DataBroker DAO - Global Market for Local Data

From a marketplace perspective using the public Ethereum chain enables the use of a fully built out financial ecosystem, with minimum of fees. Traditional fiat payment processors charge between 1 and 3% for money in and money out, while a purchase using the utility token costs around 0.003 USD in fees for 7 purchases of any size. Using a utility token over fiat currency also brings the advantage of 18 decimals. Combine the possibility to use extremely small fractions of the token with very low fees, and real microtransactions become possible.

As the world keeps rapidly waking up to the new data revolution, with the consolidation of the Internet of Things (IoT) and the upcoming mainstream of Blockchain technology, some complex terminology has arisen that might confuse the minds of the less acquainted. and the case of sensor data, the best definition is: valuable data generated when hardware devices, known as sensors, digitize information from the physical world. This data, in its turn, is just like any other data coming from different sources, meaning it needs thorough cleansing, analysis and governance while at the same time presenting some distinct properties, mainly around its stream of information versus time.

Sensor data can also be explained as the output of a device that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The output may be used to provide information or input to another system or to guide a process. Not all data is meaningful but at the same time, all data is destined to have some value, even if not known at the immediate time of collection. It is in fact a complete ecosystem.

At this point, sensor data is mostly kept in silos and depends on centralised systems to reach those who might be willing to buy or sell information. However, with the launch of Databroker DAO, a decentralised marketplace for IoT sensor data, sensor owners are able to turn generated data into revenue streams, opening a wealth of opportunities for various industries.

DataBroker DAO is the first marketplace to sell & buy sensor data. As a decentralised marketplace for IoT sensor data using Blockchain technology, Databroker DAO enables sensor owners to turn generated data into revenue streams. This will open up a wealth of opportunities for various industries. Data will be used and become more effective.

Today companies make use of sensor data to optimize and monitor their operations. The result is a single purpose data landscape. DataBroker DAO drives the evolution towards truly ‘smart living’ by making this data easily accessible to cities, organizations and entrepreneurs at an affordable price. Check out our video to learn more.

As we are working hard on the next iteration of the DataBrokerDAO platform, we are looking long and hard at the decisions we made in the past. As we had already identified in the current version of the whitepaper, there is a definite potential to improve the inner workings of the platform.

We do not want to make these improvements without getting the feedback from both our current DATA token holders and the broader community. That is why we will publish these proposals publicly and work together towards an optimal integration in the DataBrokerDAO platform.

Platform Development

On the development side, we are totally reengineering the dAPI and smart contracts from the ground up. This is moving along nicely but please be aware that to the visitors of the beta version of the platform, these major updates are totally invisible until we open source these components. The updated front-end application will follow shortly thereafter. So in a nutshell, DataBroker DAO has been moving forward at breakneck speed. Not all of our efforts have been communicated as openly as we would like so we thank you for your patience. Communication will be greatly improved and we have set this as a clear objective for 2018.

Individuals, companies, researchers & governments are spending hundreds of billions each year on buying and maintaining IoT sensors. The growth of the investment and applications in IoT is truly staggering, and yet, all data captured by these devices is locked up in silos and walled gardens.

The amount of money spent on IoT is truly staggering as is the number of devices already deployed. By 2016, the global market for IoT sensors surpassed 600 billion USD per year, which is expected to grow to 1.2 trillion USD per year by 2019. This include the purchase, installation and maintenance of sensors and the software packages to interpret and enrich the data. By 2016, there were no fewer than 9 billion sensors deployed globally, which is expected to grow to 33 billion by 2019 .

The Solution

DataBroker DAO unleashes the potential of currently inaccessible, low value data into the creation of new transversal Value Added Services. It prevents people with powerful ideas to rely on people with powerful operational resources, in a phased, pay-as-you-grow, MVP model. As with the financial markets, where the importance and value of company data have been apparent for decades, giving rise to Bloomberg Market Data, Thomson Reuters, FactSet and a lot of vendors, the same opportunity will emerge for IoT sensor data. Doing so with a distributed foundational layer for the buying and selling of IoT sensor data we expect that unimagined uses of the data will emerge to create incredible value adding services that enrich the quality of life in our cities and our societies as a whole.

DataBroker DAO is the first marketplace for IoT Sensor data that will connect sensor owners with purchasers of the data directly, utilising existing infrastructure from telecommunication providers operating sensor connectivity networks based on GSM, LoRa, SigFox or via a proprietary gateway of the sensor owner.

With DataBroker DAO, we aspire to unleash long-tail creativity with the use of sensor data to facilitate the conversion of incredible ideas into value adding services. By providing a distributed foundational layer for the buying and selling of IoT sensor data, we expect that unimagined uses of data that exist in the hearts and minds of entrepreneurs, researchers and organisations around the world, will emerge to create incredible value adding services that enrich the quality of life in our cities and our societies as a whole.

From an ecosystem perspective we notice a lot of activity in the IoT sphere, solving a lot of hard problems for the future. And we are avid fans of these trailblazers knowing that the Databroker DAO is a great addon for many of these project, the missing link in the ecosystem. We are not blind to the usability issue in using separate tokens on a public blockchain for any type of user. We are working on several solutions to ease adoption :

● We will facilitate corporations to purchase tokens from DataBroker DAO directly. These tokens will come out of the reserved platform fund and will be sold for fiat currency with full invoicing, just like any other digital good. We will not buy back tokens or issue more.

● We are planning on implementing the GasStation concept presented by Swarm.city on DevCon 3 to overcome the “gas” hump when onboarding new users of the platform.

● We are working actively with leading wallet providers to include our tokens by default, easing the setup and management of these tokens for an enterprise.

Who will sell data?

Manufacturing and Natural Resources : the so-called industrial IoT consists of companies that are deploying sensors in order to improve operations.

Transportation : the data for transportation consists of both traffic and vehicle specific data.

Utilities and Government : Utility providers deploy sensors for “smart” utilities en-masse to deliver more efficient utility services to their clients including smart grids and smart meters primarily for electricity and water.

Smart City Initiatives : a roadblock for getting smart city initiatives off the ground is the upfront cost of populating the town with sufficient sensors to be meaningful.

Agricultural sector : in Belgium today, 10% of farmers are “techie”. They have a drone flying around and 5-20 sensors deployed and some other automation in place.

Who will buy data?

● From the agricultural example above, two potential buyers jump out with > 1000 temperature sensors from nearly all regions of the country, the data is more accurate and granular than the national weather service . They are a potential buyer as are tv and radio stations who, by buying data directly on the marketplace, cut out the national weather service in their purchase from the farmers.

● With >1000 PH level sensors covering most parts of the country, fertiliser companies would view this as a “honeypot” for their sales people.

● Smart City Initiatives can limit the upfront cost of populating the town with sufficient sensors and turn the expense into an investment with a 2–3 year payback period and a continuous income stream after that.

● Academics get access to the data from thousands of sensors and can buy data directly on the marketplace.

● Public Transport data can be sold to entrepreneurs who can help to create applications such as mobile apps to help the general public find the perfect routes to their desired destination, this introduces an extra revenue source for local governments while improving the infrastructure around the public transportation systems.

● Self-driving technology companies could buy car sensor data to create the perfect self-driving AI and license this back to various car manufacturers.

● Environmental agencies can gather data from millions of sensors around the world, such as PH water sensors, to get insights into environmental change, impact of their programs and understand where to act.

● Energy corporations can purchase wind, weather & consumption data to plan new green energy initiatives and understand where to best place new wind or solar farms.

Data Distribution and Storage

Billions of sensors generate huge amounts of data. And any company using IoT sensor data has their systems for processing it and is most likely not inclined to replace that system. This means we cannot enforce a new data storage system on them. Even more important, it is not the goal of the platform to store all IoT sensor data for eternity.

The Benefits

Sensor Owners - Are able to monetize their data and turn a sunk cost into a potential money maker and at least the opportunity to recoup some of their investments in IoT sensors.

Network Operators - Gain scale and speed in the adoption of their network as connected telcos can present a win-back to their enterprise accounts, a clear USP.

Sensor manufacturers - Can stop the 'race to the bottom' for production and pull resources and capital out of manufacturing and allocate these to profitable SaaS offerings.

Smart city initiatives - Can limit the upfront cost of populating the town with sufficient sensors and turn the expense into an investment with a 2-3 year payback period and a continuous income stream after that.

Agricultural sector - In the Agricultural sector in Belgium today, 10% of farmers are 'techie'. They deploy sensors include for wind, temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, PH level in the soil. The platform will provide the possibility to recoup some of this cost.

Academics - Can get access to thousands of sensors and can buy data directly and more cheap on the marketplace, cutting out established data providers.

The DAO takes the remaining 10% of all funds, depending on market conditions, received on the platform to cover operating costs.

Roadmap

=> March, 19th 2018 4PM CET

PRESALE - The presale phase of this token sale event starts on March 5th, 2018 at 4PM CET. During this presale a 50% token bonus applies (6000 DTX/ETH) and the minimum purchase amount during this period is 10 ETH

=> March, 26th 2018 4PM CET

TOKEN SALE - The main sale will start March 26th, 2018 at 4PM CET. The sale will run for 4 week. The first day a 10% bonus will be awarded.

=> April 30th 2018

TRADING OPENS - The tokens will not be tradeable until 1 week after the sale ends (April 30th, 2018). At this point in time we have a commitment to list the DTX token on Chankura.com at that time and are identifying one or two more exchanges to list it on, by that time

=> Q2 2018

MAINNET RELEASE - With the availability and the ability to trade the DTX token, the platform can move to the mainnet.

Setup and onboarding of an extended team - One of the larger challenges for DataBroker DAO will be scaling the team fast enough to cope with market demands. Onboarding a new sales team and additional developers is a daunting task. Since September this has been an active focus and this will be the case for the years to come.

Gateway operator integrations - The main road to mass adoption is integrating with gateway operators that enable the onboarding of millions of sensors in one go. The DataBroker DAO platform will be integrated with the gateways of these gateway operators. We will be working on both common standards and libraries to ease integration, and perform the initial integrations for the first operators in the DataBroker DAO Alliance.

Token Distribution

Dates and terms for the token sale

The total supply for the DTX token is 225.000.000, just like the DATA token. The reasoning behind this amount stays the same and is described in the whitepaper.

We will lock up 30% of these tokens for 3 years and an additional 5% of the tokens will be released to new team members over 4 years, effectively decreasing the supply to 191.250.000 DTX.

As before, we are employing a complete KYC procedure by IdentityMind Global. Filling in the pre-registration form on the website will validate your information live. It might ask for an ID/Passport scan. On completion of the form, the procedure is completed and you can purchase DTX tokens.
Pre-sale starts March 19th, 2018 4PM CET

The presale phase of this token sale event starts on March 19th, 2018 at 4PM CET. During this presale a 50% token bonus applies (amounting to 6000 DTX/ETH) and the minimum purchase amount during this period is 10 ETH.

Main sale starts March 26th, 2018 4PM CET

The sale will run for 4 week. The rate for this phase is 4000 DTX per ETH. In case of a significant ETH rate change leading up to the sale will cause a recalculation according to the same formula used in the whitepaper.

Only on the first day a 10% bonus will be awarded. Before and during the token sale, a referral system is in effect. Contributions via a referral link will result in a bonus of 5% of the tokens sold via a referral link.

Trading starts April 30th, 2018

The tokens will be issued and be tradable 1 week after the sale ends (April 30th, 2018).

At this point in time we have a commitment to list the DTX token on Chankura.com at that time and are identifying one or two more exchanges to list it on, by that time.

DataBroker DAO is starting its Official Bounty Program in order to reward its supporters.

A total of 1.125.000 DAO tokens (worth 281.25 ETH) will be assigned to the Bounty Pool.

The program will run until the end of the Token Sale. The bounties will be paid within 30 days after the end of the Token Sale.

TEAM