Data network Masa Finance, which describes itself as the architect of “decentralized Google for the AI era,” will launch a decentralized data network and marketplace in the first quarter of 2024.
Masa has partnered with managed blockchain service AvaCloud to implement a gasless Avalanche subnet (application-specific blockchain). The customizable blockchain will be designed to process large amounts of zero-knowledge encoded data efficiently and cost-effectively, a statement said.
Masa previously secured $3.5 million in pre-seed funding to build out its decentralized credit data protocol in May 2022.
The subnet represents an extension of Masa’s existing data protocol. The project, the team says, aims to give users back control over their personal data and be compensated for its use. “We did credit data in early 2022 and then generalized the technology to all user data starting in August 2022. This [subnet] because data analysis is more of an extension of scope,” a spokesperson for Masa told The Block.
“We explored several options on the market when selecting the infrastructure to build a dedicated Masa blockchain,” said Masa co-founder Brendan Playford. “Building on Avalanche using AvaCloud, Masa is able to launch a gasless, self-sovereign chain that enables high throughput of transactions and enables use cases that consume large amounts of private data – all at a low cost.”
Masa also receives support from the Avalanche Foundation and investments from Avalanche’s Blizzard Fund to help develop the platform. The investment amount has not been disclosed. This comes after NodeKit recently closed a $1.2 million pre-seed round to also build an Avalanche-based network for rollups.
How Masa works
Masa’s system uses a zero-knowledge soulbound token (zkSBT) that acts as a personal data locker: a digital tool designed to securely manage and control an individual’s personal data. It encrypts and stores the digital footprints and social graphs of individuals to ensure the privacy of their activities, such as participating in web3 communities or using decentralized applications.
The team claims that over 890,000 user wallets have consented to more than 8 million data events on Masa in the past year. With the launch of the zk-data marketplace, users can view their information in their zkSBT locker and share that data in the marketplace via staking in exchange for compensation. For example, users can allow financial institutions to access their Masa zkSBT for age verification without access to their date of birth.
“This is the perfect architecture to support our zk data network and marketplace,” added Calanthia Mei, co-founder of Masa. “By deploying on a dedicated Avalanche subnet, major financial institutions, AI startups and large-scale consumer technology applications can access secure, scalable, zk-encrypted user data without paying for fuel.”
Masa argues that the proprietary silos of big tech companies are exploiting personal data without user consent or compensation – something that is being exacerbated by the proliferation of AI, as demand for people’s personal data grows exponentially to train models and agents.
