical studies?

Andrea | Data Lake:

…when dealing with medical data, our stakeholders often require a high degree of secrecy. Remember we are patients-centered so we also pur pricavy first. So I cannot go too much in the details in this one

However, the question is a perfect assist to the first Case Study we have published a couple of days ago: https://x.com/DataLakeToken/status/1747301212033101839?s=20

Bitcoinking:

Could you provide insights into the specific features of Consentify that allow patients to control how their data is used and withdraw consents, ensuring a transparent and ethical environment for their participation in medical research?

Andrea | Data Lake:

I love Q2!

Let me name the main use of the blockchain:

When a patient agrees to participate to a research study, they put their signature on a tablet, and then in the background a tx is submitted on Polygon!

The patient will then use his unique tx hash to access his consent and manage it.

This is in compliance with the latest regulations, such as GDPR and DGA in EU

Isn’t this amazing? I think cypherpunks would be proud!

About Data Lake

Website: https://data-lake.co/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/DataLakeToken

Telegram: https://t.me/DataLakeCommunity

About Crypto Raccoons

A community for everything related to DeFi, NFT, IDO, Blockchain, and much more. We share our analysis, and fundamentals and hold AMAs with all sorts of projects!

That’s all we have time for today, until next time, consider joining our socials underneath to join our DeFi Discussion!

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Now for a disclaimer — I’m not a financial advisor, anything you read on my Medium isn’t financial advice, it’s a log of myself doing due diligence on and talking to projects, please verify any and all information presented (error reporting welcome) and make your own decisions.

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