What Is Ocean Protocol?
Ocean Protocol is a decentralized data market that establishes mutually beneficial conditions for data suppliers and consumers. The platform uses blockchain technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to provide a reliable, secure, and fair environment for creators, suppliers, and consumers. The main goal of the Ocean is to make data available to consumers while providing suppliers with a reliable way of monetization. As part of the protocol, data providers can publish data in NFT format (ERC721) and mint datatokens (ERC 20) to monetize data. In addition, consumers can access data that was previously difficult or impossible to find. At the same time, the platform ensures the preservation of privacy and full control.
Ocean Protocol Key Components
Ocean Protocol is based on the Ethereum blockchain and uses smart contracts technology to ensure the security and transparency of data transactions. There are three main components within the project:
Data Suppliers. They use the Ocean Protocol to monetize the available data. Suppliers mint datatokens to provide consumers with access to data. Moreover, the data does not necessarily have to be stored on-chain since datatokens are still a tool with which users access data. Thus, the data in the Ocean Protocol is presented in encrypted form. Users who use datatokens can decrypt this data.
Data Consumers. With datatokens, consumers get access to a set of necessary data. To gain access, the consumer sends datatokens to the data provider.
Data Marketplace. Suppliers use Ocean Market to conduct an Initial Data Offering (IDO). Within the Ocean Market, all data is presented as ERC20 datatokens, with which consumers gain access. Datatokens can be sold at a fixed price, or the price can be automatically disclosed using AMM. Ocean Market cooperates with Balancer to provide an automated price discovery service. Thus, Ocean Market is a kind of DEX focused on working with data. Ocean Market also allows users to stake OCEAN tokens to provide liquidity to the datatoken AMM pools.
- Selling Data
Ocean Market allows publishers to sell three main types of data:
The publisher’s data. As an individual, you can easily monetize your data. Such data can include anything from your location, ending with your browser history and other proprietary data. In addition, companies and various structures can sell the data obtained during their activities. For example, schools can sell data on teaching methods, and business owners can sell data on successful marketing strategies.
Third parties proprietary data. In this case, you are a kind of intermediary who sells the data of third parties. You can make such sales only with the permission of the data owner.
Publicly available data. Naturally, using Ocean Market to publish data that users can freely get on the Internet is ineffective and unfair. However, you can endow open data with additional value and sell it. For example, you can help AI learning by transcribing audio files, transferring available data to a format that is more accessible to AI, and so on.
- Data Staking
As mentioned earlier, Ocean Market is a DEX that uses AMM for auto-pricing data. Users who publish data create data pools, and these pools need liquidity. Users who add OCEAN tokens in pools become liquidity providers. Liquidity providers are a kind of pool curators. Stakeholders receive rewards from the transaction made within the pool. The amount of remuneration depends on the stake of the holder as well as on the pool creator. The data publisher can independently set the number of transaction fees sent to the stakers. However, the minimum amount is 0.1%. Moreover, the project developers plan to launch the Ocean Data Farming program, allowing stakers to receive more rewards for their activities.
- Compute-to-Data Feature
Earlier in the article, we described what types of data could be sold as part of data marketplaces. But what to do with private data that is extremely valuable, but the owners of such data are afraid of losing control over them and do not want to make it publicly available? The developers of the Ocean Protocol also asked this question and came to a solution — the Compute-to-Data feature. With this feature, data publishers can grant users access to valuable data while maintaining privacy and full control. Thus, the data owners allow the AI to run on their data. End-users receive only the result of the work done, and private data remains in the hands of the owners.
OCEAN Token
The OCEAN token (ERC20) is the native token of the project and has a maximum supply of 1.41 billion tokens. The token has a crucial role in the ecosystem and performs three main functions:
- A unit of exchange. Data suppliers and consumers use the OCEAN token for mutual settlements when buying or selling data.
- Staking. Users can stake OCEAN tokens and become liquidity providers. Liquidity providers receive rewards in the form of pool transaction fees.
- Governance. OCEAN token holders can participate in voting via OceanDAO. Voting often takes place concerning funding promising projects or teams.
Conclusion
Ocean Protocol is a revolutionary project that can change the perception of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies. The project developers strive to create an open and secure environment for data exchange. Data in our time are the most valuable assets that can be used for good purposes.
On Ocean Market, users can safely sell data while maintaining confidentiality and control. In turn, data consumers gain access to resources that were previously difficult or impossible to find. In addition, Ocean makes a huge contribution to the development of Artificial Intelligence, the mass adoption of blockchain, and the formation of a global data economy.