Index Cooperative Launches Data Economy Index ($DATA) in collaboration with Ren

Thomas Hepner
The Index Coop
Published in
3 min readSep 28, 2021

Index Cooperative and the creators of the DATA Index are excited to collaborate with Ren to bring Filecoin to DeFi!

The Data Economy Index (DATA) is a basket of 7 tokens designed to provide accessible, passive exposure to the second largest Web3 sector, the data economy. Filecoin is a major component of the data economy and one of the top holdings within the DATA Index.

If you’d like to know more about the DATA Index check out this blog: Investing in the Future of the Data Economy

DATA: The First Multi-Chain Index

Built on Ethereum, the DATA Index is represented by a fully collateralized ERC20 token. It seeks to include tokens that provide data-based products or services across blockchains. With the addition of Filecoin, DATA is the first decentralized index to include non-ERC assets.

Data economy tokens are inherently multi-chain and grow along with the entire crypto industry’s success. This means that the success of projects like Filecoin is independent from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, Cosmos, and other cryptocurrencies.

The multi-chain nature of the data economy created a significant technical challenge for the DATA Index. How could non-ERC assets like Filecoin be brought into the Ethereum-based index? Ren Protocol provided a solution to move value between the two blockchains. By enabling conversion of the Filecoin (FIL) cryptocurrency into ERC-20 tokenized FIL, Renbridge enables the inclusion of Filecoin into the DATA Index.

RenVM’s Role in the DATA Index

RenVM serves as a crucial conduit for the data economy by bringing non-ERC assets to Ethereum, so baskets such as the DATA index can function in a fluid and permissionless fashion. Moving forward, the DATA index will leverage RenVM to incorporate other non-ERC assets into the index.

“The future is a multi-chain world and we look forward to leveraging our partnership with RenVM to continue incorporating other non-ERC assets into the index.” — Thomas Hepner, DATA Index Co-Creator & Methodologist

You can bridge your FIL today using RenVM to enter Ethereum’s DeFi ecosystem. DATA index has set up a Sushiswap farm so you can earn bonus yield for providing liquidity on the RENFIL/ETH pool. This should be available to users via the Onsen Menu over the coming days.

Looking Forward | Future Collaborations
We look forward to working more with Ren to bring more assets to various baskets in the coming months. If you like to learn more check out the below resources.

About Index Cooperative
Discord | Twitter | Website

About the Data Economy Index

The Data Economy Index captures the growth of data-based products and services.

Twitter | Website

About Ren

Ren is an open protocol that enables the movement of value between blockchains.

Website | Docs | Telegram | Announcements | Twitter | Reddit | Github

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