The Future of Data: How Blockchain is Enabling a Trustless Data Ecosystem
Contributors: Cameron Stow, Lloyd Moore
Data has been central to the digital economy for years, but with the rise of AI and ML, it’s become an even more valuable asset. Data drives everything from healthcare to finance, making it a key component of our digital future.¹ Unfortunately, the traditional ecosystem is proving inadequate — organizations are experiencing a deterioration in data quality, and providers are missing out on value attribution. Industries such as finance, healthcare, and supply chain can benefit from a blockchain-powered data ecosystem, which ensures trustless data exchange between parties and creates new value for data providers.
The Current State of the Data Ecosystem
In today’s digital age, the data ecosystem is constantly evolving. Every day, we generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data.² But how is this data being used, and who “owns” it?³ Businesses, governments, and organizations leverage this wealth of information to gain insights into consumer behaviors, predict future trends, and improve decision-making processes. This raises valid concerns about how data is being used and the vast amounts of data organizations must sort through to gain meaningful insights.
Benefits of a Blockchain-Enabled Data Ecosystem
Blockchain has emerged as the go-to solution for processing transactions accurately, securely, and transparently. Layer 2 networks like AliceNet provide a solution that can be tailored for data management. By utilizing blockchain to establish an immutable, decentralized ledger of all data transactions, entities can easily track the entire lifecycle of their data, from creation to consumption. This helps improve data quality, eliminate errors, and enhance trust between stakeholders while providing a verifiable audit trail in case of any disputes or regulatory requirements.
Access to Verifiable and Trusted Data
We all know the saying, “Garbage in, garbage out.” Organizations continue to struggle with access to quality data, leaving them with missing information or poor results.⁴ As more organizations integrate AI solutions into their tech stack, access to quality data is essential to developing accurate models and delivering valuable insights. By building a trustless data exchange, organizations can ensure they have access to verified and secured data, unlocking new innovation and value.
New Value Creation for Data Providers
A decentralized and trustless data ecosystem opens the door for new value streams for data providers. Data providers could be individuals or organizations with meaningful data that are willing to share that information. In today’s data economy, providers are missing out on opportunities to derive value from their data as intermediaries take a significant portion of the profit generated by its use. Data providers often lack privacy and control over how their data is used. In a blockchain-enabled data ecosystem, providers can decide how and when their data is accessed, all while ensuring their information is private and secure.⁵ Tokenization and data marketplaces, such as Ocean Protocol,⁶ allow data providers to monetize their data directly.
As the digital ecosystem continues to evolve and AI becomes more integral to all industries, access to accurate and trusted data becomes paramount. By leveraging blockchain technology, we can transform the data ecosystem, giving data providers new value creation opportunities and control over their data. The blockchain-enabled data ecosystem will play a pivotal role in driving innovation as organizations strive to harness the power of data, unlock unprecedented value, and shape the future digital landscape.
Sources:
[1] Gantz, J. & Reinsel, D. (2021). Data Age 2025: The Digitization of the World — The ‘Lifeblood’ of the New Economy. International Data Corporation (IDC). Retrieved from https://www.idc.com/getdoc.jsp?containerId=US49018922
[2] Marr, B. (2018, May 21). How Much Data Do We Create Every Day? The Mind-Blowing Stats Everyone Should Read. Forbes. Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2018/05/21/how-much-data-do-we-create-every-day-the-mind-blowing-stats-everyone-should-read/?sh=465517ac60ba
[3] O’Sullivan, K. (2022, October 24). Business in the Cloud: Oxford Digital Economies. Fortune. Retrieved from https://fortune.com/2022/10/24/business-in-the-cloud-oxford-digital-economies/
[4] Murphy, K. (n.d.). Top 5 Challenges to Achieving Healthcare Interoperability. EHR Intelligence. Retrieved from https://ehrintelligence.com/news/top-5-challenges-to-achieving-healthcare-interoperability
[5] Krawiec, R. J., Barr, D., Killmeyer, J., Filipova, M., Nesbitt, A., Israel, A., & Quarre, F. (2020, June). What Blockchain Could Mean for Your Health Data. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/2020/06/what-blockchain-could-mean-for-your-health-data
[6] Ocean Protocol. A Decentralized Data Exchange Protocol to Unlock Data for AI. Retrieved from https://oceanprotocol.com/
