Anticipating a revolutionary shift in the data landscape, Masa Finance, a self-proclaimed pioneer in building a ‘decentralized Google for the AI era’, is gearing up to launch a decentralized data network and marketplace in the first quarter of 2024. Teaming up with AvaCloud, a managed blockchain service, Masa is working on a gasless Avalanche subnet, a specialized blockchain, to efficiently and economically handle copious amounts of zero-knowledge encrypted data.
Unveiling Masa’s Expansion Plans
After securing a substantial $3.5 million in pre-seed funding in May 2022 to develop its decentralized credit data protocol, Masa is now expanding its data protocol. This project is aimed at empowering users to regain control over their personal data and to be rewarded for its use. A spokesperson from Masa shared that the company initially focused on credit data in early 2022, before broadening the technology to encompass all user data from August 2022 onwards. This expansion into data analytics signifies a significant increase in the company’s scope.
Choosing the Right Infrastructure
When it came to selecting the infrastructure for building a dedicated Masa blockchain, the company considered various options. Brendan Playford, Masa’s co-founder, stated that by building on Avalanche using AvaCloud, Masa can launch a gasless self-sovereign chain that facilitates high transaction throughput and powers use cases that require large volumes of private data, all at a low cost. The Avalanche Foundation and Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund are also providing support and investment to aid in the development of the platform, although the investment amount remains undisclosed.
Understanding How Masa Operates
Masa’s system utilizes a zero-knowledge soulbound token (zkSBT), acting as a personal data locker to securely manage and control an individual’s personal data. This digital tool encrypts and stores individuals’ digital footprints and social graphs, ensuring the privacy of their activities, such as participation in web3 communities or use of decentralized applications. The team reports that over the past year, more than 890,000 user wallets have authorized over 8 million data events on Masa.
With the introduction of its zk-data marketplace, users can view their information in their zkSBT locker and share that data in the marketplace by staking, in return for compensation. For example, users could permit financial institutions to access their Masa zkSBT for age verification, without revealing their birth date. Masa co-founder Calanthia Mei stated that this architecture is ideal for supporting their zk-data network and marketplace.
By launching on a dedicated Avalanche subnet, major financial institutions, AI startups, and large-scale consumer tech applications can access secure, scalable, zk-encrypted user data without any gas fees. Masa contends that big tech companies’ proprietary silos exploit personal data without user consent or compensation, a situation exacerbated by the rise of AI as the demand for personal data to train models and agents grows exponentially.
For those interested in keeping a close eye on this decentralized data marketplace, the cryptoview.io application could be a useful tool. It allows users to monitor the progress of projects like Masa and stay updated with the latest trends in the cryptocurrency market.
