Platform Vision

[balzack]

The vision of Databag is to provide a platform that empowers the individual. With Databag, people have full privacy and control of their data. People authorize services to access their data for the value they add, but there is no lock in. Any service violating the trust of the community or providing a poor experience gets locked out and replaced.

People maintain the privacy and contol of their data by controlling where that data is hosted. This can be as easy as signing up for a cloud service or buying a router supporting Databag, while the tech savvy may choose to self-host with a container running on their home PC. The direct control over their data means that people can control how and when that data is accessed.

Services operating in the Databag network can only monetize the value they bring. Unlike a centralized service, where their users are locked in, they cannot exploit their position and monetize the true product, the users themselves. With a smaller upside there still is an opportunity for developers; the barrier of entry is much lower. The network effect only needs to be overcome once. The network effect in Databag is not overcome by a single service with exponential growth, but incrementally by each service that adds value to the network, increasing the network size and in turn adding value to all the other services.

At it's core Databag is an API for sharing data over a federated and decentralized network. As Databag matures it will operate as a non-profit tasked with certifying services and hosting entities and growing the network capabilities. Currently the API focuses on personal communication, supporting services like messengers or shared photo albums between people with a personal connection. The network will however grow to support impersonal communication as we have with social media, but will do so without violating its principles.

[CoffeBlock]

It would be nice to download your chat log. That would mean the user, not the admin, would have control of their chat and history.

[balzack]

I see the value of a download feature, but I would like to call out that the chat history will just allow you to view the history offline as reference. Another feature I have in mind is account migration. An account should be able to migrate from one server to another and bring the conversations with them.

[CoffeBlock]

That is better than what I can think of