Ocean Protocol: Pioneering Privacy and Profit in the Data Economy

Ocean Protocol is a blockchain project aimed at unlocking the value of data and facilitating data sharing and monetization. It offers a decentralized data sharing framework, enabling data owners to securely control, share, and monetize their data while ensuring user privacy. By utilizing Ocean Protocol, data becomes more accessible and economically valuable without compromising personal privacy or data ownership.

What is Ocean Protocol?

Data is ubiquitous, being generated across all business facets, from consumer data driving sales to financial data propelling many business decisions. With the increasing importance of data, the rate at which it is collected is also on the rise. In 2016, an estimated 16 ZB of data was generated, but by 2025, this number is expected to surge to over 160 ZB.

The Ocean Protocol project is attempting to create a decentralized data exchange that can unlock data generated by AI. It leverages blockchain technology, cryptocurrency tokens, and smart contracts to connect data consumers with data providers. This enables all involved parties to share data under guaranteed trust, transparency, and traceability.

In Ocean Protocol, data owners have control over their data without being locked into any single market. The project combines blockchain technology with a data sharing framework to create a data ecosystem. Under Ocean Protocol, users and businesses will find themselves able to participate in a new data economy that spans the globe, touching every enterprise, individual, and device. The aim is to return the power of data to the actual owners of the data, enabling them to benefit from the value contained within their data.

Within the Ocean community, you’ll find a variety of individuals, from AI/data developers to businesses and nonprofits, to cryptocurrency enthusiasts and others who believe in the future proposed by the Ocean Protocol. With the transition to blockchain v4 and v5, as governance moves to a DAO, it will be fully decentralized in terms of funding.

This will mark an incredible year for the Ocean team and complete the roadmap published, as the team continues to push forward its vision in a fully decentralized manner.

What is the Data Economy?

As we’ve come to understand, our world is driven by data, but much of this data is held and controlled by a handful of companies and governments. Companies like Google and Facebook (among others) have learned how to collect user data and earn huge amounts of money by packaging and selling this data through advertising.

Interestingly, AI systems have made this monetization possible, and as the amount of data collected increases, AI becomes more accurate. This makes advertising more targeted and increases the revenue streams of the companies controlling the data, making them some of the most valuable organizations on the planet.

What we need to know is how to access data equitably and ensure that the proper data owners can monetize their data (if they choose to do so).

Ocean’s mission is to make data access more equitable by applying a combination of technology and governance to maintain transparency and provide trust among all participants in the data ecosystem.

You likely already know that every website you visit in 2020 collects some information about you in some way. You’ve seen the pop-up windows informing you that the relevant website uses cookies and that they “value your privacy,” but do they really? How many of us actually take the time to read the terms of service linked in these pop-ups?

If you knew that these documents essentially inform you that the website is collecting any information about your browsing habits and that the company behind the website will use any and all data it collects in any way it sees fit.

This includes advertising to you based on your browsing history but also includes selling your data to other companies so they can advertise to you as well. All of this brings in billions of dollars in revenue for the tech companies involved, but it all happens in the shadows with few people aware it’s happening.

To some extent, data has now become the most valuable commodity we have. Data is already an $11 trillion industry, accounting for 15% of the global GDP, and it’s expected to grow to 25% in the next five years. The data industry is massive and only set to grow.

Ocean doesn’t want to stop data collection, but they do want to make it more equitable for individuals.

Ocean Protocol Values

The Ocean Foundation and the Ocean Protocol team embrace the following values:

• Unlocking accessible data to enable a wider range of organizations and individuals to access this data. This will also help to unleash much of the potential that lies within data.
• Returning control of personal data to the actual individuals, and obtaining their consent before data providers use personal data. This includes granting rights and control over data, verified through regular audits.
• Decentralizing governance and making it transparent, using democratic principles to decouple capital from the governance of the system, while still ensuring citizens have some control over the system.
• Spreading the wealth created by data collection and distribution. Rewards will be distributed continuously, and speculative behavior will be curbed.
• Actively working within the constraints of data privacy and compliance regulations to uphold the basic human rights of privacy in personal data and the contents of such data being shared or sold.

As stated above, the collection and distribution of data is a huge economy. Through the use of blockchain technology, Ocean Protocol aims to address the challenge of building a universal data exchange filled with trustworthy data.

This blockchain system is an alternative to the oligarchic development of large tech companies, which cannot provide transparency or trust, while also removing control and ownership of personal data, leading to a loss of individual freedom.

Data Markets and Data Science Tools

Companies have long known the value of data. Recently, individuals have also begun to recognize the value of their personal data. Attempts to create markets for these data have failed so far, due to concerns about privacy and data control. Ocean provides solutions for the following aspects:

• Control: Ocean applies the concept used by non-custodial token exchanges, where tokens are not controlled by the exchange. Similarly, data will never be under the control of the market.
• Privacy: Ocean believes that you can have a market for private data that can be bought and sold without compromising privacy. While this sounds contradictory, Ocean believes that by bringing computation to data, making it only available for artificial intelligence use, this is possible.

Data Tokens and DeFi Implementation

Ocean believes that the use of data tokens is key to improving the experience of Web3 developers, as well as offering better leverage for other Web3 infrastructure and wallets.

The protocol will tokenize access control, turning your wallet into a data repository. More precisely, crypto wallets will hold tokens that grant rights to access data. Thus, crypto wallets will hold data rights, and transferring these rights is as simple as sending tokens to another wallet or address. This makes crypto wallets a new way to manage data.

Data tokens in Ocean act like an API, allowing data to flow within the ecosystem. They will effectively connect artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science to the blockchain ecosystem, allowing these data to exist as financial assets. This inserts data into the world of decentralized finance (DeFi), making possible data loans, data DEXs, data-backed stablecoins, and data tokens within the financial supply chain. DeFi is already huge, but with the inclusion of data, the future of DeFi is even brighter.

Ocean will serve as the base layer of the data economy. The native OCEAN token will act as the system’s reserve currency (via staking) and become a financing platform and a platform with exchange units for data or assets.

Ocean Protocol Tokens

The OCEAN token is the utility token used within the Ocean network for buying and selling data and services. It also serves as a reward for sorting data and staking to provide liquidity. Plans are in place to use it for decentralized governance in the future. It is also used to create data tokens to run the market.

Essentially, the OCEAN token is the commodity that powers the entire data economy, incentivizing the community to provide the resources needed to protect and expand the network.

The reason for creating the OCEAN token is that, although the ecosystem could use existing tokens like Ethereum as a unit of exchange, the protocol needed a native token to serve as a form of reward and to establish monetary policy. It would be impossible if the protocol used external tokens as a medium of value because the protocol needs to control the supply of currency. Furthermore, any fluctuation in third-party tokens would disrupt the orderly transactions of markets created within the Ocean network.

There are four key participants in the network using and earning OCEAN tokens:

Ocean Data Providers: These are participants in the system who have data available and are willing to provide it to others at a certain price. When others use the data, they compensate the data providers with OCEAN tokens.

Ocean Data Curators: Ocean has a unique concept in creating curation markets. Essentially, these are a way for humans to measure which data is good and which is bad. Because Ocean is a decentralized system, this isn’t a role that can be taken on by a centralized committee. Instead, Ocean allows anyone with experience in the market domain to act as curators, earning OCEAN tokens as a reward for their service in clearing any bad data from the market. Curators stake their tokens to indicate high-quality data to stay honest.

Ocean Participant Registry: Because Ocean is open, it needs a way not only to manage data in the market but also to manage participants in the system. Participant registry is achieved by requiring participants in the system to stake tokens, making good behavior economically attractive and making bad behavior easily punishable.

Ocean Keepers: Lastly are the network nodes that provide datasets by running Ocean software. Nodes in Ocean are referred to as Keepers. Like other participants, they earn OCEAN tokens for the services they perform, including allowing data providers to offer data to the network.

Ocean Protocol Team

Like many blockchain projects, Ocean Protocol boasts a large and diverse team of professionals dedicated to unleashing the power of data through artificial intelligence. The core team consists of about 40 members scattered across the globe, with backgrounds in artificial intelligence, blockchain technology, business, and marketing. Many members are entrepreneurs with experience in founding their own companies before joining Ocean.

The main founder and CEO of the Ocean Protocol project is Bruce Pon, who was also the founder and CEO of BigchainDB before creating Ocean. He is also the founder of Avantalion Intl Consulting, a company with the mission of providing banking services to people without bank accounts. Between 2008 and 2013, he helped the company establish over 18 financial service companies and banks in regions of the world where historically few or no banking services were available to people.

The second founder involved in the project is Trent McConaghy, who has been an AI professional since he began working for the Canadian government in 1997. He also founded ADA, a company that used artificial intelligence to help circuit designers determine circuit dimensions more quickly.

ADA was acquired in 2004, and Trent subsequently founded Solido, another company that used AI to assist circuit designers. The company was acquired by Siemens in 2017, by which time 19 out of the top 20 semiconductor companies globally were using the company to assist with their chip designs.

Ocean Token Distribution

The entire Ocean Protocol ecosystem is supported by the ERC-20 OCEAN token, which is a utility token that allows the community to monetize data and transform datasets into actionable intelligence for businesses.

Ocean Token Allocation

The OCEAN token, being a utility token within the Ocean Protocol ecosystem, facilitates the monetization of data and the transformation of datasets into actionable intelligence for enterprises.

The total supply of OCEAN tokens is 1.41 billion, with slightly more than 613 million issued and slightly over 414 million in circulation. The token employs Proof of Service as its consensus mechanism and serves as a means to protect the network as well as an incentive for data providers and other participants within the ecosystem. Once the network is fully decentralized, it will also become a governance token and be used for the purchase and sale of data within the ecosystem.

51% of the total OCEAN token supply is planned to be distributed in a Bitcoin-like issuance schedule over several decades until all tokens are fully allocated. These tokens are specifically earmarked for funding community projects curated by OceanDAO.

Bittrex International IEO

Ocean obtained its first round of financing in the first quarter of 2019, raising $1.85 million, though it fell short of the $8 million funding goal.

The second round of funding was completed through the Bittrex IEO program, starting on April 30, 2019. In this second round, 56.4 million OCEAN tokens, representing 4% of the total supply, were set aside for sale. Each token was priced at $0.12. The maximum amount of tokens an individual purchaser could buy was capped at $5,000, with Bitcoin being the only accepted medium of payment.

The second issuance was a huge success, with the team raising $30.65 million, slightly below the target of $31.6 million. The IEO lasted only three days, with OCEAN tokens being listed on Bittrex on the final day.

Bottom Line

Ocean Protocol is working in two industries that are in their infancy. Both blockchain and big data technologies have made significant strides, but there is still a lot of development, growth, and discovery to be done in these fields. Additionally, Ocean draws upon artificial intelligence and machine learning technologies, which are also in the early stages of development. It is these technologies that will help Ocean make its data private, trustworthy, and reliable.

In summary, it’s clear that as the technologies used mature, Ocean and its experienced, talented team of developers are on a path that could bring explosive growth in the future.

The steady rise in the price of OCEAN tokens is a testament to the community’s belief that the project is on the right track and addressing a need. Data is ubiquitous, and Ocean is set to find a way to package this data, ensuring that individuals are not exploited by oligarchs, governments, and companies.