Dialogue with Bloomberg: From Data Aggregation to Value Creation

Author: Hedy Bi, OKG Research

In 1981, in an office of only 10 square meters, four people and a coffee pot were all that constituted Bloomberg. With the founder Bloomberg's timeless principle that "there is no new economy; business is about providing what users need," Bloomberg has become a global giant in financial news and data analysis in less than 50 years.

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On September 16, 2024, OKG Research was invited as a keynote speaker at the Corporate Alternative Asset Investment Summit 2024 hosted by Bloomberg to give a presentation on the topic of on-chain data. During the event, OKG Research's Chief Researcher Hedy Bi engaged in an in-depth discussion with Bloomberg product experts about the future forms of data and the development of on-chain data products. Bloomberg had also conducted a survey among its clients regarding the demand for on-chain data: 85% of clients expressed a desire for data product providers, including Bloomberg, to offer on-chain data products for crypto analysis. Additionally, we found that technological advancements are driving the diversification of data forms, yet data product services across different eras share similarities.

Figure Image source: Bloomberg🇸🇬 Closed-door meeting site

OKG Research demonstrated the application of on-chain data as a keynote speaker.

The Origin of Demand in Chaotic Times

In the early 1980s on Wall Street, the financial market was in chaos. Numerous brokers existed, yet information was scarce, and traditional manual information acquisition methods were inefficient. Meanwhile, quantitative trading began to emerge, with only a few pioneers attempting to use computers for trading, while technological limitations made data processing and transmission relatively primitive. Bloomberg keenly identified industry pain points and was the first to launch a service terminal (Terminal) for data integration and analysis. This not only made data acquisition easier and faster for traders but also allowed for the rapid emergence of Bloomberg in the financial information field, thanks to a news team of over 2,700 reporters producing more than 5,000 news articles daily. This business combination quickly enabled Bloomberg to surpass Reuters, which had dominated the financial media landscape.

Image source: Screenshot from "The Wolf of Wall Street"

This business combination allowed Bloomberg to reduce its dependence on a single market, with its terminals serving brokers and traders, primarily focusing on institutional clients; while its news business aimed at the general public, attracting more readers through "news 15 minutes faster than other media" and providing quicker data sources for the terminals. This flexible and diverse business strategy not only enhanced Bloomberg's competitiveness in the financial information sector but also improved its perception and brand influence among the general public, laying the foundation for sustained growth, allowing Bloomberg's market value to grow from an initial funding of $10 million to a staggering $60 billion.

The crypto industry originated from a similar starting point: public chains based on decentralized technology provided the underlying foundation for crypto-native innovative applications. As the public chain ecosystem continues to develop, the issue of information silos between different public chains has gradually emerged. Furthermore, the entire crypto market exhibits high volatility and complexity due to the deep integration of supply and demand with financial trading mechanisms, making the market filled with uncertainty and chaos. Therefore, improving the flow of on-chain data between different public chain ecosystems and enhancing the integration capabilities of on-chain data has become an urgent issue for the crypto industry to address.

Although the times are different, OKLink is becoming a "companion" to Bloomberg on the path of data value exploration: on one hand, it creates multi-chain browser information aggregation services for a wide range of users, integrating originally complex and scattered blockchain data into clear and understandable real-time information, enabling users to easily access cross-chain information and significantly enhancing information accessibility; on the other hand, by providing unified and rich API interfaces, OKLink offers strong support for developers to build innovative applications based on public chains, lowering development barriers, improving efficiency, and accelerating product iteration, allowing developers to respond more quickly to market changes and launch competitive products and services. Times may differ, and markets may vary, but OKLink and Bloomberg, based on their strong data and technological capabilities, reduce dependence on a single market through the establishment of this "combination punch" business model, meeting the needs of different user groups, enabling them to navigate through chaotic markets.

Figure Image source: OKLink, Bloomberg

On-chain Advancement: From Data Aggregation to Value Creation

Data itself does not create value; the value of data comes from being efficiently and accurately utilized to unleash its application value. As Bloomberg expresses, "For us, the substantive content conveyed by information is above all else, including the channel." This was the key to Bloomberg's ability to surpass Reuters back then—by providing financial data to users through its terminals and analyzing the data to help investors make investment decisions, Bloomberg also completed the transformation of data from aggregation to value discovery.

Therefore, the core value of current on-chain data platforms lies not only in providing a one-stop summary of information for a wide range of users but also in discovering value through the integration of data analysis from different public chains. In the crypto field, the public chain ecosystem has formed a prosperous scene of "a hundred schools of thought contending." According to incomplete statistics from OKG Research, there are currently over 1,000 public chains in the market, leading to market fragmentation. Especially with non-EVM chains, such as Solana and TON, different technical architectures result in low interoperability between chains and a lack of unified data standards across different public chains, making it challenging for users to choose suitable public chains for trading or development, further limiting industry integration and innovation.

Similar to Bloomberg's standardization of financial data: The openness of on-chain data makes data acquisition simple, but the protocols, data formats, and interfaces of each public chain vary, and the complexity of cross-chain integration increases the usage barriers of on-chain data. For instance, outputting data packaged as APIs according to unified standards can greatly enhance the efficiency of on-chain data usage. Two years ago, OKLink launched OPEN API, allowing developers to access dozens of mainstream public chain data simultaneously and frequently through API integration. This enables users to easily access various on-chain data without needing to delve into the details of each public chain or learn the language of each public chain.

Figure Image source: OKLink

Developers do not need to "reinvent the wheel," which greatly promotes the release of on-chain innovative value. Moreover, data can be reused without depleting its value, generating greater benefits. Furthermore, by standardizing data products to connect different public chain ecosystems, a network effect of on-chain data is formed, complemented by on-chain development tools, just as Bloomberg provides various analytical tools for investors, ultimately achieving value creation based on on-chain data.

Looking back at Bloomberg's development journey, it has demonstrated an extraordinary transformation of data from aggregation to value discovery from then to now. Today, with the large-scale adoption of blockchain technology advancing, we believe that the era of on-chain UGC has arrived. In the future, acquiring data itself is not the ultimate goal, but a means to achieve innovation. Users, especially developers, will further stimulate new imaginative spaces and innovative possibilities based on diversified on-chain data products, creating value on the blockchain! Let's BUIDL!