Sam + me Converting the Wild West into Wall Street

 

 

Before Sam, data creators were both economically dependent on the systems that created value from data and economically isolated from one another - except via those same systems. Data provenance was notional - at best - and value allocation lacked transparency. As the mechanisms for value creation were centrally controlled, data creators lacked both the incentives and the means to create or share data beyond their obligations. Data was tied to specific corporate ecosystems who also controlled the terms that governed the creation of data. Data value chains - to the extent they existed - were dominated by anchor players who controlled value appropriation up- and down-stream. Responding to high economies of scale and weak barriers to entry, these firms vertically integrated and offered third-party service providers targeted incentives to add value throughout their proprietary ecosystems. Unsurprisingly, data creators were enslaved to the ecosystems they supported.

Sam empowers data creators by restoring: data provenance, clarity in value creation and efficiency in data markets. First and foremost, Sam mirrors real-world, fiat money by changing the focus from data ownership to data access. Going further, Sam separates the functions of data creation, data storage, and data enrichment. As access to data is traded, data creators are incentivised to participate within Sam and create value, emboldened with the knowledge they can withdraw from participation at any time by simply revoking access to their data streams. Data banks are incentivised to store data securely and in accordance with agreed terms so more clients will demand their services. Data enrichers compete for value allocation, enrichment and client centredness knowing they can only access data under specific conditions and that access may be revoked at any time.

This model of value circulation relies on two tenets: one technical and the other economic. Technically, Sam must have a method for effective enforcement of access, or more strictly: effective denial of access. Data banks secure stored data with proctored computations so validated service providers can analyse or query that data without exposing the data to anyone. Sam manages the complexity of variegated access to multiple service providers and even multiple data banks by learning the prioritised requirements of each member and proactively mediating data-exchanges according to prior explicit and implicit instructions. Sam starts by sharing nothing, and prompts the member for data sharing opportunities.

The economic tenet is more difficult to solve. In order to operate efficiently, data marketplaces - like their real-world counterparts - must exhibit low information asymmetry, low search costs and ideally, host multiple buyers and sellers who compete for both provision and consumption of differentiated goods. Revocable access to data shifts the market towards time-based valuations such as renting or conceivably leasing. This enables buyers to resolve information asymmetry themselves as they become more familiar with the characteristics of different types of data. Sam continually intermediates these exchanges for both sides of the market, recommending starting valuations based on previous exchanges of similar terms. Access and vendor utilisation of data streams are recorded in A publicly verifiable lifetime digital contract so while access to data may be revoked, the value each party contributed remains indelible. Sam makes it possible for members to simultaneously retain the right to be forgotten and the right for fair reward. The marketplace also serves to differentiate data products and data enrichers as heavily enriched data and successful enrichers amass a surrounding body of meta-data that validates their value in the marketplace.

Sam enables data markets to mature as reputation, infrastructure and data-based wealth grow simultaneously. We have provisioned for valuable exchanges in Sam to be settled directly - without the use of cash payments. Data will be a non-cash payment (NCP) that facilitates trade through on- and off-platform value chains. Value created from enrichment of data is tracked and returned back up the value chain ensuring provenance is rewarded.