Hey guys,

This is my second article on Datum, which has the novel vision of placing control of a person’s digital data firmly into their own hands- free to do with as they see fit and free from misuse by large companies. This is a mammoth task, of course, so will need to be backed by strong fundamentals if the project has a chance of achieving its goals- which we are about to analyse.

In my previous article we explored the ‘who’ and ‘what’ of Datum- Namely, who are Datum? And what are they trying to accomplish?

In this article specifically I will provide insight into the Datum project in order to answers the question: ‘why’? Why is Datum necessary? And why blockchain?

Quick disclaimer: this project, like all I review, is relatively new to the scene and is still under development so please always do your own research. Also remember this is my opinion and not financial advice; my content is for educational and entertainment purposes only.

Let’s jump in.

DATA GENERATION AND USE

Online Activity

Whether at a personal or corporate level, all of us leave a tremendous amount of data behind us resulting from our activities online; from using email and social media to syncing devices- your activity is constantly being monitored and resulting data extracted and compiled.

Data collection and use in general is of course not necessarily malicious; information is necessary for the improvement of services, identifying potential software bugs, and enhancing user experience. In fact, the 2.5 Quintillion bytes of data we create daily contribute massively to global economic and corporate operations, and is crucial to the effective functioning of the world as it does today.

It’s not data use in general which is the problem but data abuse which needs to be addressed; large greedy corporations exploit online users by enticing them to use their free services, only to have their data extracted and used often without user knowledge or explicit consent.

Greedy Corporations

In the digital world, if the product is free then YOU are the product. In other words, if you don’t have to pay for an online service (and offline to a large extent), of any sort, then the chances are the company behind that service are profiting from your data in at least one way.

Episodes such as the Cambridge Analytica fiasco involving Facebook have proven that such greedy corporations, so driven by profit, can’t be trusted not to abuse their position as data collectors and owners.

Inadequate Data Storage Options

Current data storage and transfer solutions which are most frequently used today, such as traditional cloud-based services and email, are shockingly prone to hacks and attacks. In fact, using such solutions a user may not even be aware that a data breach has occurred. This is not a suitable environment for storing personal or sensitive data, and every person should surely have the right to do so.

WHY IS BLOCKCHAIN THE SOLUTION?

At a deeper level the problem boils down to the issue of self-determination. We don’t currently have the technological ability to surely know which data even exists relating to us, let alone the ability to exercise control over who accesses it and on which terms.

This is no longer the case with the advent of blockchain and smart contract technology- and a whole new era of individual control and assurance over one’s own data is enabled.

Secure and Transparent

Datum’s blockchain-powered smart contracts platform enables the storage of encrypted user data, only possibly accessible to that user with their individual private key. As blockchain provides a fundamentally transparent environment, users can be completely sure that their information can be, and is, accessed only by themselves personally- or by any entities that user wishes to grant access to, paid or otherwise.

Monetisable and Customisable

Datum’s blockchain framework facilitates a way for users to easily and effectively monetise the data which is already securely stored in their network. Setting their own prices and terms, users can decide which data they want to make available for purchase (or for free if they so wish) and can set their own various prices and terms of usage, depending on the specific data in question.

CONCLUSION

The problems we have explored here, relating mainly to the actions of large greedy companies, all boil down to a deeper problem of a lack of individual self-determination. In the online landscape, which is of course unavoidable in today’s world, users cannot easily or clearly know what their data is being used for and by who. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a problem, however the actions of large corporations who collect and have access to this data have proven that they can’t be trusted.

Whilst previously there has been technologically no effective way to ensure verifiably secure data storage owned by its originator, Datum’s use of blockchain as a core past of their solution not only offers enables verifiably secure data storage, but also facilitates easy and customisable monetisation of this data.

In my next article on Datum we will be exploring the ‘how’ of the project- how is Datum actively carrying out their vision? How does their decentralised platform provide a solution to this currently troublesome situation?

LINKS

Website: https://datum.org/
White paper: https://datum.org/assets/Datum-WhitePaper.pdf

Telegram: https://t.me/datumnetwork

My Bounty0x: datniccy97

My Bitcointalk account: datniccy97 -https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?action=profile;u=2099905