Decentralized Data Bounty Billboard (D2B29
D2B2 is a decentralized data marketplace that connects mobility data demand with untapped data sources through smart contracts, secure validation, and automated rewards, enabling trusted, efficient, and privacy-preserving data exchange.
Factsheet
- Schools involved School of Engineering and Computer Science
- Institute(s) Institute for Data Applications and Security (IDAS)
- Research unit(s) IDAS / Identity and Access Management (IAM)
- Funding organisation Others
- Duration (planned) 01.07.2026 - 30.06.2027
- Head of project Prof. Dr. Annett Laube
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Project staff
Maël Gassmann
Dr. Susie Xi Rao
Prof. Dr. Gernot Pruschak -
Partner
HSLU
Otimon GmbH
Dotphoton AG - Keywords Mobility, Blockchain, Smart Contracts, Data Sharing, Trust
Situation
Companies and researchers increasingly depend on high-quality mobility data, yet access remains fragmented, costly, and opaque. Valuable datasets are often held by private organizations or individuals who are unaware of their potential value or lack a secure and trusted mechanism for sharing them. As a result, data requesters invest significant time and resources in repeated data collection efforts, while data holders miss opportunities to monetize existing assets. This market inefficiency limits innovation, slows the development of data-driven mobility solutions, and prevents the creation of a functioning marketplace where data supply and demand can be matched efficiently.
Course of action
The Decentralized Data Bounty Billboard (D2B2) addresses this challenge through a blockchain-based marketplace that enables transparent, secure, and incentive-driven data exchange. Data requesters can publicly publish data bounties specifying the required data, its intended use, validation requirements, and the reward offered. This makes market demand visible, lowers search costs, and creates clear incentives for data holders to participate. The platform is built on a modular smart contract architecture in which each bounty is represented by an individual contract. To preserve privacy and minimize storage requirements, raw data assets remain off-chain at all times. Validation is performed through a decentralized oracle network that verifies submitted data against predefined criteria without exposing the underlying data on the blockchain. Some validation strategies for high value data could include a mechanism that requires human validation by multiple trusted third parties. Once validation is successfully completed, the smart contract automatically executes a trustless atomic transaction: payment is released from escrow to the data provider while the requester simultaneously receives verifiable access rights to the validated dataset. Because both actions occur as a single indivisible transaction, neither party can gain an advantage if the validation process fails.
Result
The project will deliver three key outcomes. First, the Institute of Applied Data Science & Finance at BFH will develop a comprehensive business plan that evaluates market potential, stakeholder incentives, governance models, and long-term sustainability. Second, the Institute of Data Applications and Security (IDAS) at BFH will develop a functional prototype demonstrating the complete data bounty lifecycle, from bounty creation and data submission to validation, compensation, and secure data access. Third, the project will demonstrate a differentiated security framework that enables varying levels of protection depending on data sensitivity. This framework will facilitate the secure exchange of high-value personal data while maintaining low barriers for the sharing of less sensitive mobility datasets.
Looking ahead
The successful development and validation of the D2B2 prototype will establish the technical, business, and governance foundations for a larger-scale Innosuisse innovation project. The results will provide evidence of both technical feasibility and market demand, substantially reducing the risks associated with future commercialization. In the longer term, D2B2 has the potential to evolve into a national marketplace for mobility and related data assets, connecting organizations, public institutions, and individual citizens within a trusted data economy. By integrating with existing digital platforms and mobility ecosystems, the solution could contribute to more efficient data sharing, increased innovation, and new forms of value creation across Switzerland.
