The problem DSource solves

Existing solutions to crowdsourced data are extremely centralized and often do not reward the data providers (i.e. the individuals who generate data). Due to the centralized nature, data can be easily misused leading to lack of trust in the service providers.

Our model rectifies this problem by decentralizing the service and also rewarding data providers. Users upload data to a decentralized store via a smart contract. The data is stored securely and any access to it is provided only through the smart contract.

This data can be then queried through the smart contract in exchange for a small fee. The collected fee is distributed among the data providers according to their data score. The data providers periodically call a method on the smart contract which transfers the reward if available.

Data scores are assigned based on the frequency of queries on provided data and reviews of the queried data.

Note: Our app is a Proof of Concept for the above model which tries to decentralize a phone directory (inspired from Truecaller). Checkout GitHub README for installation and usage.

Challenges we ran into

1. Finding a truly secure way for decentralized storage. Our PoC app uses a private mapping in the smart contract to store data. We hash the keys (here phone numbers) to provide some level of security. Better alternatives might be using Whisper to transfer a secret or data re-encryption.
2. Our inexperience in the field made it to hard to completely implement our idea in the given time. However we think the model is implementable and practical.
3. It was slightly challenging to consume web3 and solidity API due to lack of online resources (compared to conventional technologies) however we were guided by experts from various sponsoring organizations.