# Intro to Data Unions

## 🧱 Fundamentals

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<summary>What is a data union?</summary>

A Data Union is an **organization with an application** where individuals participate in the creation of valuable data. Members generate data through the data unions' application which crowdsources data. \
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That **data is offered as a product on a marketplace** for potential buyers. The money from data sales is used to reward its members for providing valuable data.&#x20;

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<details>

<summary>Why build a data union?</summary>

With a data union you **enable your users to be included in earning value from their data**.&#x20;

By building a Data Union, your users are **incentivized to use your app** as they are **rewarded with tokens for sharing their data through your app**.

Building a **data union is a great way to collect datasets that may otherwise be difficult to source**. Some examples include **real-time health data, web user data, pollution monitoring, smart city data** and more.

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<details>

<summary>Existing data unions</summary>

Here are three **real-life examples** of what a Data Union could look like:\
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💻  **Swash** - a browser extension that monetizes browsing data.\
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🚙  **DIMO** - an IoT device and app for smart cars that monetizes vehicle data.\
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🏦  **Unbanx** - a mobile app that monetizes banking data.\
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**Read more** [**here**](#existing-data-unions)

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## The Data Union Framework

The Data Union framework **powers applications that incentivize people** to participate in the crowdsourcing of valuable data. It **enables people to** **earn with their data.**

**Smart contracts and decentralized networks** are used to transfer tokens and data. It is the infrastructure that powers data unions.

The framework is a token distributer and a member manager.

### **Framework Infrastructure**

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#### [**Data Union Smart Contract**](https://github.com/dataunions/data-unions/blob/main/packages/contracts/contracts/unichain/DataUnionTemplate.sol)

for the **distribution of data sales** between **members**, the **Data Union admin,** and the **Data Union DAO**.&#x20;

The **smart contract** handles:

* data price/data sells
* admin fee (royalties from sold data to the contract owner, i.e. Data Union admin)
* distributing and withdrawing earnings
* member management
* ownership
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**Your Data Union Application/Device**

This is **your client application/device** **that provides the data**. Ideally, it's an application with a **continuous flow of data coming from the client**. For example, a temperature measurement, browsing data, or user behavior.&#x20;

Check out some existing data unions for more examples [here](https://docs.dataunions.org/resources/existing-data-unions).
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#### **EVM Chain (token transfer)** <a href="#supported-sidechains" id="supported-sidechains"></a>

an EVM compatible **sidechain of your choice for the transfer of money** (i.e. tokens). The transfer of tokens is visualized with the **red arrow** in the illustration below.

We currently support **Polygon** and **Gnosis Chain**.
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#### Streamr Network (data transfer) OPTIONAL

a peer-to-peer network for the **transfer of real-time data**.

All the client data gets published to a data stream that flows through the Streamr network. We visualized the data stream with the **black arrow** in the illustration below.&#x20;

The official documentation of Streamr can be found [here](https://streamr.network/docs/welcome).
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<figure><img src="https://4026678538-files.gitbook.io/~/files/v0/b/gitbook-x-prod.appspot.com/o/spaces%2FlFT4aCdsM4ZVBSo6Uqjx%2Fuploads%2FrKj2KYaJ14nekWwNPUEH%2FGitbook%20figure.png?alt=media&#x26;token=14b60c5b-8b75-4214-8190-cc139653b9d3" alt=""><figcaption><p>An overview of the Data Union framework infrastructure</p></figcaption></figure>

### **Workflow of the Data Union framework infrastructure with Streamr**

1. User joins a Data Union
2. User grants permission and consent to the data union to have their data monetized&#x20;
3. Data is created and crowd-sourced through the Data Unions' application
4. Data flows through Streamr Network into the marketplace
5. Data is bundled as a product for sale on data marketplaces&#x20;
6. Data is bought by a buyer&#x20;
7. Revenue from data sales flows through the smart contracts via the EVM-chain of your choice and is split between the members, the data union admin and the DU DAO (1%).

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**The more active members**/data providers in a Data Union **the more valuable** it becomes to potential data buyers/data subscribers.
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A Data Union **earns a percentage of the data sale** for maintaining and growing the organization and its members. That percentage can be set anywhere **from 0% to 100%** (although it is usually around 30%). The Data Union DAO **(DU DAO) receives a 1%** **protocol tax** from data sales for providing the Framework and for growing the Data Union ecosystem.
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