Data is a huge industry, worth about $500 billion in Europe alone. And currently there's a fundamental misalignment between those creating data and those consuming it. There's a one direction value flow in terms of those who are providing the value (the data) and those extracting it. These are big tech platforms that typically use that data to sell signals and advertising to brands and merchants. This is referred to as a shadow data economy and it's time to flip this model on its head. Ocean Protocol is a platform which creates data marketplaces, providing an alternative to the current model. Data providers can sell their data to the platform to whoever wants to buy it and that data set is represented as a token. The value is a function of the usefulness of that data. This creates a much more equitable market where value flow is more cyclical than one directional. Trent McConaghy, Founder of Ocean Protocol, joins us to chat about the platform. They have just released V3 which has seen the introduction of the data token, the Ocean Market, and a new home on the Ethereum Mainchain. Topics covered in this episode: Trent’s background and long history of building blockchain productsThe business models built around data and the “Shadow Data Economy”What Ocean Protocol is and what it achievesTechnical components and stakeholders in the Ocean ProtocolStaking and providing liquidity for datatoken marketsThe Ocean Market and activity since the launchOcean Protocol and its compliance with privacy regulations like GDPROcean Protocol V3 and migrating from a sidechain to the mainnetThe future of Ocean Protocol and the potential for data stream marketsEpisode links: Ocean Protocol websiteOcean V3 releaseEpisode 78 - Ascribe – The Internet of OwnershipEpisode 126 - BigchainDB – Scalable Public Distributed DatabasesEpisode 184 - IPDB – The Interplanetary Database and its Applications in AIOcean Protocol on TwitterTrent on TwitterThis episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/366

Alchemy is a powerful blockchain developer platform providing a suite of developer tools. Developers building apps which interact with Ethereum can use Alchemy's powerful APIs to supercharge their apps, and leverage features not available in vanilla nodes. They also provide services like analytics, monitoring, alerting, logging and debugging. Today, a number of the top Dapps in the Ethereum ecosystem use Alchemy, and the company recently made their API available to the general public. We chatted to Nikil Viswanathan, CEO & Co-founder about the platform, how it works and the problems it solves. We also addressed the concerns around centralization and ecosystem resiliency. Topics covered in this episode: Nikil's background and how he got into cryptoThe Blockchain infrastructureWhy Alchemy chose to focus EthereumOn building developer tools, and what Alchemy offersHow it works on a technical level and how it’s different from what else is available on the marketWhat can users do with supernodesPlans for expanding into validation and other services in the futureConcerns for user privacyAdoption of Alchemy among crypto projectsNikil’s views on centralization concerns and ecosystem resiliencyHow Jay-Z become an investor/advisor and other interesting partnerships with AlchemyWhere to learn more and join AlchemyEpisode links: Alchemy WebsiteGet started on AlchemyAlchemy SupernodeAlchemy on TwitterNikil on TwitterSponsors: Algorand: Learn how to start building on Algorand – Free webinar on November 17th - https://algorand.com/epicenterThis episode is hosted by Sebastien Couture & Friederike Ernst. Show notes and listening options: epicenter.tv/364