Montreal, Canada — Canadian blockchain technology provider mPowered has teamed up with Newfoundland-based start-up Ocean Set to support the health of our oceans by building the world’s first data marketplace designed specifically for ocean-related data.

mPowered, a Web3 company founded in Guelph, Ont., but now based in Montreal, is providing the technology stack that will power the marketplace. Ocean Set aims to make it easy for users to access, prepare, share and exchange data and algorithms about everything from ocean currents and temperatures to fisheries, offshore energy leases, and more.

“mPowered was initially created to help individuals and companies in the agri-food sector take ownership of their data and benefit from sharing it,” said mPowered CEO Joel Sotomayor. “Expanding our focus to the ocean data economy and protecting marine environments is a great opportunity that fits with our ‘data as a common good’ philosophy and we look forward to helping make the Ocean Set data marketplace a success.”

Peter Rawsthorne, Ocean Set’s founder and president, said the marketplace meets growing demand for a simple, secure platform for stakeholders in the ocean sector to access, manage, optimize and share potentially valuable data sets. mPowered’s blockchain-based ecosystem provides Ocean Set with the cryptographically secure, transparent and tamperproof tools needed to curate a frictionless environment for buying and selling data.

The Ocean Set data marketplace will be a valuable resource for companies, governments, and scientists in the fisheries, aquaculture, transportation, tourism, defence, and energy sectors, said Rawsthorne.

“Working with mPowered has helped Ocean Set build a trusted platform that will allow organizations to access, store, retrieve and profit from sharing ocean data sets without losing control of their data,” said Rawsthorne. “We believe this will encourage stakeholders to generate and share even more validated data which will support a sustainable ocean economy and protect marine ecosystems.”