For me, this is a serious hobby. I try to keep my sensors calibrated. I buy and upgrade to the highest quality weather related items that I can.
I donate my data to MesoWest, WCCO-4, Windy, my lightning data to Blitzortung, and so on.
Not everything needs to be a source of income for me. There are a lot of hobbyists and ham radio operators who do the same; an enormous number of them if you look around.
I see no need to use anything except open exchange. Blockchain isn't needed to share data. It doesn't make the data more accurate.
And finally, I'd not PAY for data coming from a Davis station. While it is pretty good, it isn't NWS quality which is available for free. Who knows if the owner even installed the sensors according to official guidelines or not, so Poor Quality Data is assumed and in many cases despite the owners doing as best they can, don't have the resources or locations to work with.
Those free, high quality data completely open are now covering more and more of the USA and Canada. Our stations fill in and give a smoother picture, but very few are into micro-climate analysis, and for what good?
I'm having fun, and will continue to do so. I assume you're having fun with your project, but thanks for letting us know it is a start for you.
Few points - would not consider it income just an incentive model. While there is much open source data around that seems free and easy to access the companies that are collecting this data are charging considerably for bulk access. ie. Developer level API access to openweathermap data is $180USD per month
WeatherSV has over 11.5K channels of open source data currently logged on blockchain sponsored by folk who want an indelible record of local climate data.
Open source data such as this has no way to prove provenance, quality or veracity.
Through an incentivised model we aim to improve collection quality. Further incentives can be based on provided evidence of calibration, quality of equipment and adhering to best practice for location and installation.
A data trail on a blockchain maintains a record of veracity and provenance at time of collection. While it may not improve the data collected it protects it against future manipulation which often happens down the track for a specific purpose such as is common in agriculture land sales that creates incentive to fudge the rainfall figures etc.
Increasingly data veracity issues are becoming a problem in scientific circles as it seems that with so much data processing happening the original datasets are often lost in the process so having a means of ensuring its veracity at time of collection adds value to the data and provides trust and assurance to those purchasing or acquiring that data.
When packaged into larger datasets, scalable blockchain technology allows us to simply keep track of all the contributors of that dataset and reward them accordingly even if it is just a fraction of a cent, that is still a viable transaction.
Our site will not charge people to access your current data as that will be freely shared and displayed but if they want access to the historic data and charting then that will be through a subscription which will return revenue to the data providers on top of the base bounty for the data.
Davis is our starting point and what we consider good quality for price as we hope to also entice some blockchain enthusiasts into the project but hope to support many more soon and if our model proves successful the bounty will be in line with the quality of the device providing the data.
Appreciate the feedback
