Hello everyone,
Been a while, I've been super busy here lately, but I wanted to take a minute to discuss a new project I've invested in and why I strongly believe it's worth your time to look into it.
Datum is a new token used to establish a global data marketplace. I'll spare you the sales pitch, their website does a fine job of covering the details. But one thing I think it fails to discuss adequately is how Datum could literally change the world.
(TL;DR version: Jobs are scarce; poverty sucks; Datum will get you free money for the anonymized usage data you already generate all day anyways)
Let's face it, jobs are dwindling. Automation, increased efficiency of production methods and the digital age mean that human effort has become more and more optional. The vast majority of employment that remains simply can not sustain a basic existence, much less allow a budding family to prosper. Soon, there simply won't be enough employment to go around, and short of recycling poor people into new tires for the rich, society is going to have to come up with a better plan.
Well, the good news is we already have that better plan, but it's 'very scary' for the world powers.
Basic Income. The idea is that governments would gift everyone, universally, a uniform amount on a monthly basis to use for whatever they want. Poverty would be eradicated over night. Every month would feel like Christmas (if that's your thing). Shopping sprees would replace the dreaded monthly ritual of trying to juggle their finances without actually having enough money to pay the bills life imposes. Where does this 'free money' come from? Higher sales taxes, probably. But again, this concept is absolutely terrifying for the established world order. They're used to staying rich off the efforts of the poor. No poor people means they either need to start paying reasonable wages or doing their own work. So... Basic Income, as wonderful as it sounds to me, is no where near a reality.
"What does this have to do with Datum?", you're probably asking yourself. Well, when it comes to something as huge as a massive restructuring of the world economy, someone needs to be first mover, the tip of the spear, the dragon's tooth.
Datum literally pays you, via data buyers on it's marketplace, for things you're already doing anyways. No additional effort from you is required. Do you use Facebook? With Datum, you'll get paid to use Facebook. Do you use Twitter? Paid to use Twitter. Do you... drink beverages? Yes, Datum will literally pay you to drink beverages, whichever ones you already prefer, at whatever rate you already do that at, from whatever beverage vendors you already choose. I realize this sounds magical, and a bit too good to be true. But here's how it works: Someone out there wants to know what you 'like' on Facebook. They want to know what you're tweeting about. They want to know what kind of beverage is in your cup. They really don't care who you are, just what your habits and patterns are, because that's how they make decisions. They want to know these things very badly, and they already pay big money to companies like Google and Facebook for that data. Money those big companies do not share with you, because up until now, no one ever forced them to.
Datum will change all that, by empowering you to directly sell your data at rates you specify to whoever you want. And in this way, Basic Income starts to become a reality, and somehow, it did it without one speck of legislation being passed, no new taxes, it completely circumvented the spectrum of obstacles carefully placed by the rich and powerful to prevent this from happening. They don't have a choice in the matter, this is happening whether they like it or not.
Will Datum pay you enough to pay your monthly bills? No, not a chance. Maybe some of them but the idea that you can just switch over to this income stream and quit your job: not happening. But that's fine, it's still free money and it's the start of something bigger. Once the rest of the world see's that this is possible, that they can't stop us, it will snowball.
I am unaware of any other blockchain projects with such vast potential to change the world for the better.
So, how can Datum help you financially? Three ways. One, as outlined above, requires nothing from you but patience. By summer of next year, rollout of the first transactions on the Datum network will begin. You can sign up and participate at no expense. You do not need to buy any Datum now to do it, in fact you'll be paid in Datum so you really don't need to buy any, ever. Everyone should do this, it's free money.
The second is basically to 'mine' Datum, by operating a storage node on your home or business internet. Any modest computer will do, and it won't use up much of your bandwidth. This will also generate Datum tokens (DAT) for you, which you can then go sell on the open market.
The third, and perhaps most profitable path, is to buy up DAT tokens during the Datum ICO token sale (which is going on right now), and then hold onto them. In order for buyers of data to actually pay creators of data, they'll need to buy your DAT in the marketplace. Once the current supply of 3 Billion DAT is circulated (1.5 Billion of which are for sale), there will never be any more. So at a rate of roughly 1 ETH to 25,000 DAT, you can buy this new commodity and hoard it.
If you get in on the ICO, you get DAT for 1.2 cents per, or less (there's early adopter bonuses in effect, described more on their website). However, when it comes time to actually start using, earning, buying and selling DAT, it's entirely realistic to expect it will trade at or above $0.25 per - 20x growth! Spend 1 ETH now, wait a year, sell it for $6000. And the rate will just keep going up over time as more users sign up and more data buyers realize this is the most affordable way for them to get the data they need. 3 billion may sound like a lot but spread out between the 3 billion internet users in the world today, that's only... 1 per user. If a persons usage data is worth $1 USD per person per month (and it is, it sells for a lot more than that already, except you don't get any of that), then each DAT could be worth $1 per. So really, $0.25 per DAT is a bit of a pessimistic estimate. Long term, the sky is the limit with this.
If you're like me, the first thing you may have concerns about here are privacy and security. Don't worry: the Datum team has really thought this through and their website outlines all the specifics. Basically, before your data is put on the marketplace, anything that identifies who you are is removed from it. The buyers may, if you choose, get to know a little bit about you in broad terms, what zipcode you live in, your approximate age, etc, but (unless you deliberately choose to share this information), they do not get to know your name or anything specific about you. Once uploaded to the cloud, your data is very securely encrypted, and only you control the keys to that data.
So that's it, Datum means free money for you, several different ways. If you're able and willing to invest in the project now, it could mean *a lot* of money for you.
http://www.datum.orgObviously I've read up on this a lot, and I'm happy to answer any questions as best as I'm able, but also their website has a really handy little chat window that connects you directly to their support staff who are very helpful.
