We deployed the first Data Union smart contracts back in 2019 and have seen traction in the adoption of our Data Union framework ever since. Currently, the Data Union SDK and its set of smart contracts are available on Ethereum and Gnosis Chain.
We offer builders an out-of-the-box decentralized back-end where they can get all the data they need from as many participants as they want. No need to manage data pipelines at scale. In addition, builders don’t have to worry about smart contract audits or gas optimization, we’ve already taken care of this.
But there’s more we’d like to add to our stack.
Short Term Roadmap
We are currently working on our Polygon integration. This will make the deployment of a Data Union a lot cheaper and in addition, this will enable Data Union builders to apply for grants with the Polygon DAO.
From our builder community, we have heard loud and clear that they want to offer their Data Union members weighted rewards. This means that someone who contributes more valuable data to a Data Union will also be rewarded accordingly.
In addition, we are also planning a couple of website improvements. This includes the following (slightly less exciting items):
- Set up a blog on our website to boost SEO
- Setting up gitbook for developer resources
- Showcase the DAO’s core contributors
- Publish the Data Union DAO’s constitution
Mid Term Roadmap
Till the end of the year, we are looking at extending the offering of our framework significantly. These items are however subject to funding.
Most importantly, we want to deploy an MVP of our Proof of Trust. When a data breach occures in Web2 a regulator steps in and a fine is paid to some governmental org, the users whose data was breached don’t get anything. Proof of Trust is our answer to this. Data Union builders stake to signal that they follow the Data Union DAO’s constitution. If a data breach occures the stake gets slashed and the Data Union’s members are reimbursed for the data breach.
We want to make it a lot easier for Data Union builders to sell their data. That’s why we are planning to build integrations with existing Web2 data marketplaces such as Snowflake, AWS Marketplace, and Data Bricks. Yes, we’re all about decentralization, but 99.9% of data is sold on Web2 marketplaces. We want our builders to create successful businesses and an integration like that will bring us all one step closer to that vision.
To showcase the range of different Data Unions we are planning to create a discovery portal on our website. This will serve as a storefront to data buyers but also as a means for end-users to discover new Data Unions they can join.
Currently, we are only supporting the monetization of real-time data streams. By adding static file support new Data Union use cases will get unlocked and we cannot wait to see them!
Long Term Roadmap
For the long term, we have a lot of speculative ideas of where we could take the Data Union framework next. From zero knowledge proofs to a mobile app, there’s a lot of cool stuff we’d love to explore over the coming years.
We want to take the Proof of Trust framework out of its MVP stage and make it fully executable on-chain. This could also include integrations for dispute settlement such as Kleros.
There are a lot of things we can explore when it comes to the selling of data. The question is to what extent we want to venture into the marketplace domain since we primarily see ourselves as the ones who cover the first mile of creating a Data Union and not so much the last mile aka the data sales. Nonetheless here are some ideas, questions we’re asking ourselves:
- Do we want a point of sales framework of SDK?
- Should we run our own decentralized data marketplace?
- Do we want to enable data sales directly from the dataunions.org website?
- Should we offer fiat on- and off-ramps?
On the consumer side, Data Unions are part of a bigger trend. Self Sovereign Identity. In web3 users decide what happens to their information and with whom it is shared. An opportunity we could offer builders on that end could be an integration with digital identity systems.
To accommodate more privacy friendly approaches and unlock new Data Union use cases we want to explore the use of zero knowledge proofs. This would open up the opportunity for metadata Data Unions where users don’t give up any information but rather proof it through zk technology.
The web3 data stack is growing and there are a lot of projects out there we are excited about. We want to explore integrations with the existing ecosystem and also look at potential touchpoints of collaboration because nobody needs to reinvent the wheel.
In our future world where users own their data again joining and leaving a Data Union is as easy as the tap of a button. With an app for discovery and consent management app, we could make this a reality.
Are you a builder and would love to see a new feature in our offering? Then drop by our Discord and share your feedback. We might be able to make it happen.
