What is Unification? [Unified Data, HAIKU & BABEL explained]
Of all the important questions of our time, there is one that stands out above the rest. How can we use emerging technologies to improve efficiency and unlock the massive amount of human potential that is currently going to waste?
Since its inception in 2017, the Unification Foundation has been conducting a grand experiment to create an answer to this question.
Our project overturns older, more inefficient ways of managing and exchanging data, and replaces them with a blockchain-based solution that creates radical new possibilities for app functionality and scientific research.
Unification accomplishes this in two ways:
- Standardizing user data into a unified format that can be bought and sold on an open marketplace, then seamlessly incorporated into products & scientific research
- Granting users immutable control over their own private data, so they can elect to share it with apps & research institutions while also maintaining a degree of privacy that has not been possible until this point
Unlocking human potential through unified data
Unification was founded on the belief that, when it comes to world-changing technological and scientific breakthroughs, unified data is the missing piece of the puzzle.
Right now, data is held in a wide variety of formats and stored in silos, unable to be easily accessed or correlated with other data sets.
Companies and research institutions who wish to compare multiple types of data must painstakingly reformat each database, requiring massive manpower and introducing the threat of human error.
Furthermore, as long as humans are required to query various relations between data sets, we will by definition only receive answers to questions we are wise enough to ask (and believe it or not, we’re not always that wise).
Because the world’s data cannot be easily read and correlated en masse, we are significantly hampering the ability of machines to find important correlations among data that is collected.
Until we have a world where data sets can be easily cross referenced, we will forever be hindering the ability of apps and research institutions to make discoveries that improve our quality of life.
Unification offers a profound solution: We use Smart Contracts to unify data into a singular, standardized format.
As a result, data can be seamlessly read, correlated, and integrated by apps and research institutions, leading to better user experience as well as groundbreaking new discoveries.
Through our efforts to create unified data, we have created technology that unlocks the power of data to reveal correlations that we never before anticipated, thus radically shifting the course of history.
Granting users immutable control of their data
Beyond merely standardizing data, Unification incorporates a number of facets of blockchain technology that are beneficial to both business and users alike.
As it stands, users have no way to understand what data is being collected and where it is being shared. Nor can they elect to sell their information to apps and research institutions who wish to use it to improve their product or make scientific discoveries.
With Unification, users are granted immutable control over their data, as enforced by Smart Contracts.
Unification’s BABEL interface allows users to view where and how their data is shared, to shut or open each data faucet at any moment, and to receive a portion of payment remitted for their data. Payment is transmitted in United Network Distribution (UND) tokens via Unification’s C++-based HAIKU Smart Contract system.
Unlike the standard model where users have little knowledge of what personal data is being bought and sold, Unification engages the user and empowers them to both own and share their data to improve their experience.
This allows businesses and research institutions to access the data of consenting users like never before, while also staying ahead of privacy regulations like GDPR.
HAIKU: A Smart Control system for standardizing data into a unified format
In order to understand how Unification accomplishes unilateral data standardization, it is first necessary to understand the technological processes of HAIKU.
HAIKU itself is Unification’s Smart Contract-based protocol layer on EOS, consisting of a few parts:
- Smart Contract templates deployed by individual apps, which standardize their data and automatically convert it into an exchangeable format, so it can be bought and sold on a universal data marketplace
- A series of client/server-side SDKs (software development kits), which apps use to encrypt and decrypt hashes to access the data. The actual data is not stored on the blockchain — rather, it is the hash/access key to the data which is transferred and stored on the EOS blockchain
- MOTHER, the Unification master Smart Contract, designed to protect the system itself. All sub-contracts in the ecosystem must be listed in MOTHER to transact in the ecosystem
Practically speaking, this protocol provides the pathways for full interoperability of data between apps and research institutions that rely on data for technological functionality and scientific discovery.
Once an app has been integrated into the Unification ecosystem via HAIKU, we refer to it as a “UApp,” also known as a “Unified App.”
BABEL: A standardized data marketplace & visual dashboard for end users
Data standardization is only valuable if it allows easier transmission of data from one party to another. This type of unilateral data exchange between apps, research institutions, and users themselves is one of the core potentials unlocked by HAIKU.
In order to full realize this potential, though, we require the emergence of data marketplace where data can be bought and sold in standardized, ready-to-use formats.
The beauty of an open-source world is that anyone could theoretically create just such a marketplace using the foundation set forth by HAIKU.
However, rather waiting for some shining knight to come around and build the access point that will accelerate the exchange of unified data, the Unification Foundation has decided to create the most robust possible product we can.
In examining the landscape, the team at Unification felt that we were best equipped to make a robust data marketplace into a reality, due to the fact that we hold combined decades of experience in AdTech and consumer data industries.
This has led to the development of BABEL, a marketplace and user interface that sits on top of the Unification protocol.
BABEL has a few distinct functions:
- Providing data purchasers and sellers with a visual/clickable interface to access a universal data marketplace.
BABEL allows interested parties to view what data is listed for sale and what data is available for purchase, and to conduct transactions in an open marketplace.
- Providing end users with a view into all data collected about them from various apps and granting them immutable control over its exchange.
BABEL also functions as a wallet for accessing UND tokens, which users accrue by allowing data purchasers access to their data. Inside the BABEL interface, users themselves have the controls to approve or deny all data exchanges, with their choices being enforced immutably by the EOS blockchain, rather than being subject to vague Terms of Service.
Blockchain mass adoption through an enterprise sales model
In order for a data marketplace to thrive, network effect must be achieved. To achieve this type of critical mass, Unification relies on an enterprise outreach division modeled after the global sales process at Oracle.
Instead of asking developers to build “walled gardens” without any actual users, or trying to acquire individual consumers one by one, Unification understands that resources are better applied to concentrated enterprise outreach.
Our initial strategy is to onboard Small-to-Medium-Enterprises (SME) apps with user bases of 100K-2mm. By doing so, Unification has the ability to achieve instant critical mass of data within our marketplace, as both users and data are onboarded en masse from the very start.
This initiative has been carefully chosen as part of Unification’s strategy to play for the end game.
Unlike most other companies in the space, our end game is not for the UND token to have a high value in and of itself. Rather, we are focused entirely on building the future protocol layer of the internet and enabling frictionless data exchange.
How to learn more about Unification
After six months of development in stealth mode, we are pleased to bring Unification into public view.
A few sources of information where you can learn about our work:
- Website — You’ll find a link to our whitepaper, detailed FAQs, and comprehensive team bios. Our whitepaper is a thorough and in-depth analysis of our protocol infrastructure and the landscape of data management and blockchain technology, weighing in at just over 80 pages. [unification.com]
- Github — If you are a developer, you may want to have a look at our Github. [github.com/unification-com/haiku-node-prototype/wiki]
- Telegram — Our Telegram channel, which is where all the magic happens. You can find me and the rest of the team in there daily, answering questions and interacting with the growing Unification community. [t.me/unificationfoundation]
Excitingly, this is just the beginning. All of our team members are available to answer questions as we continue to develop the future of unified data.
We are currently in a private funding round, with a public sale scheduled for August 2018. If you think that you qualify to participate in the private round, or would like to contribute or interact in any other way, feel free to reach out on our Telegram channel or email us at hello@unification.com.
Welcome to the family.
Unification Team
