"The American dream is "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" but, in practice, it has always been about ownership. Sadly, the dream of ownership is slowly slipping away for many people. Harvard University's 2025 Youth Poll found that three-quarters say they want to own a home, but barely half think they ever will. Ownership feels increasingly out of reach."
"That lack of ownership applies not only to our physical property, but to our data as well. Private data is a powerful asset, even if most Americans don't realize it. After the 2008 financial crisis, the government mandated that banks allow customers to access their data, but even today, almost two decades later, J.P. Morgan still fights to comply with "open banking." When corporations hoard private data to create "moats" for user retention, they stifle competition and reduce innovation."
"The rise of the agentic web - where autonomous AI agents act on behalf of humans - is set to widen the data ownership gap. Today, AI agents crawl the internet, vacuum up content without attribution, and return nothing to users. As we consume apps like ChatGPT and create prompts with deeply personal information, we have become even more prolific creators of valuable private data. That data is the foundation upon which today's digital and AI economy is built."
The American dream of ownership is slipping as many foresee never owning homes. Ownership concerns extend to personal data, which remains a powerful but unrecognized asset. Post-2008 mandates required banks to let customers access data, yet major firms like J.P. Morgan resist open banking compliance. Corporate hoarding of private data creates competitive moats, reducing innovation and concentrating value. The rise of the agentic web and autonomous AI agents amplifies the gap by crawling and extracting content without attribution. Users generate vast private data through AI apps and prompts, and that data underpins the modern digital and AI economy. Blockchain offers a technological path to return economic stake and privacy to users.
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