Will the Streamr DATAcoin make Money?
The team behind the Streamr DATAcoin (DATA) hopes to cash in on the “oil of the 21st Century;” data.
To explain, Streamr’s business plan is to offer customers the ability to monetize real-time data without writing code. To that end, the Streamr Core; blockchain platform, offers users a drag-and-drop canvas, dashboards, and a simple user interface (UI).
In addition, the Streamr team hopes to commercialize real-time data by creating bridges between Streamr Core and application programming interfaces (API). For example, you could theoretically integrate Streamr Core with payment solutions; such as PayPal or Apple Pay, or bank accounts.
The basis of the monetization is the DATACoin; an ERC20 (Ethereum Request for Comment), or Ethereum-based cryptocurrency. The hope is that people will pay for data with the DATAcoin.
How Valuable is Data?
Observers call data “the oil of the 21st Century” because it is the resource that modern technology runs up. They build artificial intelligences (AI) and algorithms from data, for example.
Data can be worth big money. For example, the World Economic Forum estimated the value of the global data economy at $3 trillion in 2017. In addition, Statista predicts the market for Big Data could grow from $56 billion in 2020 to $103 billion in 2027.
In 2017, The Economist famously claimed, “the world’s most valuable resource is no longer oil, but data.” The Economist noted that several of the world’s most profitable companies; including Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL), Facebook (NASDAQ: FB), and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), run on data.
For example Alphabet’s gross profit grew by 17.84% to $22.931 billion in the quarter ending on 30 September 2019, Macro Economics reports. In addition, Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) reported a gross profit of $86.264 billion for the 12 months ending on 30 September 2019. During that 12 months Alphabet’s gross profit grew by 16.32%.
How Streamr plans to make Money from Data
Therefore, Streamr hopes to monetize one of the world’s valuable resources: data. In fact, Streamr plans to create a new infrastructure for data delivery by offering the ability “to publish or subscribe to cryptographically secure data streams with a few lines of code.”
Ideally, Streamr’s users could use Core; a real-time data toolkit, to create and secure those streams. In addition, Streamr customers could trade real-time data on the Marketplace for Streamr DATAcoin (DATA).
For example, you could add Streamr’s UP to a website, software, an app, or an internet of things (IoT) application to harvest data. You could then sell the data for Streamr DATAcoin (DATA) on the Streamr Marketplace.
Streamr Hopes to Make Everybody into a Data Broker
One dream of Streamr’s creators is to replace Big Data infrastructure; such as Google and Facebook, with a decentralized peer-to-peer (P2P) global network and data marketplace. Ideally, anybody could sell his or her data for cash through the Streamr Marketplace.
Another goal of Streamr is to help everybody become her or his own data broker. Thus, ordinary people; and not Big Data could profit, from their own data.
However Streamr’s idea is hardly original, several other cryptocurrencies have similar plans. Famously, the Basic Attention Token (BAT) tries to sell access to individuals’ data through its Brave browser. Interestingly, the Basic Attention Token is trying to make money with Blockchain-based digital advertising; in emulation of Alphabet’s Google AdWords and AdSense.
Is Streamr DATAcoin a Good Cryptocurrency?
Streamr DataCOIN (DATA) is an interesting cryptocurrency because it is part of the Bancor Liquidity Network. The Bancor Network backs tokens with liquidity which makes them easy to cash out.
Adding liquidity makes it easy to convert tokens on the Bancor Network. That means, you can convert DATA into the scalable Etehreum alternative EOS (EOS) and many popular ERC20 cryptocurrencies. By being scalable EOS could be more versatile than Ethereum because it can process more transactions faster than Ethereum.
Currently, Mr. Market gives the Streamr DataCoin (DATA) some value. The Bancor Network; for example, gave DataCoin a Coin Price of 1.58₵, a 24-Hour Market Volume of $804, and a liquidity depth of 9,472 on 13 January 2019. The Liquidity depth is the cash value of the DATA in Bancor’s Network.
In contrast, CoinMarketCap gave Streamr DATAcoin a Coin Price of 1.56₵, a Market Capitalization of $10.557 million, and a 24-Hour Market Capitalization of $399,961 on 13 January 2019. CoinMarketCap based those numbers on a circulating supply of 677.156 million DATA and a Total Supply of 987.155 million DATA.
Despite the prices, I consider Streamr DATAcoin a theoretical cryptocurrency because there is no evidence any of Streamr’s technology is up and running or making money. Instead, Streamr, unlike the Basic Attention Token (BAT) is a good idea for a cryptocurrency. Investors need to watch Streamr DATAcoin but not buy it.
Thus, you need to put Streamr DATAcoin on your list of altcoins to watch.
