Of all the important questions of our time, there is one that stands out above the rest. How can we use emerging technologies to improve efficiency and unlock the massive amount of human potential that is currently going to waste?

Since its inception in 2017, the Unification Foundation has been conducting a grand experiment to create an answer to this question.

Our project overturns older, more inefficient ways of managing and exchanging data, and replaces them with a blockchain-based solution that creates radical new possibilities for app functionality and scientific research.

Unification accomplishes this in two ways:

Standardizing user data into a unified format that can be bought and sold on an open marketplace, then seamlessly incorporated into products & scientific research

that can be bought and sold on an open marketplace, then seamlessly incorporated into products & scientific research Granting users immutable control over their own private data, so they can elect to share it with apps & research institutions while also maintaining a degree of privacy that has not been possible until this point

Unlocking human potential through unified data

Unification was founded on the belief that, when it comes to world-changing technological and scientific breakthroughs, unified data is the missing piece of the puzzle.

Right now, data is held in a wide variety of formats and stored in silos, unable to be easily accessed or correlated with other data sets.

Companies and research institutions who wish to compare multiple types of data must painstakingly reformat each database, requiring massive manpower and introducing the threat of human error.

Furthermore, as long as humans are required to query various relations between data sets, we will by definition only receive answers to questions we are wise enough to ask (and believe it or not, we’re not always that wise).

Because the world’s data cannot be easily read and correlated en masse, we are significantly hampering the ability of machines to find important correlations among data that is collected.

Until we have a world where data sets can be easily cross referenced, we will forever be hindering the ability of apps and research institutions to make discoveries that improve our quality of life.

Unification offers a profound solution: We use Smart Contracts to unify data into a singular, standardized format.

As a result, data can be seamlessly read, correlated, and integrated by apps and research institutions, leading to better user experience as well as groundbreaking new discoveries.

Through our efforts to create unified data, we have created technology that unlocks the power of data to reveal correlations that we never before anticipated, thus radically shifting the course of history.

Granting users immutable control of their data

Beyond merely standardizing data, Unification incorporates a number of facets of blockchain technology that are beneficial to both business and users alike.

As it stands, users have no way to understand what data is being collected and where it is being shared. Nor can they elect to sell their information to apps and research institutions who wish to use it to improve their product or make scientific discoveries.

With Unification, users are granted immutable control over their data, as enforced by Smart Contracts.

Unification’s BABEL interface allows users to view where and how their data is shared, to shut or open each data faucet at any moment, and to receive a portion of payment remitted for their data. Payment is transmitted in United Network Distribution (UND) tokens via Unification’s C++-based HAIKU Smart Contract system.

Unlike the standard model where users have little knowledge of what personal data is being bought and sold, Unification engages the user and empowers them to both own and share their data to improve their experience.

This allows businesses and research institutions to access the data of consenting users like never before, while also staying ahead of privacy regulations like GDPR.

HAIKU: A Smart Control system for standardizing data into a unified format

In order to understand how Unification accomplishes unilateral data standardization, it is first necessary to understand the technological processes of HAIKU.

HAIKU itself is Unification’s Smart Contract-based protocol layer on EOS, consisting of a few parts:

Smart Contract templates deployed by individual apps, which standardize their data and automatically convert it into an exchangeable format, so it can be bought and sold on a universal data marketplace A series of client/server-side SDKs (software development kits), which apps use to encrypt and decrypt hashes to access the data. The actual data is not stored on the blockchain — rather, it is the hash/access key to the data which is transferred and stored on the EOS blockchain MOTHER, the Unification master Smart Contract, designed to protect the system itself. All sub-contracts in the ecosystem must be listed in MOTHER to transact in the ecosystem

Practically speaking, this protocol provides the pathways for full interoperability of data between apps and research institutions that rely on data for technological functionality and scientific discovery.

Once an app has been integrated into the Unification ecosystem via HAIKU, we refer to it as a “UApp,” also known as a “Unified App.”

HAIKU plugs into existing ecosystems, forming a seamless layer on top of apps.

BABEL: A standardized data marketplace & visual dashboard for end users

Data standardization is only valuable if it allows easier transmission of data from one party to another. This type of unilateral data exchange between apps, research institutions, and users themselves is one of the core potentials unlocked by HAIKU.

In order to full realize this potential, though, we require the emergence of data marketplace where data can be bought and sold in standardized, ready-to-use formats.

The beauty of an open-source world is that anyone could theoretically create just such a marketplace using the foundation set forth by HAIKU.

However, rather waiting for some shining knight to come around and build the access point that will accelerate the exchange of unified data, the Unification Foundation has decided to create the most robust possible product we can.

In examining the landscape, the team at Unification felt that we were best equipped to make a robust data marketplace into a reality, due to the fact that we hold combined decades of experience in AdTech and consumer data industries.

This has led to the development of BABEL, a marketplace and user interface that sits on top of the Unification protocol.

The BABEL interface allows a view of unified data that is available for sale and purchase.

BABEL has a few distinct functions:

Providing data purchasers and sellers with a visual/clickable interface to access a universal data marketplace.

BABEL allows interested parties to view what data is listed for sale and what data is available for purchase, and to conduct transactions in an open marketplace.

Providing end users with a view into all data collected about them from various apps and granting them immutable control over its exchange.

BABEL also functions as a wallet for accessing UND tokens, which users accrue by allowing data purchasers access to their data. Inside the BABEL interface, users themselves have the controls to approve or deny all data exchanges, with their choices being enforced immutably by the EOS blockchain, rather than being subject to vague Terms of Service.