What are Data Unions? How do they work? Which ones can I use?
What are Data Unions?
A Data Union framework provides a way to bundle a user’s real-time data together with others and distribute a share of the revenue when someone pays to access it. On its own, a person’s data does not hold much value, but when combined in a data union, it can aggregate into an attractive product for buyers to extract insights. This is crowdselling, and has the potential to generate unique data sets by incentivising individuals to trade previously unavailable data.
What problem do Data Unions solve?
Most of the data generated by smart devices is stored in silos by the companies who provide the apps and devices. By making this information more accessible through trade, and incentivising the creation of new data points, a more open data economy might be stimulated and technologies such as those imagined in IoT realised.
In this data economy, the individual decides which information they wish to make accessible, putting a greater emphasis on data use transparency.
Data Unions are the first convenient and scalable way for people to retail their data.
How do Data Unions work?
An app is built that receives user data, either directly by an SDK, or from a 3rd party ecosystem via an API. The app allows individuals to opt-in to send the data they choose, through the Streamr Network, to a data union where it is processed and bundled together with others’ data for sale on the Streamr Marketplace.
A data union can be configured to capture all kinds of data, but may be best targeted for use in a specific niche. For example, a film production company could commission an app that lets users capture and sell their film and TV streaming data paired with their demographic info. Users get paid for their data and the company gets real-time insights into viewer trends to inform decisions on the kind of shows to commission.
The data union manager, who might be the developer of the app, takes responsibility for setting the terms. This includes the data’s price, percentage, scaling, management of members, and marketing the data products to potential buyers.
Once a buyer pays for access within the Streamr Marketplace, a percentage of the purchase value, decided by the data union manager, is distributed via the Streamr DATA token to all individual providers.
You can dive deeper into how Data Unions work on the Streamr website, or explore the developer documents to start building the framework.
What Data Unions can I use?
The Data Unions framework launched in October 2020. These are the Data Unions you can use today and in the near future:
Swash
The Swash app lets users capture, anonymise, and sell their data as they browse the web. Swash is easily installed as an extension for Firefox, Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Brave. The app lets people customise their privacy level and start earning tokens for their browser data right away.
Swash is available to use now and has grown into one of the world’s largest data unions with over 200k users!
Try Swash today.
Re-Public DAO
Re-public is an app for iOS and Android to manage, visualise, and monetise personal data from one place. The app allows users to compile data from multiple devices, where it is end-to-end encrypted and packaged in an open source format for trade. The more data that is collected, the higher the potential value.
Try it in the App Store or Google Play.
Unbanx
Unbanx is a web3 project working to create the world’s first consumer banking data union. Users of the app will be able to trade their anonymised transaction history and earn tokens.
Unbanx uses the Streamr Network to send data in real-time and distribute payments directly to its users. The app is currently in testing.
DIMO
Dimo is an upcoming IoT software platform that will allow drivers to stream their vehicle data and earn tokens. As well as the Data Union Framework, the DIMO team are integrating with the Streamr Network to ensure the data pipelines operate in a P2P messaging pattern. The Network also opens the possibility to turn connected devices into publish/subscribe nodes on the Network.
MAT
MAT is a LATAM based ride-sharing app making the jump from Web2 to Web3 by launching a data union. The 200,000 MAT users will soon be able to opt in to trade data from their daily commute and earn tokens. This opens a new incentive to passengers and drivers, which the team hopes will provide a market edge over competing ride-share providers.
MAT is available on the App Store and Google Play.
How can I build a Data Union?
Data Unions are built on a special framework that sits on top of the Streamr Network. Anyone can build a Data Union, please see the developer documents and tutorials to get started exploring the framework.
Streamr recently launched the Data Union DAO to act as a springboard in developing the Data Union Framework tech and growing the ecosystem. The DAO is designed to govern the technology via its dedicated token, UNION, and decentralized token voting.
The mission statement of the Data Union DAO:
“Disrupt existing data business models by enabling people to sell their data with full transparency, control, and fair revenue sharing. This can only be achieved by applying decentralized technologies, which allow self-sovereign control over digital assets such as money and data.”
If you have an idea for a Data Union, get in touch with the Data Union DAO team, or submit a proposal to the Streamr Data Fund with as much information as you can provide. Funding is available for successful proposals.
If you’d like to contact Streamr for more information on Data Unions, please email contact@streamr.network
