Issues regarding data storage and usage have come to the forefront of public attention in recent years, with high profile cases like the Equifax data breach — where sensitive data of nearly 150 million Americans were stolen — and the Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal, which had over 50 million Facebook users’ data mined for politically-motivated purposes.
Without a doubt, there’s increasing concerns over data privacy and storage. In light of such events, companies have been exploring new and safer methods of storing and transmitting data, such as a ‘token’. Peer Mountain is the first such enterprise token, and it could just be the most promising token sale of 2018.
Enterprise Data Is Evolving Through Peer Mountain
While solutions like Civic have emerged in order to give users control and ownership over their identities, Peer Mountain – led by CEO Jed Grant, named one of LATTICE80’s top 200 Fintech leaders in Europe – takes things a couple of steps further.
PMTN, Peer Mountain’s ERC-20 token, is the first “enterprise token” as the majority of the buyers will be large corporations such as banks, which will use PMTN tokens to offer services to their users while remaining compliant with data protection and other types of regulation. Business will need to purchase PMTN in large quantities to initially fuel their new identity ecosystems.
Increasing Compliance Costs For Companies
Due to the increase in regulatory scrutiny over data storage, enterprises are faced with skyrocketing compliance costs as they try to stay in line with regulations like the newly rolled out General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Compliance issues, such as quality KYC, onboarding, real-time risk assessment, data protection, and regulatory risk, are currently not being adequately addressed by the market.
Jed Grant is an expert in KYC, the founder of KYC3, a partner of the boutique business intelligence consultancy firm Sandstone, and an adjunct professor at the prestigious University of Luxembourg where he lectures on KYC & AML/CFT compliance. And he is the architect and visionary behind Peer Mountain.
The Blockchain Could Be The Answer For Enterprise
Companies are heavily pouring resources into new technologies to address the issues of trust and data storage. The budget that businesses will be spending on Blockchain-based services is projected to grow from $1.8 billion in 2018 to $8.1 billion by 2021 — and Peer Mountain could take a leading role in this growing new market.
Crossing The Intersection Of Data Privacy, Verification, And Compliance
While solutions like Civic and Selfkey give users control over their data, the user identity is just one aspect of the Peer Mountain ecosystem. Peer Mountain crosses the intersection of data privacy, verification, and compliance by granting users control over their data, while at the same time giving businesses the architecture they need to provide efficient and compliant services.
Peer Mountain users can choose who to trust, maintain their privacy, and get services quicker while enterprises benefit from faster service delivery, reduced risk, continuous compliance, and lower costs.
Let us look at the example of a rental car business. Drivers can submit rental forms with a few taps on their smart device, and immediately receive digital car keys all through their Peer Mountain profile. The drivers will use chosen “ID verifiers” to validate their driving license and other relevant identity data. This data is then securely transferred to the rental agency and, within minutes of getting to the car, the driver can leave the parking lot without ever having to talk to a rental agent.
While the above is just one example, Peer Mountain is an open protocol and could theoretically be used for any transaction that requires verified personal information from their customers. The patent-pending Peerchain innovation lies on top of a distributed ledger, and can, therefore, be used in conjunction with any other Blockchain or database. This allows Peer Mountain to act as an identity aggregator – instead of having numerous digital identification apps, you can add them all together in one Peer Mountain digital persona!
The Quantity Theory Of Money (MV=PY)
The Quantity Theory of Money, developed by Milton Friedman, asserts that the price level (P) is proportional to the money supply (M). In traditional, fiat currency systems run by central banks, V and Y are relatively constant. The velocity of money is relatively stable and economic output usually only changes by a few percentage points per year.
Since V and Y are constant, an increase in M by a central bank leads to a proportional increase in P (and vice versa). Here’s a breakdown of the theory:
M = Money supply
V = Velocity of money or how fast money changes hands
P = Price level
Y = Real GDP or economic output
However, when it comes to cryptocurrencies or tokens like PMTN, things are a little bit different. Here’s how the Theory of Money (MV=PY) looks when applied to Peer Mountain:
M = A FIXED money supply
V = Velocity of money
P = Price level or the price of PMTN token
Y = Output or volume of transactions, driven by enterprise-marketing budgets
With Peer Mountain’s token, money supply or M is fixed along with V, which means that changes in P or price level are brought about by changes in Y or in output, instead of M.
Not only companies but also governments are joining the Peer Mountain ecosystem to offer identity-based services to consumers. This helps protect consumer data, allowing an enterprise to stay regulatory compliant.
Enterprises will have to purchase PMTN tokens in order to take advantage of Peer Mountain’s ecosystem. And, as you may have guessed, the transaction volume is expected to increase, driving up the token price.
Investors highly anticipate this added effect of PMTN token will appreciate and further incentivize firms to adopt what could very well be the first enterprise token. Peer Mountain is already building applications with large regulated institutions that will require great quantities of PMTN to deploy their ecosystems.
Almost no other tokens on the market today are driven by enterprise demand, which makes Peer Mountain one of the more interesting prospects on the current token sale market.
You can learn more about the project and the upcoming developments on their official website, Medium publication, Reddit, Twitter, or join the live discussion on Telegram.
Images courtesy of Pexels, Peer Mountain
