[mrweiner]

> A company created a dataset and updates it from time to time.

I suppose update frequency doesn’t matter from the perspective of just conveying how it works, but it could be updated frequently. For instance, any time a paper is published, or if the customer provided a data stream, etc.

> Ok. And what is the use case? What would be different if they did not publish the hashes on a blockchain?

The idea of blockchain is “don’t trust, verify,” right? Imagine you’re a researcher and you’re using this company’s services. Having the hashes on-chain allows you to verify the integrity of the data over time. Having it on-chain removes attack vectors associated with e.g. a standard database. Similarly, all of Vectorspace’s tooling for various services benefit from the same assurances that the data is sound. So like I said initially: data provenance.

[ArtTimeInvestor]

"Verify" in which way?

What would be the simplest example of "using this company’s services"? Maybe an API call like this?

    GET /animals/dogs/ears/count

And that returns "2"?

Now you know that the company claims that dogs have 2 ears.

How does the fact that they published a hash on a blockchain allow you to "verify" that statement?

At best, you can say "The company claims that dogs have 2 ears and they did so 3 months ago already", right?

But the hash does not help you verify the claim on how many ears a dog has.