What does Ocean Protocol do?
Ocean Protocol was built by Bruce Pon and Trent McConaghy after they founded BigChainDB in 2017. Microsoft, Google, and Apple were trying to regain control of big data, which they wanted to share and monetize locally instead. It would no longer be necessary for owners to surrender control of their data or to compromise its security in order to monetize it. To develop Ocean Protocol, Pon and McConaghy gathered an experienced team with expertise in AI, blockchain, and big data, as well as policy and business.
A decentralized market is created by Ocean Protocol, which consists of data assets and services that are exchangeable by participants. By connecting data providers with consumers, the marketplace provides access to data. Data ownership and transfer are tracked on-chain, as is who bought and shared it.
It is not possible to store any of the data exchanged in marketplaces on the Ocean Protocol network itself: customers search for data sets on different marketplaces, then purchase an encrypted reference to it that can only be unlocked after certain conditions are met (for example, payment). As a result, data owners retain full control over their data, regardless of its fate or who buys it.
In the Ocean Protocol network, the Ocean Token acts as the means for traders and providers to trade data: every time they sell their data, they earn Ocean Tokens as a reward. Ocean Tokens are currently in circulation in excess of 347 million.
1. Ocean Protocol has a partnership with numerous organizations
Various organizations have partnered and collaborated with Ocean Protocol on a wide range of different projects where a decentralized data exchange protocol will change people’s lives.
2. It brings together decentralized technology
Data and associated services are provided through an ecosystem of decentralized technology, a trusted framework, and a decentralized network. The platform ensures traceability, transparency, and privacy so data owners can maintain control over their data assets while also having access to a variety of marketplaces and services.
3. Ocean Protocol provides a tokenized service layer
The Ocean Protocol provides a tokenized service layer that represents data, storage, compute, and algorithms, and provides deterministic, verifiable service agreements for availability and integrity.
4. Any data marketplace can hook into Ocean Protocol
Any data marketplace could use Ocean to provide “last mile” services by connecting data providers with consumers. The Ocean protocol is designed to ensure that data owners have control of their datasets and cannot be locked into any single marketplace.
5. The company aims to unlock data using both technology and governance
In a thoughtful application of both technology and governance, the company strives to unlock data to deliver more equitable outcomes for users. Ocean Protocol and the Ocean Protocol community are dedicated to catalyzing a New Data Economy that will benefit every person, organization, and device, allowing people to better understand the value of data.
6. Ocean Protocol believes that everyone should thrive in the data economy
Our intention is to build Ocean Protocol so that it enables everyone to benefit from the data economy by releasing trillions of dollars in latent value and bringing to bear the power of data and artificial intelligence in order to initiate change that is beneficial to all mankind.
So, what does the future hold?
Continuing to enhance AI software and services, Ocean Protocol plans to build a complementary community marketplace to its Enterprise Marketplace where datasets can be purchased and sold freely in 2020. This effort will see Ocean Protocol build a standalone web app, offer data tokens in a simpler format, and develop its Data Marketplace to incorporate incentives and staking.
In addition to community funding, Ocean Protocol is also proposing that stakeholders fund software development for its core applications, infrastructure, and Data Ecosystem, as well as incentives, such as grants, for users to contribute data to the network.