Skip to content

Business model#

Part of the LDT Governance and Trust Framework — instantiates the iSHARE Data Space Template block Business model (© iSHARE Foundation, see Legal notices).

Purpose#

A well-considered business model sustains the data space even where profit is not the goal: it clarifies how value is created, sustained and fairly distributed among participants, and how the scheme itself is funded after the pilot.

LDT instantiation — where we stand#

  • During the pilot (to M18), operations are funded by the EUTwinLink budget; every partner co-finances ≥50% of its own costs.
  • Post-M18 sustainability is a PD4 and PD5.3 requirement: the scheme must state who operates the LDT, on what revenue basis (membership fees, transaction fees on the Marketplace of the EU LDT Toolbox, tokenisation services, public funding), and how continuity of the trust infrastructure is guaranteed.
  • Scheme operation candidates: continuation under iSHARE scheme governance with a LDT-specific council; marketplace operations by a commercial operator under scheme rules.
  • Marketplace of the EU LDT Toolbox after M18: Nunsys hosts and operates the Marketplace of the EU LDT Toolbox for the duration of the project. At project completion, responsibility for the Marketplace and its assets, services and results is proposed to transfer to CitiVERSE EDIC or another entity designated by the Contracting Authority, so that a single EU LDT Marketplace serves the wider ecosystem (to be agreed with the Contracting Authority). (PD4 v1.0 §6; source: Nunsys, e-mail of 26 Oct 2026.)

🧩 Building block requested — Owner: ERTICO + iSHARE (input: Nunsys, University of the Aegean)#

What we need: an exploitation-oriented business model sketch for the LDT after M18: value propositions per role, candidate revenue streams (marketplace fees, services, membership), cost base of running the scheme, and the governance-authority funding model. Align with the PD5 cost-benefit analysis.

Format: Markdown section in this page (merge request) · Due: 26 Sep 2026 (v0.5) · Status: OPEN

Guiding questions#

All 17 of the template's questions for this block, with the 7 LDT answer slots to fill, are on business-model/guiding-questions.md. The digest below is the subset that most shapes this block.

  • How are value propositions tailored to the different participant roles, and how do participants perceive the benefits?
  • Which revenue streams can be combined while keeping access fair (public bodies, SMEs, citizens)?
  • Which operational costs (curation, onboarding, governance) can be optimised without hurting trust or quality?
  • Which use cases are strategic priorities vs. future ambition, and what services are core vs. value-added — who delivers them and how are they incentivised?
  • What are the responsibilities and the business model of the governance authority itself, and how is governance reviewed and improved?

PD4 mapping#

Feeds PD4 chapter 8 — Sustainability, replication & scalability.