#9 Data and crypto - an experimental project, built with radical transparency
Welcome to Issue #9 of Data Currency, your only newsletter about the critical data and information industry in Asia.
First, you may notice the name of this newsletter has been changed from Paid Sub to Data Currency. The name change was initiated to better represent the mission of this newsletter. According to Travis May, “data currency” means:
Almost every data business that is a $1+ billion enterprise has a data currency aspect to its model. A data currency is used by two (or more) parties that rely on a particular data set to complete a transaction; meanwhile the data company that controls the currency takes a tax on its use.
Once established, these businesses have massive network effects: the existence of the currency unlocks a large number of transactions, and it is difficult for any company to stop using the currency, because that’s what everyone else is using.
Obviously, “data currency” is a great concept, something everyone in our industry should strive for, and one purpose of this newsletter is exactly to showcase potential players and business models in China and broader Asia that have the potential to reach data-currency status one day.
E-receipts data
I recently visited Hong Kong to meet with clients and partners. One company I visited was Measurable AI, a Hong Kong-based provider of consumer insights for emerging markets, utilizing self-operated e-receipt data consumer panels. What sets MAI apart is that it’s also the issuer of the MDT crypto tokens.
“E-receipts” are electronic receipts received by consumers after a transaction. A typical e-receipt captures crucial business information, including who purchases what, from which merchant, at what price, and at what time. Individually, a receipt may not mean anything to anyone. But collectively, the aggregated data can shed light on important business questions, such as:
If consumers are buying fewer Nike shoes, is it because they are buying more sportswear in general, or are they simply shifting to other brands?
For those consumers who have unsubscribed from Netflix, is it because they have a lower budget for media subscriptions in general, or are they fleeing to competitors like Disney+?
For the Netflix question, Netflix itself, of course, knows who has unsubscribed and their viewing behaviors within its own platform. However, because Netflix lacks access to the data of Disney+ or Amazon Prime, it cannot answer that question without critical third-party assistance.
Thus, e-receipt providers come to help. Most e-receipt providers work with third-party email applications to source data. For instance, YipitData, the leading alternative data provider on Wall Street, collaborated with Edison Mail (and later acquired it) to build a robust panel of at least millions of active users. When a user makes a transaction and receives a receipt via email, Yipit/Edison parses the information from that receipt, collecting highly granular details about it.
Why would users want to use these third-party email apps? Firstly, some users have different email addresses, so there is a natural need for an integrator app that allows users to receive all emails in one place. Moreover, these apps are not only free but also ad-free. Users only need to agree to (and trust) their data being used on an aggregated, anonymized basis.
MAI and MDT
While YipitData has high-quality panels in developed markets, MAI currently operates what is probably the largest email receipt panel in emerging markets, spanning ASEAN, the Middle East, and LATAM.
MAI primarily collects data from two main sources. First, it operates Mailtime, its own email integrator app. Secondly, it also operates RewardMe, an app that allows users to voluntarily link their mailbox to retrieve e-receipts, in exchange for cash rewards, as well as, this is the most interesting part, crypto rewards in the form of MDT.
Many people working in the data industry have this intuition that data should be part of the blockchain ecosystem. This intuition stems from a simple fact: all data is ultimately generated by individual actors. Some data is generated between businesses, but most of the world’s data is generated by individual users/consumers, meaning you and me. However, we have never really claimed ownership of our own data. Instead, from search engines to social networks, trillions of value are created by business models that are built entirely on monetizing our data.
One major difficulty preventing a regular consumer from monetizing their own data is determining the economic value of their own data. The Googles and Metas harvest data from billions of users and build powerful algorithms with that data. However, it’s challenging to determine the exact value that should be assigned to any individual user.
This is challenging, primarily because it’s rarely been transacted that way. There has never been a real market in the world where individuals can voluntarily sell their own data, and without that market, there is no chance for price discovery to occur. Without price discovery, it will be impossible for individuals to determine the value of their own data and monetize it.
And I think this is where MAI comes into play, by building a data economy that can enable price discovery. As MAI earns revenue from analyzing users’ e-receipt data, it uses part of this revenue to give back to users through cashback rewards as well as MDT tokens. The spirit is something like, nobody is buying data from consumers? Heck, we will do that!
The MDT tokens can be used in various ways. For instance, RewardMe users can stake MDT to upgrade their membership tier, unlocking higher cash back rates with more merchants, while MailTime users can consume MDT tokens to access MailTime AI features.
I have always heard about MAI’s crypto efforts, but what amazed me this time when visiting this team is that they now have a “transparency portal” where they detail monthly operational data about themselves for anyone to see. These details even include highly sensitive business information about themselves, such as their revenue, revenue sharing for users, and the number of active users.
For example, in August 2025, MAI earned $392,656 by selling data to “digital economy” clients, which primarily include food delivery and ride-hailing platforms, and earned $162,917 from “Financial Institutions”, which I assume to be mostly hedge funds. Together, their revenue for last month grew by around 42% year-over-year, which is quite impressive given the market conditions. For the same month, they also paid out $13,366 to users in the form of cashback and MDT tokens. (I am not privy to MAI’s financial accounts, but from what I understand from various sources, this number seems quite right.)
This is a radical strategy. I have never seen anything quite like this: a private company publishing its own key financials on a monthly basis. But if you think about it, this is only necessary for such a kind of project. Direct data monetization for consumers is a revolutionary concept. To attract more users and demonstrate the value to them, the initial believers (in this case, the MAI team) must show the community how much value the data is actually bringing home and be very transparent about it. It’s only with this level of transparency that trust can be built, and that a data economy might be kick-started.
According to CoinMarketCap, MDT’s fully diluted value is approximately $21 million, with a daily trading volume of around $1.2 million. It’s certainly not a huge endeavor, but given its experimental nature, I find this size to be quite considerable already. In any case, I have my fingers crossed for the team.