DataCreds for Businesses

You have likely encountered the term “DataCreds” while exploring your new dashboard. DataCreds are unique to FairShare, and are at the core of FairShare’s data marketplace. This article serves as a primer on DataCreds: what they are, how they function in the FairShare platform and the role they play in FairShare’s mission to make data sharing more equitable.

DataCreds: The Currency of FairShare

User data is inherently valuable and FairShare believes that users should be fairly compensated for the data that they choose to share. DataCreds represent a unit of value that is ascribed to a user’s data. This allows for users to earn based on the amount and type of data they share and for businesses to pay only for the access they need. In short, DataCreds are the virtual currency of the FairShare data marketplace and facilitate the exchange of data between businesses and users.

DataCreds Exchange Rate

The value of DataCreds is directly tied to the US Dollar. Dollars can be converted to DataCreds (jump to How DataCreds Work), and DataCreds can be cashed out for dollars (see: DataCreds for Users). This means that on the FairShare marketplace, user data has a real, tangible value and users can be directly and fairly compensated for their data.

How DataCreds Work

FairShare for Business works on a pay-as-you-go model; there's no monthly subscription fee and you only pay for the insights you need. Funds added to your account will be exchanged for DataCreds, which you can then spend to access user data. Your DataCreds balance is displayed in the top right of your FairShare dashboard.

What do my DataCreds pay for?

Your DataCred balance goes towards two variable costs: user data storage and access to user data. 

Data storage charges are incurred daily, and are based on the number of users you have in the FairShare platform and the number of social accounts registered. These are the users that have registered for FairShare via the registration flow on your website. The daily storage cost per user registered by email is 10 DataCreds (equivalent to $0.010USD). Each additional social account costs 5 DataCreds (equivalent to $0.005USD). 

For example, if you have a user registered by email that has also granted access to Discord and Spotify, the daily data storage charge for this user would be 20 DataCreds.

FairShare’s platform delivers unique, actionable insights from your users as well as other FairShare users who have consented to sharing their data with your business. Access to insights reports is a pay-per-use charge. Data access costs 2 DataCreds per user per report (equivalent to $0.002USD).

Note: These are the current costs during FairShare beta and are subject to change.

How much can I expect to pay monthly?

As shown in the previous section, FairShare' pricing is highly variable based on the number of users and your engagement with their data. Please also note that storage costs come out of your balance daily, and access costs are charged at the time of reporting. This means that your total cost can be easily adjusted throughout the month and tailored to your business' needs and budget. 

However, to give you a better idea of how FairShare's pricing adds up monthly, here's a breakdown of a business that does daily reporting of their 10,000 users with one additional social account:

How do I add DataCreds to my account?

To add DataCreds to your account, simply click the “Add Funds” button in the top right corner of your dashboard and proceed through the checkout process. FairShare uses Stripe to facilitate all DataCred/dollar exchanges.

Next Article: Add Funds and Exchange for DataCreds