Ocean Protocol is a technology that utilizes blockchain, decentralized networks, and cryptographic techniques to facilitate secure and privacy-preserving data sharing. It seeks to create a new Data Economy that empowers data owners by giving them control over their data while preserving privacy. Ocean Protocol's approach allows anyone with sought-after datasets to tokenize their data and make it available on the Ocean Market. This not only provides an additional compensation stream for data publishers but also gives scientists, researchers, data analysts, and others access to more reliable data.

Ocean Protocol operates by unlocking access to data that would previously be unavailable or challenging to access. It provides the tools needed for firms to build and launch their own data markets. Holders of OCEAN tokens can lock their tokens and receive VeOcean. They can then receive passive compensation by holding their VeOcean or receive active compensation by staking their VeOcean on potentially selling datasets. Ocean Protocol's smart contracts and libraries aim to make it easy to publish data services and consume data services. The protocol's approach to data sharing and monetization aims to foster a new Data Economy at the intersection of blockchain, data, and AI.

Ocean Protocol has a wide range of potential use cases. It can be used to facilitate secure and privacy-preserving data sharing, enabling data owners to control access to their data while preserving privacy. This can be particularly useful in industries where data privacy is paramount, such as healthcare or finance. Additionally, Ocean Protocol can be used to create new data markets, allowing firms to monetize their data in a secure and controlled manner. It can also be used to incentivize the sharing of valuable datasets, providing an additional compensation stream for data publishers.

Ocean Protocol was founded with the mission to build technology for a Data Economy at the intersection of blockchain, data, and AI. The founders of Ocean Protocol have a deep background in big data, blockchain, artificial intelligence, and data exchanges, combined with real-world business experience as entrepreneurs, designers, and technologists. The protocol has developed several technologies to push the envelope forward, including the original patent for NFTs, token engineering, data tokens, and others. As of October 2023, 100% of the OCEAN token supply will be minted, with the proceeds being transferred to oceanDAO multisignature wallets.

Ocean Protocol addresses data privacy and security concerns through a distinct approach known as Compute-to-Data. This method allows data owners to approve AI algorithms to run on their data, orchestrating remote computation and execution on data to train AI models. The computation is designed to be sufficiently "aggregating" or "anonymizing" to minimize privacy risk, yet it results in a model that's useful for research or business. This way, data owners retain privacy and control over their data. Ocean Protocol also uses encryption and decryption as part of its access control infrastructure, and it has implemented adjustable privacy features, including a privacy preference center, multi-language privacy policies, and editable metadata. This ensures that data owners can maintain control over their data while benefiting from its utilization.

The OCEAN token is a component of the Ocean Protocol ecosystem, functioning as a utility token and a unit of exchange for the transfer of data and AI services. It also has a role in data curation. Token holders may receive OCEAN as non-monetary rewards by holding their tokens for a fixed time period. Once their OCEAN is held, they may then stake the derivative veOCEAN token on data assets, indicating quality and receiving non-financial incentives from Data Farming. The OCEAN token also has a governance function, allowing token holders to participate in decision-making processes within the Ocean Protocol ecosystem. The OCEAN token is decentralized and unpausable, indicating to token holders the intended durability of their holdings.

Ocean Protocol incentivizes data providers and consumers through a unique system that utilizes blockchain technology and cryptocurrency. The protocol employs a native crypto token, OCEAN, to facilitate interactions and encourage participation. Data providers may receive OCEAN tokens as non-monetary rewards for sharing their data or providing computational resources. They may also stake their OCEAN tokens on specific data assets to signal their confidence in its quality and accuracy, receiving additional tokens as non-financial incentives. Conversely, data consumers can use OCEAN tokens to access data. Ocean Protocol incorporates a feature known as Compute-to-Data, which allows data to be used in computations without exposing the raw data, thus preserving its privacy. This system seeks to establish a mutually beneficial arrangement where both data providers and consumers benefit from the exchange of information.

Ocean Protocol strives to facilitate the creation and management of data marketplaces by providing a decentralized data exchange protocol. This protocol allows users to publish, discover, access, and utilize data in a privacy-preserving manner. When a user publishes a dataset, it becomes a data asset with its own ERC721 data NFT (Non-Fungible Token) & ERC20 datatoken. The publisher can determine the terms of access for this data asset. Ocean Protocol's Compute-to-Data feature aims to allow private data to be accessed while preserving the control and privacy of the data. This is sought to be achieved by transporting algorithms to the data sources, enabling computation to be performed locally, without the need to expose sensitive data. This framework aims to facilitate collaborative data analysis while preserving data privacy. The Ocean Protocol architecture, which includes the foundational blockchain layer, the empowering middle layer, and the accessible application layer, aims to provide a framework for transparent transactions, facilitating a collaboration between data providers and consumers.

Ocean Protocol supports a variety of datasets, from static files to dynamic data streams. This includes data in various formats such as .CSV, .XLSX, images, audio, videos, and even algorithms in any language. The data can be hosted on a range of cloud storage platforms or even on personal devices like phones and home servers. Ocean Protocol also aims to accommodate a variety of data needs by supporting data services, where instead of a file, a compute-to-data service is run. This functionality allows Ocean Protocol to be a functional component within the data economy.

Ocean Protocol strives to provide three main benefits to data scientists and AI practitioners. One aspect is that it aims to facilitate access to a wider range of data. Users may browse Ocean Market and other Ocean-powered markets to find data to enhance their AI models. Another aspect is provenance. The acts of publishing data, purchasing data, and consuming data are all recorded on the blockchain to create a tamper-proof audit trail. A further aspect is that it provides non-monetary incentives. Users may receive non-financial incentives by selling data and models, and by curating that of others. Ocean Protocol also enables AI researchers and data scientists to receive non-financial incentives by creating useful datasets or algorithms, cleaning data, labeling data, and feature-engineering it. Another aspect of Ocean Protocol is that it allows enterprises, governments, and NGOs with access to lots of data to serve it up and receive non-monetary rewards for their organization, with a focus on data control.