South Korean big data firm DataStreams said Thursday that it has presented a system for brokerless trading and circulation of big data using a blockchain solution.

Ahn Hyun-joo, head of the firm’s product services department, and his two co-authors presented the research paper at a conference organized by the Korea Society of Management Information Systems on June 18.

In their study, the trio offered a way to use blockchain technology to build an exchange platform for big data, enabling direct transactions between sellers and buyers without the involvement of intermediaries.

As the importance of big data grows across industries for market insights and more detailed and accurate business strategies, the government has since 2019 designated a total of 16 platforms for big data trading. Yet, due to concerns over security and some legal issues, there has hardly been any actual trading of data on those platforms, DataStreams explained.

Ahn and the authors suggested the use of blockchain technologies to prevent tampering and forgery of the data and to verify ownership information.

“A trading platform entrusted by various stakeholders in big data trading would spur the development of the local big data industry and extension of a data economy, leading to the emergence of new services and new jobs,” Ahn said.