Happening silently in the background, these devices are loaded with a variety of sensors that are constantly gathering data on how the devices are being used and even the conditions they're being used in.
Data is gold these days, existing companies use it to improve their products, and new companies use it to identify problems and engineer products to address them. Companies, researchers, and governments are spending billions each year maintaining the sensors to gathering this information.
Now here's the surprising part - once it's gathered, evaluated and used by the original group or groups seeking it, it's locked away. Even though other IoT companies or researchers want it and are willing to pay big to have that data shared - the marketplace to do so just doesn't exist.
Databroker DOA is a company hoping to be the ones to address this problem, with a blockchain powered solution.
"Today companies make use of sensor data to optimize and monitor their operations. The result is a single purpose data landscape. DataBroker DAO drives the evolution towards truly ‘smart living’ by making this data easily accessible to cities, organizations and entrepreneurs at an affordable price." explains the company.
The primary market for these sensors is estimated to reach 1.2 trillion USD in 2019, and when an industry starts hitting numbers like this, building a secondary market becomes vital.
Databroker DAO will be the first marketplace to connect IoT sensor data owners with companies seeking to purchase the data directly, it's been compared to the equivalent of an eBay or Amazon for IoT sensor data. A dedicated marketplace where sensor owners, network ops, sensor manufactures, smart city initiatives, academics and the agricultural sector can all exchange the information they rely on.
While both IoT and blockchain are the hot emerging tech buzzwords of the decade, there hasn't been much cross over between the two industries. So as a blockchain expert, you may be wondering what exactly is this "IoT sensor data" that's so valuable?
Frank Van Geertruyden from Databroker DAO explains "Sensor data can be explained as the output of a device that detects and responds to some type of input from the physical environment. The output may be used to provide information or input to another system or to guide a process. Not all data is meaningful but at the same time, all data is destined to have some value, even if not known at the immediate time of collection. It is in fact a complete ecosystem."
The project has an impressive team behind it as well. Their CEO Matthew van Niekerk also founded Belgium based SettleMint, and their advisors include Overstock.com CEO Patrick Bryne.
The Databroker DAO token 'DTX' is an ERC20 token and will serve as the credits to buy and sell sensor data within the platform.
Their ICO presale is live now, with the public sale beginning April 26th
For more information visit https://databrokerdao.com
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Author: Ross Davis
San Francisco News Desk
