Data Economy Index

(DATA)

Pre-DG2 Community Call

August 3, 2021

🦉

Call Technicalities

• Please stay muted unless you’re speaking.
• We will use the +1 system to initiate speaking
• Please stay focused on this meeting and avoid multitasking

​

• This meeting is timeboxed to 1 hour
• Presentation by methodologists
• Open Discussion with community

🦉

Call Desired Outcomes and Principles

• We strive towards shared goals: Members feel progress is being made and they are rewarded for it; Members feel there is a clear goal

​

• We’re on a journey of growth & improvement: All members to feel they can add and improve

​

• We foster a sense of belonging: Members feel like they are part of something they are proud/passionate about

​

• We foster a sense of safety: Members feel they can communicate openly w/o judgment and/or personal remarks

​

• We interact with empathy: Community members feel heard; Community members feel their concerns are taken into consideration during decision-making

​

​

If at any point, we stray from these principles, please send feedback and we will endeavour to

adjust

🦉

The Data Economy Index passed DG1!

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support!!!

History of the Data Economy Index (DATA): Part 1

• June 2020: Kiba has idea for DATA index and creates Titans of Data.

​

• October 2020: Kiba posts original DATA Index proposal in Governance Forum.

​

• January 2020: Thomas creates the “BEST Portfolio” which includes REP and NMR, both included in later DATA proposals, on the TokenSets platform.

​

• February 2020: Kiba creates DATA on TokenSets. DATA includes LINK, GRT, OCEAN, NMR; all are included in later DATA proposals.

​

• Early March 2021: Thomas leaves job as a Data Science Manager to start Token Terrier, with the intention to create portfolios for cryptoasset investors, through both TokenSets and Index Cooperative.

​

• Late March 2021: Thomas starts researching an idea for a sector index that includes LINK and GRT with Mr.Madila after conversation with Verto and OverAnalyzer.

History of the Data Economy Index (DATA): Part 2

• April 2021: While researching a new Data-based sector index theme, Thomas discovers Kiba’s DATA TokenSet, Titans of Data website, and connects with him on Discord.

• May 2020: Thomas helps Kiba with his work on IIP-29 Activate Intrinsic Productivity for DPI.

History of the Data Economy Index (DATA): Part 3

• Early June 2021: Thomas and Kiba collaborate on the Data Economy Index. Posting a Request for Discussion in the forum for community feedback.

​

• Mid June 2021: Thomas and Kiba incorporate feedback from the community and post a Request for Comment in the forum.

​

• Early July 2021: Thomas and Kiba post IIP-55 for Data Economy Index.

​

• July 16th, 2021: DATA passes DG1 and Thomas posts a “Forward to DG2” plan to forum after consulting with Product Working Group, Work Team, and Business Development teams.

​

• Present: DATA waiting on Index Coop negotiation before final IIP ahead of DG2.

​

• September 1st: Tentative DATA launch date - pending compensation negotiations ahead of DG2.

​

​

​

Who are we?

• Titans Of Data is a coalition of innovators, operators, and investors in the data economy.

​

• We believe that improving privacy, accessibility, and public goods on the internet creates a better society and economy for all.

​

• Titans of Data is working with FLOC, the decentralized design studio behind MetaFactory currently working on Metacartel.

​

• Titans of Data is a placeholder name before the rebrand.

Who are we?

• Thomas Hepner (Twitter, Blog) - Methodologist, BD, Index Coop Governance.
• Prev. Data Science Manager at PrecisionLender (2017 - 2021).
• Successfully created and launched several data products now in use by some of the largest banks in the world.
• Won the Index Creative Challenge by publishing Why I Invested in the DeFi Pulse Index and Index Cooperative.
• Gold/Silver Owl (December 2020 - February 2021) 🥇🦉🥈; Helped form the Analytics Working Group.
• Creator of the ₿EST Portfolio.
• Numerai Data Scientist (2016) and Numeraire holder since 2017.

​

• Kiba Gateaux (Twitter) - Methodologist, BD, Platform Development.
• Prev. Full Stack Developer @ Consensys
• Gold/Silver Owl 🥇🦉🥈 for the first three months of coop and April.
• Originally proposed DATA Index in October 2020.
• Top degen score.
• Link marine since 2017.

​

​

Who are we?

• Wonsok (Wayne) Lee (LinkedIn, Company Website) - BD, LP, Keeper Bot Management
• Equity fund manager at Shinhan BNP Paribas Asset Management
• AUM $400mln incl hedge fund and public and private offerings
• BD/Strategy at Coinone exchange
• overseas exchange establishment and early stage bd
• financial products planning incl margin trading and p2p lending
• CEO at digital assets system trading company Baekdu Technologies
• focus on crosschain arbitrage opportunities on dex/defi
• LP of 27 projects

​

• Dami An (LinkedIn, Company Website) - BD
• Co-Founder & CEO of FutureSense
• Former Korea Market Manager at ConsenSys. Built startups in Korea and China.

​

​

​

DATA: Mission & Thesis

• Mission & Purpose: The Data Economy Index (DATA) is a digital asset index capturing the growth of on-chain data economies. The Data Economy Index tracks projects with significant economic activity providing data-based products or services.

​

• Thesis: The Data Economy is disrupting the data monopolies built in Big Tech over the past two decades.

​

​

DATA: An Analogy

• Index Cooperative: The Blackrock of Crypto.

​

• DeFi Pulse Index: The S&P 500 of Crypto.

​

• Data Economy Index: The NASDAQ of Crypto.

DATA: Mission & Thesis

“...a Fourth Industrial Revolution is building on the Third, the digital revolution that has been occurring since the middle of the last century. It is characterized by a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital, and biological spheres.”

- World Economic Forum (2016)

DATA capitalizes on the synthesis of technological megatrends in the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

​

“The possibilities of billions of people connected by mobile devices, with unprecedented processing power, storage capacity, and access to knowledge, are unlimited. And these possibilities will be multiplied by emerging technology breakthroughs in fields such as artificial intelligence, robotics, the Internet of Things, autonomous vehicles, 3-D printing, nanotechnology, biotechnology, materials science, energy storage, and quantum computing.”

Market Opportunity

• Differentiated: There is no overlap between any of the tokens in DATA and the tokens in MVI or DPI.

​

• Second Largest Crypto Sector: DATA’s constituent tokens have a combined market value of $18.4 billion compared to $25.3B for DPI.

​

• Market Penetration: DATA will have ~$100m in AUM if it captures the same share that DPI has of DeFi (~0.55%).

Anecdotes

Anecdotes

• Business Development has expressed interest in a “Middleware” or “Infrastructure” index - DATA captures those tokens.

Anecdotes

• We’ve received interest from investors on Twitter!

Why are we building DATA?

We’ve been pushy (sometimes too pushy) because we are so passionate about this product and bringing it to market.

We saw a gap in the decentralized index market and wanted our friends and family to be able to invest in the emerging Data Economy.

We independently created our own sets on the TokenSets platform do just that.

Then, we built an index methodology we would invest in (see Request for Discussion).

Then, we built an index methodology that the community would invest in (see Request for Comment).

​

​

​

​

Evolution of DATA

• DATA was not feasible with more than 4 tokens until April 2021.

Which tokens are next?

• Data Economy is multi-chain (i.e. Filecoin) and chain-agnostic (i.e. Chainlink).

​

• Requires ERC-20 bridge like Ren Protocol to make non ERC-20 token additions.

​

• Next Possible Token Additions:

​

• Helium: $1.15 billion circulating market cap

​

• Arweave: $0.485 billion circulating market cap

​

• Fetch.AI: $0.234 billion circulating market cap

​

• Future Possibilities:

​

• VitaDAO (Longevity + Crypto)

​

• Robonomics Network (IoT platform on Ethereum & Polkadot)

DATA: Revenue Model

• DPI and MVI both have 95 bps annualized streaming fee

​

• We want DATA to be a bit different:
• 50 bps annualized streaming fee
• 10 bps mint fee
• 20 bps redeem fee

​

• Our analysis based on MVI and DPI trading/mint/redeem volumes indicates that this could increase revenues by ~50% without sacrificing TVL!

​

• Beneficial to the long-term HODLer, especially if they are buying small amount of DATA via a DEX (no mint or redeem operation).

​

• Monetization from arbitrageurs and traders.

​

​

​

​

Community Questions

1. What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 1)

• Question from BigSky: “Does the DATA team have a strong enough distribution platform to justify a 70/30 fee split?”

​

• Primary value of the Methodologist to IC is ongoing research & development (and business development).

​

• Primary value of the Index Cooperative to the Methodologist is brand, distribution, and integrations.

​

​

• What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 2)

Data Economy Index: Forward to DG2!

​

​

​

• What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 3)

• Question from BigSky: “Does the DATA team have a strong enough distribution platform to justify a 70/30 fee split?”

​

• Methodologist Perspective - External Methodologist (Bounty) Program
• Zero-Sum: Other Methodologists (DFP, Bankless) lose INDEX rewards if DATA TVL grows.
• Short-Term: Only 10 months left in the program. Majority of value created by DATA should be 5+ years in the future if we’re successful.
• Unfair Playing Field: No liquidity mining incentives to boost TVL of DATA. Capital and labor focused on existing Index Coop products.

• What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 3)

• Question from BigSky: “Does the DATA team have a strong enough distribution platform to justify a 70/30 fee split?”

​

• Methodologist Perspective: Existing Program
• Existing Program: A Methodologist launching a simple index product with the standard 95 bps streaming fee at a 30% fee split would need ~$20m in TVL for the remainder of the program to earn as much in annual fees as the income of 2 Community Methodologists supporting a product at Index Coop's current revenue levels.

​

• After Program Expiration: A Methodologist launching a simple index product with the standard 95 bps streaming fee at a 30% fee split would need $163m in TVL to earn as much in annual revenue as the income of 2 Community Methodologists supporting a product. This is unreasonable, even DPI, the Index Coop's flagship simple index product, currently has ~$138m in TVL.

​

• What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 4)

• Question from BigSky: “Does the DATA team have a strong enough distribution platform to justify a 70/30 fee split?”

​

• Methodologist Perspective - Fee Split (see Methodologist Fee Menu)
• Base Score: Comprehensive Methodology (Score: 1.0)
• Capital to Seed Initial Liquidity: 50/50 to 100% Methodologist (Score: 0.5 - 1.0)
• Liquidity Mining Incentives to Bootstrap the Product: 100% Methodologist? (Score: 1.0)
• BD & Sales Efforts: Split between Methodologist and Index Coop (Score: 0.5)
• Score: 3.0 - 4.0
• Implied Fee Split: 50% - 60% to Methodologist

• What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 5)

• Proposal - Methodologist Accelerator Program

​

• Methodologist Perspective:
• Invests in and incentivizes New Products and Methodologists.
• Fair Playing Field: All products and methodologists can participate with same terms.
• Positive-Sum: All tokenholders and stakeholders gain from each other’s successes.
• Long-Term: Slow growth is acceptable without need for liquidity mining rewards.
• Shares Risk and Rewards: Index Coop does not pay guaranteed salary or INDEX rewards. Methodologists are only rewarded for success of their products.

​

• ​

​

​

​

​

​

​

​

• What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 6)

​

• Question from BigSky: “Does the DATA team have a strong enough distribution platform to justify a 70/30 fee split?”

​

• Methodologist Proposal - Summary:
• Fee Split: 50% to Methodologist (50-60% implied by Fee Menu)
• Methodologist Accelerator Program: Finances R&D / BD by Methodologist.
• $20m TVL: 15% of product market cap
• $100m TVL: 10% of product market cap
• $1B TVL: 4% of product market cap
• $10B TVL: 0.4% of product market cap
• Approaches 0% of product market cap as TVL goes to infinity
• Seeking Index Cooperative community feedback to build consensus around this new framework!

• What is value of Methodologist to Index Cooperative? (Part 7)

2. Where is Liquidity coming from?

• Question from BigSky: “What is DATA’s long-term plan to ensure liquidity for this product?”

​

• Methodologist Perspective: Chicken-and-Egg Problem
• Goal of DEX liquidity is to enable small purchases at less than 1% price impact.
• Stage 1 - Minimum Viable Product Launch: $1m to unlock Sushi rewards.
• Stage 2 - Second Product Launch: Reach out to project teams for liquidity. Need to have a token before we can get written liquidity commitments from teams (i.e. ConsenSys, Filecoin, Ren Protocol, etc.).
• Stage 3 - Liquidity Minting: Titans of Data exploring taking out loan to provide liquidity to DATA.

2. Call for Liquidity & Investor Persona

• Question from BigSky: “What is DATA’s long-term plan to ensure liquidity for this product?”

​

• Are you interested in providing liquidity to DATA? Let us know! DM Thomas to receive notifications for when you can provide liquidity to DATA and (hopefully) receive SUSHI liquidity mining rewards as well.

​

• Are you interested in being interviewed for Investor Persona research?

​

• Community Perspective: TBD.

3. Methodologist & Community Conduct

• Question from BigSky: “Has the DATA team conducted itself with a level of professionalism commiserate with our core values?”

​

• Where did we fail to have respectful disagreements and debates?

​

• What behaviors were inappropriate and/or unprofessional?

​

• How can we all move forward, grow together, and successfully launch and grow the product?

​

• Note: Asynchronous online communication does not have same level of empathy as in-person conversations.

Sharing our Principles

• We work together towards shared goals: Contributors feel progress is being made together, and they are rewarded for it.

​

• We’re on an never ending journey of growth & improvement: Contributors feel they can be additive in improving the current process

​

• We foster a sense of belonging: Contributors feel like they are part of something they are proud/passionate about

​

• We foster a sense of safety: Contributors feel they can communicate openly w/o judgment and/or personal remarks

​

• We interact with empathy: Community members feel heard; Community members feel their concerns are taken into consideration during decision-making

​

​

If at any point, we stray from these principles, please send feedback and we will endeavour to adjust

Index Coop Principles (Part 1)

Index Coop Principles (Part 2)

Methodologist & Community Conduct - Example 1

Data Economy Index: Forward to DG2!

Methodologist Perspective: Lacking in Long-Term Thinking and Empathy. Thomas publicly apologized to Verto and Product Working Group here and in PWG meeting.�

Community Perspective: TBD

Methodologist & Community Conduct - Example 2

Data Economy Index: Forward to DG2!

Thomas Perspective: Lacking in Empathy to Product Working Group.

​

Kiba Perspective: TBD.

​

Community Perspective: TBD.

Methodologist & Community Conduct - Example 2 (cont.)

Twitter

Thomas Perspective: Lacking in Empathy to Product Working Group & Set team.

​

Kiba Perspective: TBD.

​

Community Perspective: TBD.

Methodologist & Community Conduct - Example 3

• Several contributors and community members have claimed in different venues/contexts that:
• The Methodologists disappeared from the Index Cooperative Community.
• Negotiating fair compensation for work is a threat.
• That we are damaging the culture of Index Cooperative for having tough conversations.

​

• Our draft compensation proposal was openly mocked and our integrity has been questioned repeatedly.

​

• Our earnest requests for negotiations were met with hostility and inaction despite the community bringing up mechanism design issues as early as October 2020 (before the launch of Index Coop).

​

• We feel our earnest and honest feedback is not being listened to with fairness and empathy.

​

Methodologist & Community Conduct - Example 3 (cont.)

• We never disappeared from the Index Cooperative. (see History of DATA)

​

• Methodologists are critical, external stakeholders, not employees of the Index Coop.

​

• Negotiating compensation is not a threat.

​

• Direct, open and honest conversations about sensitive topics are key for Growth and Improvement and strengthen our culture.

​

• Serious coordination problems for launching a product at Index Coop are falling on External Methodologists. Barriers to launching new products are not technological.

Methodologist & Community Conduct - Feedback

• Are there other behaviors need to be addressed?

​

• Can we move past this and have a successful DG2 vote and product launch?

Question & Answer Session (Part 1)

• What questions or comments does the Community have for the Methodologists?

​

Question & Answer Session (Part 2)

• “re the distribution strategy do you think the target customer already owns index products? how about LINK?”

​