NEARWEEK PERSPECTIVES: DATALITY, A GAME-CHANGER FOR DATA MARKETS
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Datality is a data-sharing platform leading a new market as a transparent, affordable, and efficient peer-to-peer data marketplace. NEARWEEK had the opportunity to sit down with Clint Taylor, founder of Datality and dev with almost a decade of experience in the research industry. In this interview we touched upon Datality disruptive proposition to re-think traditional data markets and its journey within NEAR.
The traditional data market landscape and the need for a new paradigm
Data is one of the most valuable assets for any business or organisation. Whether is in crypto, corporate, or research, data have a tremendous impact on the long-term success of any enterprise.
Despite data markets play a fundamental role in any ecosystem, the traditional data market presents several challenges for research and buyers. As Clint Taylor remarks, there are many flaws in the way things are being done in traditional data markets:
“How do I know that what I’m buying and who I’m working with is not a bad actor? And then data provenance, where did this data come from? How can I prove that I got my source data in my research from an ethical, reputable source? All of those were nonexistent, or they lacked enough focus in previous marketplaces that if they were unable to be sustained for a long period of time”-Clint Taylor
Traditional data markets have either been one-to-one, where a buyer contacts a company that sells data and then pays for it, or one-to-many, where the buyer has access to a pre-defined data set from a provider that is usually a company. Unfortunately, this means the buyers only have access to who and what data the companies have access to; their payments for the data include overhead costs (administrator fees, employees, etc.), making it more expensive and lacking transparency (verification of the data source, data modification, or tampering, etc.). All of these make it a very inefficient and indirect market that is expensive and not always trustworthy.
Datality’s New Paradigm
Close to 10 years in the research industry put Clint at the center of data as an asset and market research. Learning the ins and outs of the data industry Clint could identify the major challenge faced by the industry — data accessibility and trustworthiness. Datality tackles this problem by helping connecting those that produce data with those that need it:
“What we are doing is leading a new category of peer-to-peer data marketplaces […]We are directly uniting people who have research data that has value to others in the world and people who need it.”-Clint Taylor
This allows Datality to be a unique data marketplace that focuses more on individuals and secure, transparent ways to connect them. The peer-to-peer model creates a whole new level of relatability, personalization, and verification, which are not the usual characteristics of existing marketplaces. For example, the platform has a rating and review system for sellers, making it possible to check their credibility by seeing what other buyers have said about them. Also, by connecting individuals, Datality makes it easier for a buyer to find precisely what data they are looking for instead of having a pre-stored data bank.
Adding transparency and scalability with blockchain technology
Datality is built on their NEAR Protocol, leveraging their speed, scalability, and cheap transaction fees.
“I chose NEAR because three main reasons. One is the Sharding approach, the Nightshade approach, the focus on transactions per second performance, the way that Near Protocol has taken it is absolutely fantastic and addresses the real long-term need of blockchain, which is volume and security.”-Clint Taylor
From the tech side, NEAR’s transaction/second performance (speed) and ability to handle increasingly larger volumes of data without latency (scalability) make it an ideal foundation for a data market like Datality.
On the business side, the user-friendliness of NEAR and familiarity with developers make it easy, faster, and cheaper to build on. Building on NEAR guarantees trust, provenance, and accountability for Datality.
Value proposition and core features
Datality specifically brings researchers to buyers in a two-sided marketplace in a way that is affordable, trustworthy, and efficient. The challenges of building this type of one-of-a-kind platform included ensuring the credibility of sellers and how to preserve the integrity of the data in a transparent, verifiable manner.
“It’s a new culture of trust among researchers and research data providers looking to work together. That’s what we are. That’s the main value proposition in a business sense. And we’re really delivering this using a very comfortable Web2-like application that unites both sides of these transactions.”-Clint Talyor
The value proposition of Datality anchors on trust and usability for both the buyers and sellers, and packaging this into a deliverable service required a different approach to the offerings of classic marketplaces.
KYC
A robust KYC process delivered by Jumio’s powerful AI-based verification helps Datality ensure the identity of its users in less than a minute. This secures the platform and also creates an initial layer of transparency and trust for users and the platform.
Escrow Payment
To secure transactions, Datality uses an escrow payment system, which means funds and data are only released to the transacting parties after verification of the data and confirmation of the deposit of funds. In the event of a disagreement, the platform steps in to review and mediate until a solution is found without any loss of funds or fear of data modification.
Ratings & Review system
Users of the Datality platform can rate each other, which adds another means of verifying seller/buyer credibility and reputation.
User experience
Datality is focused on delivering a user-friendly experience for its users, which starts with making users with or without prior crypto or blockchain experience feel right at home. The marketplace is built with a familiar Web2 look and feel, with an option for users to connect with either their bank details for fiat or wallets if the individual is more comfortable with crypto. Users can also explore the marketplace even before signing up, which means you can choose to create an account only if you feel you have found something tailored to your needs.
On-chain transaction
Transparency of the data source, its storage, and its provider are huge priorities for Datality. On-chain transactions ensure the immutability of the stored data and provide a transparent way to track the data’s journey. Using metadata, the Datality team can tag descriptions to the data and store it on IPFS. This guarantees decentralized transparency independent of the Datality team, which works to the advantage of the users and the platform.
Looking down the road
Datality is currently on track to fully launch in July, but users can already get a feel for the platform by taking advantage of the testnet or exploring the main site.
Further down their roadmap, the Datality team will be looking to add productivity to data users by delivering the marketplace to them directly in a convenient, accessible, and time-efficient manner.
By focusing on trust, provenance, and accountability, Datality is ushering in a new culture of trust for data providers and consumers in a way that is transparent, affordable, and user-friendly.
About Datality
Datality is a transparent peer-to-peer data marketplace for research data providers and consumers built on the NEAR blockchain.
About NEAR
NEAR is a high-performance zero-carbon blockchain that is designed to be super-fast, incredibly secure, and infinitely scalable. NEAR’s vision is to create a network that enables people to re-imagine finance, creativity, and community in new and inclusive ways.
