Data HODLers
If you have not noticed, blockchain technology created the most efficient non-violent human, material resource, and capital accumulation mechanism. This is the killer app of blockchain that is yet to fully emerge into the world scene. And when it does, it will quickly dwarf all big tech giants creating a new socio-economic reality.
There is no doubt...
The most valuable and asset valuation defining resource today is data. Whoever has all the data is the market leader and certainly will continue to be so in the future. However, the hoarding of big data in large data centers by GAFA (google/apple/facebook/amazon) has predictably led to the so called “tech backlash” among the people. As popular venture capitalist Fred Wilson noted:
“Tech is the new Wall Street, full of ultra rich out of touch people who have too much power and not enough empathy.”
Fred Wilson source
That is just the beginning.
More sensitive personal data such as medical records is being traded to third parties without consent by medical centers. Eventually, the issue of one-sided data governance has to be addressed, and several solutions will be proposed.
Among the myriad of smokescreen “solutions” to be proposed to alleviate the pain of losing the privacy, there is one solution that will put the data exchange in proper order to benefit all parties.
Meet the New Rockefeller
Blockchain technology will not only ensure the privacy during data exchange, it will accelerate the data exchange on a scale that has never been experienced before.
In 2016, the world produced 16 ZB of data, but only 1% was analyzed — this needs to change.
Ocean Protocol
The reason is simple -
users don’t trust companies with personal data. That is why securing data exchange will give birth to a true data sharing economy, with data encrypted and available only to a particular p2p channel. This will in turn generate massive data sharing across the globe and create a truly global internet economy.
Combine data with AI and you have the most powerful weapon to unlock the future in your favor. To take control of our future, we need to control AI algorithms and data we generate. Currently, big tech has the grip on both. But that will quickly change with the advent of blockchain based secure AI and data sharing marketplaces. Once masses will start to trust blockchain, which ironically, is ensured by its trustless consensus mechanism, data, algorithms, storage and computing power will be shared across the world to create the new secure data internet and all the services that run on top of it like AI, AR and IoT.
Here is what the future holds for us:
I predict Web 4.0 armed with decentralized open source cloud artificial intelligence, augmented reality and internet of things emerging from the blockchain enabled web 3.0. This will create some mind-boggling communications like visualized animated refrigerator speaking with you about its day, or the addition of 4th dimension of visualized alive mind maps that you can see on your smart glasses.
More on that in the next post…
AI, AR and IoT development will benefit greatly from decentralized, open data marketplaces. Already there are startups that leverage blockchain to enable patients share their medical record safely in a peer-to-peer fashion, and train tumor identifying AI in the process. All of it is done with the utmost respect to personal data and virtual impossibility to breach personal medical records.
Company such as BEAT utilizes blockchain to generate health and sports data for health insurance, pharma, clinics and sports brands. You can earn BEAT tokens by doing sports. Tokens are funded by the above organizations to share your data securely on a platform.
And the number of startups using this killer app feature of blockchain will only increase from here on.
These new decentralized Rockefeller will create the future that is well described by Matt Wilson, founder of Gnosis blockchain:
The future is an ocean of fluid, modular, interoperable, relationships spontaneously forming and disintegrating between human and nonhuman parties without any gatekeepers. It is fractalized autonomous trust.
Perhaps you could think of blockchain application that will utilize massive resource (such as data) sharing to develop new technologies like AI or AR, or something else.
Please leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
Don’t forget to check my more detailed vision of blockchain enabled future as well on this post.
All images are Creative Commons