Hopefully, you'll find the answers here! If not then please don't hesitate to reach out to us on [discord](https://discord.gg/TnXjkR5) - there are no stupid questions!
AI models require data, and Ocean offers a suite of tools to facilitate the supply, management, and monetization of that data. Through tokenization, Ocean empowers web3 wallets to securely access data, facilitates decentralized data exchanges, unlocks token-gated APIs, ensures data sharing provenance, enables compute-to-data processes, and much more.
Ocean Protocol's mission is to develop tools and services that facilitate the emergence of a new Data Economy. This new economy aims to empower data owners with control, maintain privacy, and catalyze the commercialization of data, including the establishment of data marketplaces.
The protocol generates revenue through transaction fees. These fees serve multiple purposes: they fund the ongoing development of Ocean technology and support the buy-and-burn process of the Ocean token.
To get a glimpse of the revenue generated on the Polygon network, which is the most frequently used network, you can find detailed information [here](https://polygonscan.com/address/0x042BFbd88c3998282153088604207b2AeF045b43#tokentxns).
To monitor burned tokens, visit [etherscan](https://etherscan.io/token/0x967da4048cd07ab37855c090aaf366e4ce1b9f48?a=0x000000000000000000000000000000000000dead). As of September 2023, approximately 1.4 million tokens have been burned. 🔥📈
There are a wide host of technical, business, and cultural barriers to overcome before volume sales can scale. Blockchain and crypto technology are relatively new and adopted by a niche group of enthusiasts. On top, the concept of a Data Economy is still nascent. Data buyers are generally restricted to data scientists, researchers, or large corporations, while data providers are mainly corporations and government entities. The commercialization of data is still novel and the processes are being developed and refined.
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<summary>How does Ocean Protocol enforce penalties if data is shared without permission?</summary>
Determining whether someone has downloaded your data and is reselling it is quite challenging. While they are bound by a contract not to do so, it's practically impossible to monitor their actions. If you want to maintain the privacy of your dataset, you can explore the option of using compute-to-data(C2D). Via C2D your data remains private and people can only run algorithms(that you approve of) to extract intelligence.
This issue is similar to what any digital distribution platform faces. For instance, can Netflix prevent individuals from downloading and redistributing their content? Not entirely. They invest significant resources in security, but ultimately, complete prevention is extremely difficult. They mainly focus on making it more challenging for such activities to occur.
3rd party markets such as Gaia-X, BDP and Acentrik use Ocean components to power their marketplace. They will likely use another currency for the exchange of services. If these marketplaces are publicly accessible, indexable and abide by the fee structure set out by Ocean Protocol, transaction fees would be remitted back to the Ocean community. These transaction fees would be allocated according to plan set out [here](https://blog.oceanprotocol.com/ocean-token-model-3e4e7af210f9).
Ocean Shipyard is an early-stage grant program established to fund the next generation of Web3 dApps built on Ocean Protocol. It is made for entrepreneurs looking to build Web3 solutions on Ocean, make valuable data available, build innovations, and create value for the Ocean ecosystem.
Yes. Ocean Protocol understands that some data is too sensitive to be shared — potentially due to GDPR or other reasons. For these types of datasets, we offer a unique service called [compute-to-data](../developers/compute-to-data/README.md). This enables you to monetize the dataset that sits behind a firewall without ever revealing the raw data to the consumer. For example, researchers and data scientists pay to run their algorithms on the data set, and the computation is performed behind a firewall; all the researchers or data scientists receive is the results generated by their algorithm.
To be fully decentralized means no single point of control, at any level of the stack. The OCEAN token is already fully decentralized. The Ocean core tech stack is already fully decentralized too: smart contracts on permissionless chains, and anyone can run support middleware. The Data Farming incentives program has some centralized components; we aim to decentralize those in the next 12-24 months.
Accessing the submitted solutions is currently a work in progress, with one solution already available for the [Catalunya](https://catalunya.oceanprotocol.com/) challenge.
All 1.41 Billion Ocean have been [minted](https://blog.oceanprotocol.com/control-over-the-ocean-contract-to-be-revoked-soon-overview-6c5b15be2db) with approximately 700 million Ocean in circulation. The remaining 51% of the supply is earmarked on an emission schedule identical to Bitcoin's emission mechanism, including the 4-year half-life.
A portion of the revenue earned in the Ocean ecosystem is earmarked for buy-and-burn. If the transaction volume on Ocean reaches scale and is broadly adopted to the point where the buy-burn mechanism outruns the emissions of Ocean token, the Ocean token supply would deflate.
During the Ocean DAO grants program (2021-2022), the Ocean token was used for community voting and governance. Currently, there are no governance functions associated with the Ocean Token. In the future, when there is a broader adoption of Ocean technology and a vibrant community and ecosystem has formed around Ocean, further options for community governance with the Ocean token will be explored.
All Ocean modules and components are open-source and freely available to the community. Developers can change the default currency from OCEAN to a different one for their dApp.
<summary>How does the ecosystem and the Ocean token benefit from the usage of the open-source tech stack when transactions can be paid in any currency?</summary>
You are right, all Ocean modules and components are open-source and freely available to the community. Developers can change the default currency from OCEAN to a different one for their dApp. But, there is a community fee involved in all transactions hapening in the ecosystem.
veOCEAN on the other hand, follows the model of other ve tokens, where it can be used for passive and active staking. By locking up your $OCEAN to veOCEAN, you automatically receive passive staking rewards. You can also earn active staking rewards by assigning your veOCEAN directly on datasets or through a proxy (psdnOCEAN), who deploy your veOCEAN at no risk, in order to gain a share of active rewards. Active rewards are based on transaction volume on specific data assets.
A data marketplace allows providers to publish data and buyers to consume data. Unlike centralized data marketplaces, decentralized ones give users more control over their data, algorithms, and analytics by minimizing custodianship and providing transparent and immutable records of every transaction. With features such as Compute-to-Data (C2D), data and algorithms can be ingested into secure Docker containers where escapes are avoided, protecting both the data and algorithms.
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<summary>Is there a website or platform that tracks the consume volume of the Ocean market?</summary>
The Ocean Market has consistently served as a showcase for the practical application of Ocean technology. Moreover, it has the potential to set a precedent for the development of other marketplaces within the Ocean ecosystem.
However, it's important to note that participants using the Ocean stack are subject to transaction fees, which vary depending on the chosen token. These fees serve the dual purpose of furthering the development of Ocean technology and facilitating the buy-and-burning of the Ocean token.
