---
title: Introduction
description: Get up to speed with Ocean Protocol
---

## What is Ocean Protocol?

It's a decentralized data exchange protocol to unlock data for artificial intelligence (AI).

While vast amounts of data are generated each year, data exchange and analysis have been hampered due largely to concerns over trust and security. Currently, many organizations have data but do not have the trusted and secure means to share it. Without data, AI cannot advance and be applied to solve problems and ultimately improve lives. More pressing is the fact that today, only a handful of companies have both AI and data capacities, and if data remains locked up, these companies could very well govern the development of AI and thereby our future.

Through blockchain technology and tokens, Ocean Protocol connects data providers and consumers, allowing data to be shared while guaranteeing traceability, transparency, and trust for all stakeholders involved. Ocean Protocol is designed to give data owners control over their data assets and prevent them from being locked in to any single marketplace.

By bringing together decentralized blockchain technology, a data sharing framework, and an ecosystem for data and related services, Ocean Protocol is committed to kick-starting a new Data Economy that touches every single person, company and device, giving power back to data owners, enabling people to reap value from data to better our world.

There are more details on the
[Ocean Protocol home page](https://oceanprotocol.com/),
and in the whitepapers:

* [Technical Whitepaper](https://oceanprotocol.com/tech-whitepaper.pdf)
* [Business Whitepaper](https://oceanprotocol.com/business-whitepaper.pdf)
* [Reference Marketplace Framework](https://oceanprotocol.com/marketplace-framework.pdf)