About Dataswyft
Dataswyft is a distributed data network and technology group.
Our mission is to unlock the value of data. For everyone.
We do so by providing the technology to enable everyone (individuals, SMEs and enterprises) to own a “HAT Microserver” and have data accounts within, linked to any app, to legally own, store, process and use data (called “self-sovereign data”) and share it with any other app or website, globally.
Our technology business (UK-based) owns the IP and conduct R&D on new technology, business models and products for self-sovereign data.
Our network business (Asia-based) manages the connections between data wallets and applications as well as the speed, access and quality of self-sovereign data in the network. Dataswyft Network also manages the HATLAB studio to grow the community of practice in the design and usage of data wallets as well as support the creation of distributed data ecosystems that uses self-sovereign data.
Our CheckD Data Wallet operations (US based) manages the CheckD Data Wallet platform, putting self-sovereign data to work.
Dataswyft’s goal is to create a “bottom-up” data economy that empower individuals and SMEs with their own self-sovereign data, and emerging a new set of services and businesses using the data that would create social justice - a more equitable division of resources, opportunities, and privileges in society. (Read manifesto from our CEO)
We are a commercial spin-out from a >$50m research programme of 10 U. K. universities to emerge the Data Economy 2.0. You can also visit our network site.
Our History
Dataswyft's history begins with the story of the "HAT".
In May 2013, a group of academics from six universities and diverse disciplines – economics, computing, operations management, strategy, design informatics – came together at Warwick University. They were meeting about their £1.2 million UK-government-funded project, whose purpose was to engineer and design a multi-sided market for personal data – one where an individual's data would be owned by the individual. This project was dubbed "The HAT" (Hub-of-All-Things).
May 2013 – Nov 2015: HAT Research Project
It took 2.5 years to get the HAT from concept to reality. An Industry Advisory Board was created to help solidify thinking on the HAT economic and market models. "Mad Hatters' Tea Parties" and HAT Meetups were held to engage with developers, industry and policymakers. Countless presentations were made at academic conferences and industry events to inspire a community of personal data advocates.
In July 2014, the HAT project created its first database schema and released it to the public domain. By the time the HAT project ended in November 2015, the Alpha HAT Microserver was ready, along with 6 briefing papers on how the ecosystem should be designed and built.
Nov 2015 – Aug 2019: HATDeX and HATCF
The "HAT Foundation" – the collective name comprising of Dataswyft and the HAT Community Foundation (HCF) – was officially launched in February 2016 at an event at The Shard in London, where a HAT platform capable of collecting, controlling, re-combining, contextualizing and sharing personal data was unveiled.
The job of globally rolling out HAT Microservers went to Dataswyft Ltd, which held the software IP for the transaction engine and the deployment of HAT Microservers in the cloud. At the same time, the HCF was tasked with regulating the transaction ecosystem. Over the following three years, the technology system continued to be developed, along with the legal and economic model.
Sep 2019: Dataswyft
Dataswyft secured a £1.8m seed round raise in September 2019, led by IQ Capital with participation from Pacific & Orient Properties Ltd, Alphanumeric Corporation and Delin Ventures.
Today, the Dataswyft ecosystem is growing, rolling out Data Accounts across FinTech, HealthTech and other industries. Our academic partners lead on use cases on digital transformation, innovation, and impact with >$31m of grants in 2021.
