What is your data actually worth? — at1 appraise

“Data is an asset” has no measurement standard. Raw byte-count is the usual proxy, and it lies: it double-counts duplicates and rewards padding. at1 appraise values a dataset by its information content— its compressed size under a pinned reference compressor (lzma preset 6) — giving a number for M&A due diligence, data marketplaces, and insurers underwriting data as an asset.

Use it

# value one dataset by its information content
at1 appraise value dataset.parquet
#   raw bytes           : 1,142,180
#   MDL valuation       : 145,216 bytes of information
#   information density : 12.7%

# rank a portfolio by information content
at1 appraise rank a.csv b.csv c.csv

The three properties byte-count fails

  • Ranks information — zeros < structured < random, by actual information content.
  • Duplication-invariant — 10×-duplicated data values about the same as 1×; it’s the same information.
  • Padding-invariant — padding adds bytes, not value, and the metric ignores it.

Compressor-approximated complexity is an upperbound on information content, and a standard requires pinning the reference. Information content is not the same as semantic value — random bytes appraise highest and are worth least — so pair this with domain judgment, not instead of it. To see where a file’s compressibility comes from, run the compressibility audit.

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