The above statement
is so true that in making it, I have no fear of being contradicted. The
unification APP is a quantitative leap in the evolution of the data economy so
much so that, once it is fully deployed, the data economy is sure to move to a
new level. I shall soon make clear why this is so.
Permit me here to
further explain what data economy is as this concept is in itself relatively
new.
Whereas we all
generate data, either at individual or corporate level, the standard up to
recent times has been to place such little value on the data so generated that
we often freely sign away the right to them in exchange for the right to use
certain services even when we are paying for such services as in hospitals,
banks etc.
As the computer and the
internet matured, they made it possible to collate very big amounts of such
data and with the introduction of machine learning and artificial intelligence,
the collation, analysis and transmission of these data moved a few steps up.
This gave birth to the concept of Big Data.
If was soon
discovered however that the collated data was not quite so adequately detached
from the person it was generated from. Thus successful incursions into the data
silos (centralized) could , and in many instances did, put the persons linked
to the data in grave danger It also could act as a powerful tool in the hands
ill-intentioned data thieves .
This in brief explains
why the GDPR was ultimately established.
In spite of the
danger posed by centralized data silos and generally by the old order of data
gathering and data acquisition, the GDPR could not go so far as prohibiting
data gathering. This was so because the emergence of big data has led man to
new, admirable heights in the use of data to capture new heights in his
evolution in crucial areas like health, environment etc.
The GDPR however set crucial
new parameters for data gathering and in respect of the continued claim of the
data generation to the data limited to them. Two of the crucial parameters relate
to (1) The right of the person generating data to give or withhold permission
for the use of data linked to him (his data) and (2) the right to have such data
erased.
The terms the data
generator was allowed to set included the right to obtain value exchange
(monetary or in kind) for the release of his personal data or to expressly grant
it for free.
This proposition for
the incentivisation of the data owner essentially led to what is now known as
the data economy.
The data ecosystem
has a number of persons that play different roles along the value chain that it
represents. These are:
1. Data
providers: these collect user data by providing engaging application/ services.
They possess silos in which such data they obtain are stored.
2. Data
consumers: these are entities willing to obtain data in exchange for some
remuneration. They may also be data gatherers who simply need to extend their
store of data by purchasing from other data gatherers (providers)
3. End
users are the sources of the generated data. They offer their data either
directly who or in the course of
consuming an application or service.
This
chain suffered from the absence of certain elements. Most significant was the
need to keep the data from falling into wrong hands and to ascertain the source
of leakage if such did happen.
Man was fortunate in
that this new realization coincided with the appearance of a new technology –
the Blockchain technology – which holds great promise for solving issues
relating to data handling – capture, storage and retrieval especially.
Even so, some problems
persisted. One was that there was no unified method of standardization and
transfer of data. Thus, although individual data silos had moved up in terms of
the size of data they could handle, their capacity for analysis etc, the
overall data industry remained fragmented and enterprises could not transfer
data one to the other in a seamless fashion.
Herein lies the huge significance of the introduction of Unification's data liquidity protocol which deploys a series of software development kits (SDKs)
as CAPSULE on enterprise servers to standardize and encrypt data(the enterprise's existing data), allowing
persons involved to transfer data peer to peer in a harmonized format.
The developers of the
unification project also observed one other hurdle – the potentially high cost
of storing data on the Block chain. Blockchains are arguably not the most conducive
to storing large quantities of data. They are also not adequately secretive
enough since anyone could query a block chain all the way back to its genesis
block such that a compromised algorithm could
enable the jumping of access hurdles.
Finally, it was recognized that the immutable nature of blockchain
represents a potential violation of the right of the user to have his/her data
erased.
In reaction to the
above, data is not stored on chain in the Unification project. On-chain transaction is limited to hashes of the data which are used to validate the data. Actual data transfer is done outside the block
chain via State Channels.
A final significant
element of the Unification project is its Unified Verifiable Credential ID
(UVCID) infrastructure which allows actors to securely issue, hold, distribute and
cryptographically verify personal information.
Unification is in-sum
an ecosystem of Data providers, Data consumers and Data end – users that
utilizes blockchain technology, Machine learning and auxiliary software
components to allow the monetized, secure transfer of data(Data Liquidity)
It is built around a
web of smart contracts which allow the utilization and flow of data transfer
agreements between Data Providers and Data Consumers while putting the control
of the data flow in the hands of the users themselves . This is in recognition
of the fact that data suppliers ultimately own and should be remunerated for their data.
While unification is not the only
blockchain project in this sphere, it distinguishes itself by introducing :
a.
A data standardization protocol, thus enabling data liquidity.
b. Avoidance
of the potentially high cost of on-chain storage of data through the use of
state-chain and its replacement by data hash and
c.
A credential ID infrastructure (UVCID).
This game-changing project deserves the patronage of all cryptocurrency
investors and adoption by all data economy actors.
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