Please describe your proposed solution.
Lets reiterate a little, we see 2 problems with the current data-ecosystem:
First: Big tech companies have too much control about the personal data of people. More transparency, participation and control for individuals is needed.
Second: More data is sorely needed to improve all sorts of machine learning & AI applications. Creating a more egalitarian data economy will help to satisfy this need.
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Let's talk about how we'll use blockchain to solve these problems:
What is a Datapod?
Pods, an idea first coined by none other than Tim Berners-Lee (yes, that's the inventor of the internet), are personal online data stores. The idea is that each person controls his or her own data — websites visited, credit card purchases, workout routines, music streamed — in an individual data safe.
What can i do with my Datapod?
Our blockchain platform then enables every person with a Datapod to selectively share parts of their data with parties who are interested.
Whenever the data is accessed, the original data owner is compensated for it.
This entire transaction is orchestrated via a smart contract on Cardano, ensuring the transparency and safety of the operation. Once the payment has arrived in the data-owners wallet, temporary access to the requested data is provided.
Now it's also possible (under the relevant legislation that is described below) to request deletion of your data on the side of the Tech companies (such as Meta, Google, etc.).
How do i even get my data into my Datapod?
Now, this is a little more complicated.
Our goal is to create an App, with which people can automatically request their personal data from all the big tech players, and store it in their Datapod. This is possible because these tech giants have to comply with data protection laws, that require them to hand out personal data to individuals who request it.
(Currently the laws that enable this are in place in California (CCPA), the European Union (GDPR) and Brazil (LGPD). And most companies globally comply with these regulations)
All in all, this would hand the control about personal data back to the Individual.
Technical FAQ:
Where is the data stored?
> The Data in question shouldn't be stored directly on chain, the storage size is simply too big. Instead the data is stored in an individual Datapod (implemented via the Solid open source protocol). Users can choose to let us host their Datapod, or choose to self host it, or use any cloud provider of their choice.
How is the data organized?
> Metadata(type, size, quality, etc.) about the data of individuals is stored on-Chain. That way, potential consumers of said data, can still index the userbase, to look for the dataset they need.
How are users identified?
> Users will be identified using Atala PRISM.
How is data access granted?
> A smart contract will provide a temporary access token to the Datapod once payment is received in the data owners wallet.
Please describe how your proposed solution will address the Challenge that you have submitted it in.
This project, if successful, would make Cardano a relevant player in the emerging Data-Crypto market segment.
As the project relies on different technologies, it would encourage the development of the Cardano ecosystem in these areas, namely stablecoins (for payment) and oracles (to facilitate smart contracts).
What are the main risks that could prevent you from delivering the project successfully and please explain how you will mitigate each risk?
<u>Risk</u>: Technical Challenges
- We will, before implementing, publish our planned architecture as a whitepaper for the community to review. Furthermore we will expand the team by a blockchain engineer to increase development skill.
- We will also look into auditing parts of the software, namely the transaction layer.
- Parts of our architecture, such as the data storage, will use open source components.
<u>Risk</u>: Customer Trust
- We will publish detailed blogposts about the data ecosystem, leading to more customer understanding of both the problem and our solution.
- Using smart contracts as the settlement layer will provide transparency for every party involved.
- We plan to allow users to self host their Datapods, giving them ultimate control about their data.
<u>Risk</u>: Regulatory Compliance
- Using mainly subject access requests enabled by data protection laws (CCPA, GDPR, etc.) as the data source might lead to problems if tech conglomerates don't comply with these laws.
- We will, if needed, pursue legal action against these companies if they in any way obstruct the data-retrieval.