The Ocean Protocol (OCEAN) project is a really interesting project that has an innovative goal: to allow the exchange of data in a decentralized way.
Ocean Protocol wants to make the management and exchange of your data on the Internet decentralized, and in this way, remove the monopoly of companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft over them.
But what does this mean? How can using Ocean Protocol benefit me? Well, very easy: firstly, because the control of your data will once again be under your control. This means greater privacy and security for your data on the Internet. Second, only what you want to share and who you want to share it with will be shared. And finally, the monetization of your data on the Internet can also benefit you, unlike what happens now, where all the economic benefits remain in the hands of these companies.
In a nutshell, Ocean Protocol not only wants to give you back control of your data, it also wants to allow you to share it, monetize it and control the conditions in which said data can be handled.
Origin of Ocean Protocol
The beginnings of the Ocean Protocol take us to the year 2017, when Bruce Pon, who is the founder of BigChainDB and the AI and design expert, Trent McConaghy, joined forces to create the Ocean Protocol. The idea behind the project was to allow users to regain control over the data they could put on the Internet. In this way, the services that wanted access to them would have to request access from the users, an access that could be totally denied by the users when they wanted it.
Thus, by November 2017, Pon and McConaghy launched the OCEAN token within the Ethereum network, together with an initial version of the Marketplace Framework. Thus began the construction of the foundational pieces of what would be the protocol.
By March 7, 2018, the pre-launch distribution of the OCEAN token began, in which 3.500 contributors participated. In this first sale of tokens, Ocean Protocol managed to raise 16 million dollars for its development. The second token sale was held with the launch of the network, which was held on March 6, 2019. The sale was a complete success and a total of 1,8 million dollars was raised at this time.
Subsequently, in April and May 2019, an IEO (Initial Exchange Offering) was carried out in which an additional 6,4 million dollars were raised. In total, Ocean Protocol managed to raise a total of 28 million dollars in both public and private sales.
Finally, in March 2020, Ocean Protocol presented its complete decentralized data market to the world, which allowed it to do everything it initially promised: a space where users and companies could share data in a decentralized and secure manner.
The problem to be solved by Ocean Protocol
Now, why create Ocean Protocol? Is it really a problem that companies like Microsoft, Apple, Google or Facebook handle our data as they please? The answer is clear at this point: creating something like the Ocean Protocol is compelling, because letting your data be controlled by companies that see it as a product that can be sold to the highest bidder is not exactly the height of privacy and privacy. security.
Think about it for a moment: How many times have you surfed the Internet and before long you start being bombarded with advertising related to searches or pages you have visited before? Surely it has happened to you many times, and you can see this in two ways. The first, as a blessing, because suddenly something that offers you interests you, and the second, as your worst nightmare, because all your activity on the Internet is tracked to the point that these companies can know more about you than you imagine.
In fact, being spied on is perhaps the least of the problems. Think about it for a moment: if these companies know you so well, won't they be able to manipulate your opinion or way of thinking by bombarding you with the information they want to reach you? No, we are not talking about the famous 1984 novel, nor about conspiracy, it is something that has happened, and Facebook is the greatest demonstration of this with the Cambridge Analytics case and its impact on the US elections.
Does this seem little to you? So why don't you check your email? Firefox Monitor, there you can see if your mail and personal data are available in any of the biggest hacks that have happened on the Internet in recent years. Spoiler alert! Surely you will see your data in some of them, especially if you are a user of Facebook, Disqus or played League of Legends.
In any case, it is clear that the centralized storage and control of data is a major problem. One that threatens not only your privacy, but also your Internet security. And, in a world that is increasingly online, this is a very serious problem that must be solved.
How does Ocean Protocol work?
First of all, Ocean Protocol allows us to create our own decentralized data market. This means that as Ocean Protocol users, we can put our data on the network, and from that point on, start exchanging that data with whoever we want. In the same way, this is also available for organizations and institutions in general.
This is possible, because Ocean Protocol has been designed to allow the interrelation of our data and link them through an access system that users and companies control at all times. In this way, it is easy to keep track of who has access to our data, in what form they have that access, what the limitations are and who is responsible at all times.
Thus, for example, if you carry out an operation on a website and this website has access to your data in Ocean, said operation will be accessible to both you and the website. And, in the event that the website shares this data with a third party that you know and have given access to, then that third party will also have access to said record of the operation carried out.
In short, all the activity you carry out is stored in Ocean, and you can decide at any time whether or not to share it under certain conditions, both with companies and other users. Of course, this access is only possible in one way: using OCEAN tokens, so in the end, the monetization of your data in the Ocean network benefits you financially, unlike what happens today, where only companies profit from them.
Safety as a fundamental part of the Ocean Protocol
Now, we mentioned earlier that data centralization not only allowed us to lose control over our data, but also made us more vulnerable to data loss due to hacks. This is a situation that puts us at serious risk, since we could be the target of criminal activities.
At this point, perhaps the best example is seen in the recent information hack suffered by the Ledger company, known in the crypto world for its hardware wallet. This company had a security problem that allowed a group of hackers to steal information about the buyers of its hardware wallet worldwide. Data such as full name, residence address, email was available among the information stolen by hackers.
As a result, a wave of scams and persecution of these people was unleashed, which led to the filing of several lawsuits against the company and several complaints of attempted fraud and threats. And all this for a very simple reason: the data was not encrypted, it did not have any type of protection that prevented this type of risk.
Well, in Ocean Protocol this is practically impossible to do. And, the key in all this, is the blockchain technology and the asymmetric cryptography that is implicit in the entire operation of the system. Let's remember that in blockchain when we create a non-custodial wallet, access to this wallet is solely in our hands, because we are the only ones who have the seed phrase and its private key.
In such a case, you will be glad to know that the Ocean Protocol applies the same principle. Every time they store information on the network, access to that information can only be granted by you, because the network is not custodial. In addition to that, the information is encrypted using your private key and as an additional layer of security, said information is divided between the different nodes of the network.
Data partitioning and encryption prevents a hacker (or malicious node manager) from stealing your data. In fact, the data can only be correctly reconstructed using your private key, making you the only one capable of managing your data. In addition, in case you share them with a company, you can simply reference the data that you want that company to know, avoiding complete and unrestricted access to your personal information. Said in a very simple way, you decide what data to deliver, and if you don't want to, you simply deny access.
Market Ocean, a data exchange space
The center of the whole idea of Ocean Protocol is its well-known Ocean Market. This space is what allows users to create a decentralized market, made up of assets and data services that can be exchanged by users. Such a marketplace allows data providers and consumers to be connected, and allows users' data to be linked with those providers' own data. Additionally, it helps keep track of who owns the data and who has bought and shared it on-chain.
The data that is exchanged in a marketplace is not stored on Ocean Protocol's own network: clients search for datasets in different marketplaces and then purchase an encrypted reference to them that can only be unlocked when certain conditions are met (for example, the payment). In this way, data owners retain full control of their data, regardless of what happens to it or who buys it.
Now, this system works entirely using smart contracts. In this way, users interact with Ocean and its Market through smart contracts, and companies or providers can create access structures using personalized smart contracts adapted to their needs.
On the other hand, it is important to note that the Market is divided into two parts. The first is the Enterprise Marketplace, which is intended for enterprise-level data providers. And secondly, the Community Marketplace, which is used by the community at large to buy and sell data assets. This makes it very clear that the system is not only designed for users and companies, but also for companies and institutions of any kind.
OceanDAO, a decentralized control for the protocol
Another important point in the Ocean Protocol is its governance. It is given through OceanDAO, a DAO (Decentralized Autonomous Organization) that allows users to govern and decide on the projects of the Ocean community that should be financed and developed.
This governance consists of directing the flow of resources towards the teams and projects that offer the best possibilities for growth. OCEAN token holders are incentivized to work to learn more about each team and project proposal, and then use OceanDAO to vote for the most promising teams/projects. This economic incentive is easy to understand, since, if Ocean Protocol continues to develop and grow, the economic value of those tokens will increase and therefore they will have a higher value in your hands.
Thus, the main criteria for OceanDAO are return on investment and alignment with Ocean's mission and values. In addition to this, the OCEAN token supply is set to be issued on a very similar schedule to Bitcoin. In this way, the community will have a low issuance of tokens and will have resources available to finance these projects for a long time.
OCEAN token, the economic and functional center of the protocol
The OCEAN token is the native token of the platform, and it is an ERC-20 type token that performs all its operations on the Ethereum (ETH) network. Tokenomics of the token is generally quite straightforward, as data providers earn OCEAN tokens for sales and users use the token for payments.
In addition to this, the OCEAN token has a fundamental role for the governance of the project, where the holders of the token can use it to raise proposals or vote on them in order to have them accepted or rejected. On the other hand, the same Ocean Protocol allows Staking, which allows you to earn OCEAN tokens through data-pools where you can make your respective investment. Another system that is currently under development is Ocean Data Farming, a system that will allow the yield farming using OCEAN tokens.
At this time (May 2021) the price of the token is about 0,5 dollars and it occupies the 144th position in the cryptocurrency market capitalization ranking. Its circulating supply is 434.026.836 OCEAN tokens and its maximum supply is 1.410.000.000 OCEAN.
The future of Ocean Protocol
Ocean Protocol continues to work on improving AI software and services. In fact, its main aim is to develop its Community Marketplace as a complementary ecosystem to the Enterprise Marketplace, where data sets can be freely bought and sold. As part of that effort, Ocean Protocol is looking to roll out a standalone web application, restructure its data tokens for simplicity, and integrate incentives and staking into its Data Marketplace. Part of that effort began with his hard fork in 2020 September.
Ocean Protocol is also seeking funding from the community for software development on its core applications and infrastructure, for work on its Data Ecosystem, and for the introduction of incentives, such as grants, to encourage users to supply data to the network.
One part of the Ocean Protocol funding scheme is the Ecosystem Development Fund, which aims to help developers create projects with Ocean. 20 million Ocean tokens have been allocated to the fund, intended for developers, startups and service providers building projects on the network. The fund consists of the Shipyard incubation program, Ocean Bounties (run on GitCoin), and hacking contests such as the Data Economy Challenge.
Ultimately, the Ocean Protocol seeks to reset the ways in which data is commercially exploited by creating an environment that relies on innovation and individual discretion for fairer and more equitable outcomes. As the Ocean network grows and attracts more users, Ocean hopes to build a new kind of data economy that includes all kinds of data providers and consumers, from the individual developer to multinational business interests.