The Lydion Magazine is brought to you by The Data Economics Company (DECO), developers of the Lydion® DEOS Engine middleware platform. DECO enables companies and people to convert their data into valuable digital assets that can be utilized, shared, and transacted using secure, private Lydion Data Vaults and Data Economics Networks (DENETs).
The Lydion Magazine launched in 2021 to its audience of over 20,000 readers who are curious about how the combined power of distributed computing and digital assets are tackling the world’s “Big Problems.” With each edition of the Magazine, we seek to bring you stories from a variety of voices, technical and non-technical, with expertise in their fields and a knack for explaining complex topics to a broad audience. We want our readers to feel more informed, to have their imaginations sparked, and to renew (or rediscover) their sense of scientific curiosity.
We believe that topics at the bleeding edge of new technology—Web3, digital assets, data economics, blockchain, distributed computing, artificial intelligence—don’t need to be mysterious to be exciting. We’ll commit to being good storytellers if you’ll bring your inquisitiveness and your receptivity to new scientific possibilities.
- The Lydion Magazine’s Editors
A GDPR-compliant platform for Health Outcomes Pricing Agreements
Health economists classify healthcare goods and services as “intermediate goods”, in that they provide a pathway to better health but don’t guarantee it. What if we could measure health outcomes with verifiable data, then link payment not to intermediate goods of hypothetical value, but straight to better health? New technologies like the Lydion DEOS allow for widespread implementation of outcomes-based agreements that maintain GDPR-level standards of data ownership, all while creating valuable data assets for patients.
Data as an Agricultural Product
Brands are eager to meet customer demand for sustainably certified and verified products, but leery of imposing restrictive certifications on producers and suppliers, particularly when those producers are smallholder or independent farmers in developing economies around the world. The Smallholder Data Services platform enables smallholder farmers to establish—and prove—regulatory standards for the crops they grow while providing data traceability to large crop buyers. By putting power back in the hands of farmers and their communities, data can power the regenerative agriculture revolution.
Power to the Gamers
As gaming audiences expand from a single demographic to a broad psychographic, game developers are forced to accelerate the pace of innovation. New audiences are as hungry as they are diverse, and their demand for groundbreaking content outstrips developers’ capacity to supply. Gamers empowered with tools, time, and money are rushing to fill the gap.
The health care industry is undergoing a data revolution, and at the center of this change are patients. From electronic health records to next-generation genomic sequencing, the amount of data being collected about our health is unprecedented. Who owns this data, and how do patients ensure that it is being used ethically, responsibly, and fairly? Who benefits? In this special edition of The Lydion Magazine, we explore the impact of patient data and consider the opportunities to better harness its power and value for the benefit of patients and their health outcomes.
The Patient From Hell
The 21st Century Cures Act gives patients free, digital access to their data, but even recently, this wasn’t the case. Sometimes, you have to embrace being the “Patient from Hell”, advocating for yourself, demanding your data.
The Future of Health Data is Banking
We can use today’s technologies to protect, secure, and trade health data like the valuable asset it is, turning to the finance sector’s blueprints for banks. If data is money, why aren’t we treating it that way?
Gaming is the fastest growing sector of the entertainment industry, with revenue projected to hit $300B by the end of 2022. This rapid expansion is forcing the industry away from a top-down paradigm where studios decide what to produce, build, and ship. Yet, rather than accepting this natural evolution of the industry, studios are fighting it, creating confusion and division that alienates their consumer base.
Gamers are asserting their independence by harnessing open source #technologies, improved internet access, and widespread coding literacy to build their own playgrounds. But, there is room for everyone! How would the gaming & entertainment landscape change if players could own the assets they earn, build, and improve?
In this five-part edition of The Lydion Magazine, we share stories from the front lines of the gaming industry. Join us in an action-packed investigation into the opportunities and pain points of the future of entertainment: The World is a Playground.
From Games to Entertainment: The New Entertainers
Twitch averaged 2.78 million concurrent viewers in 2021, making it one of the most trafficked sites on the internet. Once targeted at hard-core gamers, game streaming platforms have evolved into major mainstream media outlets that scratch a universal itch for connection. This story from Popularium co-founder Jonathan Bankard examines the past, present, and future trajectory of the entertainment industry’s fastest growing frontier.
From A to Geek
“As gaming grew into a mainstream social activity, communities became more transient. There were fewer and fewer spaces—digital or physical—that felt psychologically safe.”
As Popularium co-founder Jennifer Yi embarks on a lifelong quest for the perfect gaming community, she stumbles on the secret sauce for innovation and growth in game development.
Web 2.0 took the internet from “read only” to “read and write”. We’re now in a world that moves beyond this paradigm to “read, write, own”—the promise of Web3. Ownership is more than mere possession—it coneys the ability to use, utilize, and derive value, and to keep others from using the same item.
To truly own data means that the owner holds the keys. Ownership means that when the data has special value, either intrinsically or based on the insights it can generate, such value is captured primarily by the owner, and not by a third party.
Businesses that have profited from aggregation of consumer data should look for the many new opportunities enabled by greater democratization of data ownership. Data economic networks can connect data generators, no matter how small, with large enterprises that want to incentivize such data generation. These enterprises can benefit from insights only findable across a collective. Such networks can remove hurdles to scalability, or eliminate expensive middlemen.
Data ownership unlocks data utility. New technologies unlock true data ownership. What resulting data economies can we imagine?
Data Assets and Climate
Exploring the benefits of leveraging data as a company asset.
Can Data Become an Official Company Asset?
Exploring the benefits of leveraging data as a company asset.
Derivative Markets and Data Assets
How can data assets interact with derivative markets?