$OCEAN:
- Unit of exchange: the $OCEAN token is used to publish, buy and sell data assets in the Ocean ecosystem

$veOCEAN (locked $OCEAN):
- Governance: veOCEAN is used to vote on governance proposals put forward by the Ocean DAO
- Staking: veOCEAN can be staked on dataNFTs to earn passive and active additional rewards, in the context of the Data Farming Program

Governance:
- $OCEAN is needed to obtain $veOCEAN, that is used to vote on how fee income is distributed

Staking:
- $OCEAN is needed to obtain $veOCEAN, that can be staked within the data ecosystem, earning $OCEAN rewards

Burn:
- A fraction of $OCEAN tokens, 5% at the time of writing, are burned to reduce supply of circulating tokens

Ocean Protocol aims to unlock the value of data as a new asset class enabling the data economy. By providing a secure, privacy-preserving platform for buying, selling, and sharing data, Ocean Protocol is helping to solve one of the biggest challenges in the AI revolution: the lack of access to high-quality, diverse data. 

At the heart of the Ocean System there is a loop, called sustainability loop, which enables growth of the ecosystem. Since an increasing usage of Ocean tools and services leads to more $OCEAN being staked, this drives $OCEAN demand thus growing $OCEAN value. More usage also leads to more Network Revenue, which goes to both burning, which reduces the total supply, and funding to the OceanDAO, which is composed of workers that have the goal of improving the Ocean ecosystem, thus aiming to attract more demand.

$OCEAN token value capture:
- $OCEAN acts as a unit of exchange for buying and selling data assets on the Ocean Market, allowing data owners to monetize their datasets by creating datatokens.
- $OCEAN can be staked to obtain $veOCEAN, which accrues both passive and active rewards depending on the user activity.
- Curation of assets in the pool allows data buyers to more easily identify the most promising assets, further improving the buying experience, driving up interest and thus volume.
- Increase in volume generates increased interest for the $OCEAN token, which can be staked to receive rewards, which translates in $OCEAN value accrual

Ocean’s core token dynamics are those of a work token, embedded within a loop for growth and long-term sustainability. OCEAN is designed to increase with a rise in usage volume.

Revenue comes from:
- Fees accrued from users who access and consume data within the Ocean Protocol ecosystem

Revenue is denominated in:
- Mostly OCEAN tokens, even though the OceanDAO also accrues revenues in other cryptoassets due to active treasury management such as liquidity provision and yield farming

Revenue goes to:
- OceanDAO, which receives a share of the Network Revenue and uses funds to pay out workers, whose purpose is to grow the usage of Ocean tool.
- The protocol burns a fraction of the network revenue, reducing the circulating supply, thus driving $OCEAN price up.