MachineFi Lab to Unlock Trillion-dollar Economy for Smart Device Users

According to a report quoting Ericsson, 6.64 billion people have smartphones. That is nearly 84% of the global population. The same report estimates that by 2025, 7.3 billion people will have smartphones. A Statista report coincides, saying that by the end of this year, 6.6 billion smartphone subscriptions will be live, and by 2025, nearly 7.3 billion.

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) recently released an extensive report revealing that in 2021 mobile technologies and services will generate $4.5 trillion of economic value. It added that the figure will grow by more than $400 billion by 2025 to nearly $5 trillion as countries increasingly benefit from improved productivity and efficiency brought about by the increased take-up of mobile services.

The Ponemon Institute released a study in 2006 entitled “How Much is the Data on Your Mobile Device Worth?” In it, the research institution, founded in 2002 in Michigan, USA, concluded the value of individual mobile phone data was worth $14,000.

In 2012, GSMA, Deloitte, and Cisco released a report revealing a link between mobile penetration and economic growth. “Mobile phones have improved communication, social inclusion, economic activity and productivity in sectors such as agriculture, health, education, and finance,” they wrote in the joint study.

It’s Time to Take Back Ownership of Your Data

As the venture capital firm Draper Dragon recently said in a blog, the issue is that centralized corporations currently control all the smart device data.

“For decades, centralized corporations have had control over users’ data, leaving them vulnerable to hacks and mining their data with no benefit or value returned to users”, Draper Dragon wrote in the blog entitled “Why We Invested in MachineFi Lab”.

However, Web3 technology is emerging. Thanks to it, machines will unlock many new benefits that provide ownership and financial value to communities, wrote Xoogler in a blog entitled Xoogler Ventures Investing in MachineFi.

“Imagine if the health data generated from smartwatches and fitness wearables could be securely stored and (Web3) gave people control over their health information as part of preventive healthcare,” the article adds. “Or imagine playing a move-to-earn game, where tracking your steps or green transportation commute could earn token rewards as part of leveling up in the game: We call this future the machine economy where data from smart devices can be used as financial incentives to users.

“MachineFi Lab has built developer infrastructure … capabilities (that) will enable developers to build decentralized applications that focus on the machine economy faster, securely, and more easily”, it says. The article explains that it uniquely positions IoTeX’s MachineFi Lab to bring the following billion devices to Web3.

IoTeX CEO and Founder Dr. Raullen Chai published an opinion article on the topic, saying, “Traditionally, corporations – not consumers – have owned and ‘custodied’ information, which is stored in centralized servers and shared with numerous third parties.” And the problem is not only that they profit from user data and store data in centralized “vaults,” which represents a significant data breach risk.

Chai explained that the idea of “your keys, your funds” is expanding beyond cryptocurrency to the intelligent devices that are increasingly central to our lives: “your keys, your data” He also said that “with data ownership in the hands of people, not corporations, much of what is broken about how digital information is handled can begin to be fixed.”

Why Does Big Tech Provides Free Services?

According to a Forbes report, Facebook and other platforms are free for us to use because they generate billions of dollars in revenue from advertisers. “Remember this: If you don’t pay for it, you are the product. Our data is their currency, yet we are not sharing in the spoils. What would it look like if these companies had to pay us for data?” asks the Forbes article.

User data is big business. People’s smartphone data paints a portrait of them, and it’s drawn from their user habits, including websites they visit, purchases, bank transfers, travel plans, online buys, and even from listening in on conversations for marketing data. Tech companies collect extensive and comprehensive data and profit by showing user ads relevant to them paid for by marketing agencies and departments. 

Forbes estimated that in 2019 Facebook generated $41.41 in quarterly revenue from each of its users in Canada and the United States. It is important to remember that Twitter, LinkedIn, Google, Apple, and Microsoft also profit from user data, and all tech companies do.

A different report from IQ Stock says Google alone made $54.6 billion over the last quarter from advertising services in the US and Canada that provide access to personal data. That’s approximately $600 million every day. It adds that users could make about $455 from their online data.

MachineFi Lab Unlocks Rewards for Users

MachineFi Lab has built cutting-edge Web3 technology to reward hundreds of millions of people for contributing data and resources from billions of smart devices and carrying out everyday activities, said its CEO and Co-Founder, Dr. Raullen Chai.

“These activities could be, for example, visiting a local store or participating in a local event to earn benefits from owners/organizers, contributing TV viewing habits for marketing research to earn. Driving safely for lower insurance premiums”, Chai said.

“Sleeping well to earn bonuses from employers who value employee’s productivity and level of happiness. We are essentially a developer platform to enable these innovations for everyday people”, he added.

The MachineFi platform is purposely built for developers to create decentralized apps (dApps) that enable users to financialize smart devices and machines in many ways.

Several “earn-based” use cases are GPS-based. So, it could be riding a bike or taking a bus instead of driving a vehicle, unlocking rewards for being eco-friendly. Walking, running, or exercising to earn rewards for living a healthy lifestyle as insurance companies could view these users as less of a health risk and therefore consider these users for lower premiums.

Answering Who Will Own the Machine Economy Value

“IoTeX’s new MachineFi paradigm provides an answer to the question of who will own the trillions of dollar value in the future machine economy”, Draper Dragon wrote. “MachineFi allows machine resources and intelligence to be financialized, delivering value and ownership to users rather than centralized corporations.”

IoTeX’s MachineFi platform is the new engine for the growing machine economy. The blog adds that it allows builders to innovate collaboratively, users to own their data and a free market for data from everyday activities.

“We believe that devices running on the IoTeX platform have the potential to reshape the understanding of privacy and everyday life drastically”, the Draper Dragon blog adds. It explains that “MachineFi accomplishes this by introducing “proof of anything”.

MachineFi enables users to earn digital assets and reputations through their real-world actions, bridging together the metaverse and the physical realm in exciting ways, the investment firm said.