Dat Project

Dat is a nonprofit-backed data sharing protocol for applications of the future. The Dat Project imagines a web of commons created by global communities on open and secure protocols. We set out to improve access to public data and created a new protocol along the way, read more at datprotocol.com. In our work on developing Dat, we found a under-served need. Decentralized software has potential to return control of digital information to the people. Today, building peer-to-peer applications presents both technical and ethical challenges but Dat is slowly changing that. To encourage people to experiment and innovate with decentralized technology, we aim to make Dat foundational software for peer-to-peer applications – one that is sponsored by a mission-driven nonprofit. To realize this future, we aim to make Dat good at supporting the core needs of peer-to-peer applications. We hope that with our small but critical focus, we can create a strong building block for the Dat ecosystem. The first code went into Dat on August 17, 2013. Throughout its history, Dat has had a primary focus on Dat sharing in civic data and research, only recently with a wider focus on more general decentralized applications. Dat has been almost exclusively funded by grants from private foundations, read more on the funding history.