Datum is a blockchain-based platform that’ll ultimately allow users to retake control of their data. This idea goes beyond personal and habitual information and also covers Internet data that users can control but currently don’t.

To put it simply, Datum provides a marketplace secured by a blockchain ledger designed to put you in control of your data and turn it into a tradeable commodity. As the official website states, “data is the new oil,” so you’ll definitely want to be in full control of yours.

The noun datum is singular for data and it’s used to denote a piece of information. So, if you’re thinking about investing in the upcoming Datum ICO, we strongly recommend that you keep on reading our objective Datum review in order to learn all there is about the idea behind the project.

Start Date October 29th, 2017 End Date November 29th, 2017 ICO First Price 10’000 DAT = 1 ETH Distributed in ICO 1.53 billion Accepted Currencies Facebook fb.com/datumnetwork/ Twitter @datumnetwork Slack @datumnetwork Telegram n/a Website https://datum.org/

Team

Datum’s core team includes the following members:

Roger Haenni – CEO, Co-Founder

Gebhard Scherrer – Operations, Co-Founder

VC Tran – Marketing, Co-Founder

Theo Valich – Head of Growth

Florian Honegger – Smart Contract Expert

Vitaly Krinitsin – Community Manager

Matt Kimbal – Programmer/Designer

Tevon Strand-Brown – Software Engineer

Luis Fernando Varela – Software Engineer

Christiana Kuo-Chen Chien – Community Management

Alex Yedomski – Programmer/Web-Developer

Eugene Kyselov – Programmer/ Front-End Developer

The project’s advisory board consists of:

Chris Miess – Previously CFO at TenX

Daniel Saito – Managing Director for MySQL in Asia

Michael Egorov – CTO and Co-Founder of NuCypher

Datum doesn’t list any current partners, but the team looks more than solid. Some background info was provided for every member of the team, listing some of their biggest projects in the past. You can also see their LinkedIn accounts, which further adds to the overall trustworthiness of the project.

About The Project

In order to properly explain the idea behind Datum, we first need to provide a bit of context. As you know, our age is ruled by data, whether we like it or not. People create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data every single day. 90% of the data pool we have today was created in the last two years alone and the said pool grows four times faster than the global economy. Naturally, we must work on better ways to handle this enormous cluster of information, which is what Datum is trying to do.

A big percentage of available data is created by Internet users while they browse, shop online or interact on social networks. The big question we must ask ourselves is: who owns this data? Sure, online services like Facebook, Twitter, and others are free to use, but they all store your personal information in their huge data silos and can extract them at will, sell them to advertisers, tamper with them, and exploit them in a number of different ways.

You, as the originator of the said information usually lose control over it the moment you sign up for services provided by Google, Instagram, etc. You can enjoy “free services” in exchange for the exploitation of your personal data. For example, Gmail is a completely free service but Google will read your emails and show you targeted ads as a result.

This is the problem Datum is trying to solve. Data originators don’t have control over the information they create, which is further exploited without any additional reward. If successful, Datum will create a network run on a smart contract blockchain that’ll allow you to store your data away from prying eyes, encrypt it, and sell it only if you so choose, as indicated at the very beginning of this Datum review.

“If you are not paying for the product, you are the product.” – Andrew Lewis, 2010

In short, the key elements of the Datum platform go as follows:

A fast decentralized data store, allowing platform users to securely store structured data;

DAT token will enable data storage and sharing;

Data marketplace will allow users to monetize proprietary data on their own terms;

Datum leverages IPFS and BigchainDB for a decentralized and infinitely scalable data storage backend;

Data storage and potential sharing are paid by DAT tokens.

With Datum, individuals, big companies, and researchers will still be able to get the necessary data, but they’ll have to respect the owners’ terms and conditions. Datum is pushing us toward a new age where data is owned by the creator.

Datum stakeholders will include:

Users – People who submit data personally, from IoT devices or any other data source;

– People who submit data personally, from IoT devices or any other data source; Storage nodes – These are providers of processing power and storage capacity. Storage nodes belong to the BigchainDB cluster, allowing the platform to store the submitted data on a global scale;

– These are providers of processing power and storage capacity. Storage nodes belong to the BigchainDB cluster, allowing the platform to store the submitted data on a global scale; Data consumers – These are all entities that wish to access the stored data. You, as an owner, can give your data under precise conditions, either for a fee or completely free;

– These are all entities that wish to access the stored data. You, as an owner, can give your data under precise conditions, either for a fee or completely free; DAT token holders – Token holders will govern the network and “fuel” its ability to process transactions.

Every piece of data stored will be marked with usage terms during the encryption process. This way, the creator has full control over the usage and sharing of the information. The usage terms will be controlled by DAT token smart contracts.

Creators will have the following privacy settings at their disposal:

Share disabled

Shared with specific, identified, and known data consumers

Shared with specific, identified, and known data consumers for a minimum fee

Share with everyone

Share with everyone for a minimum fee

Why Choose Datum

This section of our Datum review will highlight all the positive factors that merit your attention. They include:

A revolutionary idea behind the project

Focus on data creators rather than big companies

Very versatile platform

Decentralized data storage

Encryption

Immutability

Creators will be able to monetize data if they want to

Anonymous storage

Creators are always in full control of their data

The platform is focused on “Know Your Consumer” rather than customer

Five use cases available

ICO Details

DAT token will be used to enable data trades between creators and consumers. The total amount of issued tokens will be 3,000,000,000 DAT, 1,530,000,000 of which will be for sale. Note that no new tokens will ever be created. The price will be set at 1 ETH = 10,000 DAT.

The crowdsale will start on October 29th, 2017 13:00 UTC and last until November 29th, 2017 13:00 UTC. ETH will be the only accepted currency. The minimum goal is set at 4,000 ETH and the hard cap at 153,000 ETH.

DAT token allocation goes as follows:

51% of all minted tokens will be offered to the general public;

29% will be held in a reserve by the Datum Network GmbH for user growth, community initiatives, academic research, business development, and future market expansions;

20% will be allocated to founders, advisors, and core developers over a 2-year vesting period.

As far as governance is concerned, it will initially be handled by the Datum Network GmbH, a company from Switzerland. Long-term, the team plans to migrate governance to a DAO and empower users and stakeholders by transferring governance to a non-profit organization.

Additional Resources

Datum presented its blockchain-based platform with a revolutionary idea of taking user-created data from the big companies and returning it to the creators. If successful, it’ll provide a secure ecosystem where creators have full control over their information and can store them anonymously or share them with interested parties for a fee. If you’re interested in the platform, check out our list of additional resources below.

Take a look at this introductory video and podcast on YouTube to further familiarize yourself with the platform.

You can also check Datum Facebook and Twitter pages for the latest news.

Datum blog will provide you with the most relevant first-hand information about the project.

Lastly, you can take a look at this subreddit for some additional opinions.