Hey guys, so I made a review video discussing Ocean Protocol as none else has yet. We heard about them at a recent conference and decided to look into them.
I'll share my notes/sources below. Feel free to ask me any questions about the project as I've been researching them for quite some time. Also join the channel, we have lots of ICO reviews coming out that (I believe) are much higher quality than the existing reviews.
Please excuse the formatting.
Ocean Protocol - Freedom for Big Data
“Data, not algorithms, might be the key limiting factor to development of human-level artificial intelligence.”
Ocean Protocol is a decentralized data exchange protocol that lets people share and monetize data while guaranteeing control, auditability, transparency and compliance to all actors involved.
Ocean Protocol provides the underlying technical foundation that data marketplaces need to connect data providers with data consumers in a trusted environment. It nurtures a data ecosystem and community.
Strong legal and organizations structure. 17 page legal disclaimer on WP.
Sources
https://oceanprotocol.com/
https://www.bigchaindb.com
https://hackernoon.com/how-big-data-is-empowering-ai-and-machine-learning-4e93a1004c8f
https://oceanprotocol.com/business-whitepaper.pdf
https://oceanprotocol.com/techprimer.pdf
https://oceanprotocol.com/marketplace-framework.pdf
https://blog.oceanprotocol.com/a-token-distribution-to-fund-a-data-economy-81e172448589
https://medium.com/@jstreich13/surfing-the-ocean-protocol-on-a-blockchain-of-new-paradigms-e37e3b6e1d0c
https://www.aisingapore.org/event/ocean-protocol-decentralised-data-exchange/
https://www.experfy.com/blog/from-ai-to-blockchain-to-data-meet-ocean
Problem
Small handful of organizations with both massive data assets and AI capabilities have become powerful with control that is a danger to a free and open society.
A lack of trust prevents data sharing
Only a handful of companies today have both Data and AI
In 2010, the world produced 1 Zettabyte (ZB) of data. In 2016, we produced 16 ZB and by 2025, we will produce 160+ ZB. Yet, only 1% of data is analyzed. Massive amounts of data are collected, then sit dormant on servers.
Privacy and security concerns must be addressed before personal data can be more widely shared.
Data Gravity Problem - simulating data sets for better predictive models
Managing Big Data
Product / Solution
Freedom for big data to communication and be monetized
AI needs data. Without data, AI models are not accurate. With no accuracy, the AI
model is unusable. The winners so far have been companies with vast data
resources and internal AI expertise, like Google and Facebook.
AI advances six times faster when data is available
Important Distinction
Not a data marketplace
Not storing your data
Rather… just a blockchain that tracks data and how it’s being used to allow marketplaces to make data available for consumption.
Token Function - Utility Token/Staking
And to do all of the above…. You need tokens. :)
Tokens Are the Native Currency of the Protocol & Network. The Ocean Tokens (OCN) are used on the Ocean Protocol network as the means of value exchange, to power the protocol and incentivize the keeper nodes of the network. The Ocean Token is inseparable from the Ocean Protocol and Ocean Protocol network.
Four ways to earn OCN Tokens:
providing data
curating data
being a marketplace
providing network services
Partnerships/Team
https://www.bigchaindb.com - Established blockchain database company since 2015. Works with top 100 blockchain companies/incubators.
https://www.dex.sg - A decentralised data marketplace, built on the ocean protocol. DEX is the founding partner of Ocean Protocol with BigchainDB
Ocean Protocol Foundation - Ocean Protocol is supported by a Singapore based non-profit foundation, whose mandate is to ensure open access to the protocol and platform, provide data governance, encourage the network ecosystem growth and take measures to ensure that the platform becomes ever more decentralized with time.
Timeline
Token Pre-Launch:
- Starts the first week of March
- Whitelisting starts February 15th
- 9M€ allocated
- Network Launch Fundraising Q1 2019
ICO / Token Metrics
We intend to have 20,000 participants in the token distribution. Additionally, we’ll have airdrops for the community of data scientists
The raise for the Pre-Launch is capped at 18m€, with 9m€ allocated to the public.
It’s a range depending on how many people whitelist. If 10,000 people whitelist, could very well be that the limit drops below 3k. Or we set the lower threshold at 3k and the first come first served.
Only open to accredited investors from Canada/US (subject to change)
Due Diligence Report
Team
Bruce Pon (Founder/CEO) Jun 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Trent McConaghy (Founder) 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Masha McConaghy (Founder/CMO) Sept 2014 - Present | Linkedin profile
Chirdeep Chhabra (Founder) Jun 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Daryl Arnold (Founder) Jun 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Don Gossen (Executive Director & Co-Founder) Dec 2017 - Present| Linkedin profile
John Enevoldsen (Growth) Oct 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Cristina Pon (Marketing Director) Sept 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Oana Ionescu (Strategy and Community Marketing) Sept 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Timothy Ley (Data Analyst) | Linkedin profile
Matthias Kretschmann (Co-Founder & Executive Director) | Twitter profile
Gregory McMullen (Co-Founder & Executive Director) | Linkedin profile
Wojciech Hupert (Designer) | Linkedin profile
Sylvain Bellemare (Software Engineer) | Linkedin profile
Tim Daubenschütz | Twitter profile
Dimitri De Jonghe (Head of Research & Co-Founder) Oct 2017 - Present | Linkedin profile
Gautam Dhameja (Application Engineer) | Linkedin profile
Jernej Pregelj (Application Engineer) | Linkedin profile
Muawia Khan (DevOps Engineer) | Linkedin profile
Shahbaz Nazir (DevOps Engineer) | Linkedin profile
Rodolphe Marques (Technical Architect) | Linkedin profile
Alberto Granzotto | Twitter profile
Troy McConaghy | Twitter profile
Kamal Ved (Executive Director) | Linkedin profile
Daniel Lustig (Front Desk Receptionist) | Linkedin profile
Katarzyna Kazimierczak (Entrepreneur and COO) | Linkedin profile
Ricardo Garcia (Business Developer) | Linkedin profile
Manuel Rodriguez (Application Engineer) | Linkedin profile
Julian Leitloff (Co-founder & CEO) | Linkedin profile
Company
Ocean Protocol Foundation Ltd
Registered Address:
20 Pasir Panjang Rd. East Wing Suite 03-22/24
Singapore, 117439
Singapore
Company Type: Private & Independent
Founded: October 23, 2017
Industry: Software
Active status: Live
Founder Members
Bruce Pon (Founder/CEO of BigchainDB)
Chirdeep Chhabra (Founder/CEO of DEX Pte Ltd)
Share Capital: 20%
Github
Ocean Protocol Foundation