summary: Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) is an ecosystem for sharing data and associated services.
content: Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) is an ecosystem for sharing data and associated services. It provides a tokenized service layer that exposes data, storage, computer, and algorithms for consumption with a set of deterministic proofs on availability and integrity that serve as verifiable service agreements. Ocean protocol helps to unlock data, particularly for Artificial Intelligence. It is designed for scale and uses blockchain technology that allows data to be shared and sold in a safe, secure, and transparent manner. History Ocean Protocol was founded in 2017 by BigchainDB founder, Bruce Pon, and AI and design expert, Trent McConaghy. Their main goal was to get back control of big data from corporations like Microsoft, Google, and Apple Inc., and allow it to be shared and monetized freely on an exchange. By doing this people would no longer have to give up control of their data or compromise its security in order to make money from it. Pon and McConaghy brought together a broad team with people experienced in AI, blockchain, and big data, as well as policy and business, to develop Ocean Protocol. Ocean Protocol allows users to create a decentralized marketplace, composed of data assets and services that can be exchanged by users. The marketplace connects data providers and consumers and links to the data itself. It keeps an on-chain record of who owns the data, and who has purchased and shared it. "Ocean allows people to unlock the value of data without necessarily unlocking the data itself. It is a substrate to finally realize the potential of an open permission-less data economy while still preserving privacy," said Trent McConaghy, co-founder of Ocean Protocol. "We welcome early collaborators already deploying their solutions on our network today, and we look forward to seeing tens, hundreds, even thousands of other marketplaces and applications to be built on top of Ocean, so that data can be freed from their existing silos to deliver world-changing solutions for many verticals including automotive, energy, healthcare and so on." "Data and AI related service providers can use Ocean as a launchpad offering relevant services to data providers and consumers. In addition, Ocean gives data and AI professionals a means to monetize their findings and models," He added. Ocean Protocol launched the Ocean Token in November 2017, alongside its Marketplace Framework which outlines the market attributes and components necessary to deploy the decentralized Ocean Protocol data exchange. By 2018, the Ocean Token was already in pre-launch distribution with 3,500 contributors in 100 countries, an Advisor Program was also launched with 40 advisors in 20 cities, and they announced a partnership with IBM Watson AI XPRIZE. In March 2020, Ocean Protocol launched its decentralized marketplace, customizable for data providers. By its latest round of funding in May 2019, Ocean Protocol had raised over $28 million. Team The team combines a deep background in Big data, Blockchain, Artificial Intelligence, and data exchanges, with real-world business experience as entrepreneurs, designers, and technologists who have started over 20 companies. !imagesbhj.jpg Their team and community are committed to kick-starting a New Data Economy that reaches every single person, company, and device, giving power back to data owners and enabling people to capture value from data to better our world. | Team Member | Role | | | ----------- | ---- | --- | | Bruce Pon | Founder and CEO | | | Trent McConaghy | Founder and CTO | | | Razvan Olteanu | COO | | | Cristina Pon | Co-Founder | | | Sheridan Johns | | | | Masha McConaghy | Co-Founder | | | Matthias Kretschmann | Development and Building | | | Mihai Scarlat | | | | Ahmed Ali | | | | Manan Patel | Growth Accelerator | | | Samer Sallam | | | | Sarah-Jean Vallon | Communications and Marketing | | | Marian Dragomir | DevOps Architect | | Ocean Protocol has over 35 advisors spanning the globe, with recognized expertise in AI, blockchain, big data, business, and policy. Advisors were carefully selected based on an alignment of values towards unlocking data and AI for society. Advisors work to build meaningful collaborations, refer potential business partners, integrate with the protocol, and provide guidance on governance. Some of the advisors include Dr. Carsten Stöcker CEO of Spherity , Prof. Dr. Sebastian Gajek Co-founder & former CTO Weeve , Adam Drake CEO Atazzo and Chris Ballinger founder and CEO of MOBI. Overview Data exchanged in a marketplace is not stored on the Ocean Protocol network itself: customers search for data sets on different marketplaces, then purchase an encrypted reference to it which can only be unlocked once certain conditions (for example, payment) are met. So data owners have full control of their data, regardless of what happens to it or who buys it. The Ocean Protocol is an ecosystem composed of data assets and services, where assets are represented by data and algorithms, and services are represented by integration, processing, and persistence mechanisms. Ocean Protocol facilitates discovery by storing and promoting metadata, linking assets, and services, and provides a licensing framework that has toolsets for pricing. A multitude of data marketplaces can hook into Ocean Protocol to provide “last mile” services to connect data providers and consumers. Ocean Protocol is designed so that data owners cannot be locked into any single marketplace. The data owner controls each dataset. Their goal is to keep working on enhancing AI software and services and they developed their Community Marketplace as a complementary ecosystem to the Enterprise Marketplace, where datasets can be bought and sold freely. As part of this effort, Ocean Protocol is seeking to deploy a standalone web app, restructure its data tokens for simplicity, and integrate incentives and staking into its Data Marketplace. Over 20 million Ocean Tokens have been allocated to the fund, earmarked for developers, startups, and service providers building projects on the network. The Fund consists of the Shipyard incubation program, Ocean Bounties (managed on Gitcoin), and hacking competitions such as the Data Economy Challenge. Use Cases Ocean Protocol has seen several successful implementations. In 2019, sgCarMart integrated Ocean Protocol into its online used car marketplace, allowing buyers to access accurate, verifiable data on their second-hand car purchases, including numbers of previous owners or details of ongoing mechanical problems. Ocean Protocol is also being used in the healthcare industry where data on diseases normally recorded in offline isolation can be shared and analyzed with discretion and security around the world. Most recently, the Ocean network has been used by an AI solution known as James to make crucial data on Parkinson’s disease available to global healthcare users, helping to facilitate better decision making and resolve trends across data sets. Ocean Protocol has partnered with industries and startups in order to show how safe sharing of data can help companies gain a competitive edge and improve people's wellbeing. In the Insurance sector, Aviva and ConnectedLife are applying data analytics and artificial intelligence on smart home data to enhance the protection and care for the aging population and support independent living. In Healthcare, Roche Diagnostics is exploring ways to improve care for patients on blood-thinning therapy. In Retail, Next Billion is piloting a new data-sharing model that rewards rural store owners for contributing sales data. Services Ocean Protocol offers access to a broad data environment with open-source software, including the Keeper blockchain client, Parity SecretStore, and Aquarius metadata management, available for developers seeking the necessary components to develop and implement their own Ocean network. Ocean Protocol has developed two main products: the Data Ecosystem Platform and the decentralized Data Marketplace. The Data Ecosystem Platform The Data Ecosystem Platform facilitates data access control so that owners are able to upload and store their data while retaining complete control when they monetize it for buyers. The platform includes the tools necessary to achieve that end, such as the Ocean blockchain, smart contracts, and software development kits. The Decentralized Data Marketplace The Decentralized Data Marketplace facilitates the sale and purchase of data by connecting sellers and buyers around the world. It consists of the Enterprise Marketplace, aimed at enterprise-level data providers (working, for example, in health, mobility, or logistics) and of the Community Marketplace, used by the wider community to buy and sell data assets. Ocean Marketplace Actions A marketplace's core functionality is about connecting buyers to sellers for given assets: to make the assets discoverable, and buying/selling an asset of interest. For smoother user flow, Ocean Market supports adjacent functionality: publishing the asset in the first place, and consuming it. Each subsection will cover these, in the order that it would happen, with a focus on Ocean Market. Action: publish dataset. When the user (publisher) clicks on "Publish", they end up here. They start to fill out metadata, including Title and Description. The publisher then provides the URL of where the data asset can be found. This URL gets stored encrypted and on-chain. When a buyer later consumes a data token, that URL will be decrypted. The publisher then fills out price information. It may be fixed price or dynamic (automatic). If automatic, they add liquidit