Is this the most underrated ICO of 2017?
Disclaimer: I have taken part in the Datum pre-ICO (Initial Coin Offering). My reasoning behind why I have done so is explained below. I am in no other way affiliated with the company but believe in the project and the opportunity it presents to individuals, and to society at-large. I am not a financial advisor and am merely presenting my opinion. Do your own research before investing into any ICO.
On a sidenote, if you agree with my thoughts on the prospects of this opportunity, please feel free to up-vote my post to help spread the word!
Introduction
We are constantly hearing about how big data is one of the most important developments of our generation. With billions of connected individuals, operating numerous devices that in turn run various technologies, vast amounts of data is constantly being produced. It is estimated that there is 2.5 Quintillion bytes of data in existence, with 90% of it having been created in the last 2 years alone.
This data is highly useful, even essential, for an unfathomable number of reasons, some of which include:
- It can help businesses optimize almost all aspects of their operations. From marketing to stock control, information can be used to improve company profits and user/customer experience.
- Fighting crime. Big data is being used to help police forces determine where and when it is most likely for a crime to be committed. This allows them to best prepare for particular eventualities.
- Most excitingly for me, it is increasingly being used in the health-tech and medicine industries. The analysis of big data will help develop cures and allow clinical trials to run, not just on a small set of individuals, but everyone with an internet connection.
For a better understanding of real-world uses of big data, I would recommend the following short article: https://www.bernardmarr.com/default.asp?contentID=1076
The opportunity
Having established the usefulness of big data, and the obvious growth that will be seen within the industry, we now turn to how this data is captured and sold. Presently most of it is stored by tech companies and other large organizations (even governments) and is sold directly to buyers or through vendors who specialize in brokering data. The problem with this is that we, the people who generate this valuable resource, are not remunerated whatsoever.
Datum is a company that plans on changing this by allowing users of its app to extract and backup their user data from various other apps and services and then share or even sell this data. Most importantly, the sharing is done anonymously by default, which will appease many people who worry about their personal information falling into the wrong hands.
Assessing Datum
Management. Six full time employees with vast experience in tech startups. I won’t bore you with information on them all as this can be found on the https://datum.network/ website.
Co-founder, Roger Haenni seems to be the spearhead of the company and is someone who I’ve been corresponding with frequently since discovering the Datum project. He has always been, as far as I can tell, completely transparent. Don’t take my word for it, join the Slack group (link below) or visit datum.network where he is usually available to chat with.
Datum’s Website. Professional and informative. The project’s whitepaper can be found here that comprehensively explains the concept and includes a roadmap to mass adoption. The one negative, for me at least, is the .network domain. Maybe they can change that in the future.
Community. Datum has a social media presence across Facebook and Twitter and its community is based on the slack channel https://datumnetwork.slack.com. There are over 800 registered users. Although there isn’t much in terms of general banter, questions about the project are normally answered promptly.
Marketing. This is my main concern. The pre-ICO wasn’t marketed as well as it should have been so not enough people were aware of either it, or the concept in general. Having said that, 1250 Ethereum (roughly $400,000) has already been raised despite this. And this is with two weeks of the pre-ICO left to go. Datum has assured the community that more focus will be placed on the marketing of the upcoming ICO and going forward to market release of the platform.
In general terms, I consider marketing opportunities to be in abundance, and the application could easily ‘go viral’.
The Name. In my eyes, Datum as a name is perfect. It is short, catchy and easy to pronounce, no matter what language a user speaks.
What data will be ‘sharable’ at launch? As far as I am aware, users will be able to share data from most social networks as well as internet browsing data. Future scope is unlimited and Datum plans on synchronizing with Fitbits and other fitness tech, Uber, and a whole host of applications.
DAT (the coin/token). Post-launch, users of the Datum app will have access to a marketplace where they and buyers interact. Once the user shares say, their Facebook data, with the buyer, they will be rewarded with a specific amount of DAT tokens. These tokens can then be traded out for fiat currency, or such items as Amazon vouchers.
DAT will be traded on an exchange allowing it to be listed alongside the likes of Bitcoin, Etherium, and Litecoin. The token is what is known as ‘deflationary’, which means that as more and more people adopt it, and it is used, a small percentage of the tokens will be ‘burnt’ (or taken out of existence) over time, leading to a smaller supply and subsequently potential higher value.
Summary
Considering the value of the big data industry, and its exponential growth, Datum’s proposition could redefine how information is distributed. Why wouldn’t you want to earn some extra income for anonymously sharing data that is otherwise sold without your approval anyway? Just imagine if there is mass-market adoption and 100 million users start sharing their data? I don’t consider this to be too far-fetched. It is particularly exciting to think that people in developing and third-world countries will be able to benefit financially from this.
So long as the company’s finished product is user friendly and bug-free, I foresee little risk and when compared to the immense potential, the reward could be massive for those of us onboard with the Initial Coin Offering.
In a nutshell, this IS my “most underrated ICO of 2017”.
Please follow me for more upcoming ICO analyses
I like your posts - you're doing what I wanted to do which is analyze new ICOs from a more objective perspective based on concrete things like team, code, and funding. My first effort on Ziber.io turned out to be mostly right - it was a scam that really didn't have anything substantial behind it and vaporized.
Upvoted and followed!
Thanks for taking an interested. Upvoted and following back :-) I've come across about a dozen scam ICOs now although I do not name them. They are, however, easy to identify and we've sent out posts on how to do so (at least how to do so from our perspective).
I used to work for a consumer product rating company, people who make products that get bad ratings can be very touchy about it. A good strategy is to just use numbers or percentile buckets and let the data speak for itself. We'd rate products seperately on health, environment and company social facets and average them together into a 0 to 10 score. I think you could do the same with ICOs. It's hard to be objective about many things, but it's easy to be transparent about when you are being subjective.
We're actually working on something similar at the moment for our future reviews. And I think there are a few benchmark ICO type websites out there although I haven't looked at their methodology. Definitely think, yes, that it's difficult to be divorce any ratings from subjectivity but, then again, see no other alternative.
nice post
Thank you for sharing this i will keep it in mind unitl the Pre-Sale started.
Aside from that what do think how high can Datum go?
Pre-sale has already started: www.datum.org. I wouldn't like to speculate on how high Datum can go, but for me, the fact that they are first movers in a market that has such promise, I think the risk/reward ratio makes sense.
awesome post
Thanks :).
Thank you for the write up. I haven't invested in an Ico yet (only invested in crypto's for the previous 2 months).
Consider my curiosity piqued.
Great to hear that. I have invested in a few ICO and Cryptos for the last few months and can give you a few advices:
be very picky with your ICO. Just like betting on a racing horse you want to make sure that your company is definitely capable of delivering what they promise. There are many ICOs that start ambitiously but fall during development. If you happen to invest in one of those and you notice a lack of activity on their development, consider jumping off to avoid further damage.
Keep in mind that only a few ICOs will probably rise to extreme amounts. Now this isn´t something majorly critical, especially if you buy in on Pre-Sale which I recommend btw., but just keep in mind that many Projects can potentially rise to a Dollar, maybe even 10 if we´re lucky, but only some very strong ones could go even further than that.
Hope this post helped you a little and i wish yoy best of luck
Brian
Sound advice.
Upvote for spelling "piqued" correctly.
Thanks! I wrote it, then looked it up, discovered I had it right, then thought...how do I even know that?
General warning: there will be scammers in all ICO-related Slack groups, because Slack is insecure software lacking basic moderation features. Do not trust reminders posted by Slackbot - it does not mean the message is approved or official.
Yes for sure. Seeing large ETH transactions going through every couple of minutes to the Enigma hack was sickening.
nice ICO...I must say. Thanks for the insight. I surely will read up.
My pleasure.
Just a quick update but the Datum Pre-ICO sold out yesterday raising 5000 ETH. The full ICO is due to start on October 17.
Your posts are very comprehensive. Congrats for that. I do however have a feeling that these ICOs are springing like mushrooms after a rain. Feels a bit like a VC business where 95% of start-ups fail, but if you manage to get into the 5% bracket, you might be sorted for life
There sure is a lot of junk out there and money to be lost. If a project resonates with me though, and solves a real world problem while ticking most of my 'boxes', I'll consider investing into it. Datum ticks most of my 'boxes' and has first mover advantage which is why I am bullish. Of course it doesn't come without risks but what investment does?
Very nice work buddy :)
thanks for the information
No problem. I'm going to be doing write ups on other ICOs I feel have good potential. Stay tuned!
Very nice buddy ":) Exploit the things your good at,
and become better at it ;)
Good luck to with your next posts buddy :D