ARTICLES
Humans in the Press: Blockchain-based Social Networks: State of the field and how to profit from them
Traditional social networks are losing trust. The new article by NextBigFuture aims to analyze the next-gen social nets that allow us to show some of the benefits of blockchain technology.
Context – Barriers to Adoption
In the context of social media, only vastly superior experiences will justify switching or even adopting new social media platforms. So how much does data sovereignty actually improve the quality of daily social media use? Parties are being paid for watching advertisements, are the amounts they’re being paid worth the hassle of switching to new social media? Does the absence of fake news on a platform incentivize meaningful adoption or simply create niche social media platforms? And is the creation of niche social media sites creates more opportunities for integration via blockchain that could fundamentally change the way of using social media?Types of Social Networks
While this trichotomy is not all-encompassing, for the purpose of this article, types of social networks will be categorized as pure content social media (i.e. Facebook), professional content social media (i.e. LinkedIn) and hybrid versions of these 2.Pure Content Social Media
Steemit
Steemit is the most popular blockchain based social media platform. It rewards content creators and curators with reputation tokens. The main point of Steemit is allowing content creators to monetize their content through an inflationary currency. There is no explicitly political bent or an attempt to fundamentally change the advertising model.Sapien
Goals of Sapien are more diverse. The core values of the platform are customizability, privacy, free speech, and democracy. Customizability meaning the user has a high degree of autonomy surrounding how he experiences the platform, privacy meaning users decide whether advertisers get their data and even have the option of being paid for sharing this data; free speech meaning that users cannot be censored as Facebook has begun doing, and democracy meaning governance of the system is done by community members instead of a centralized body. The platform also has a proof of value mechanism that reduces trolling by analyzing a user’s reputation as well as a proof of stance mechanism that depends on machine learning to interpret the titles of articles and detect bots from real parties.Professional Content Social Media
Indorse
Indorse is trying to make sure that claims about certifications and competencies on professional websites are more verifiable. This means two potentially very significant developments. The first is creating an API that allows institutions to put certificates on the blockchain. The second is a mechanism to ensure that claims about competencies are confirmed by networks of people instead of by a select few that could be manipulating the system.The model for accomplishing the latter entails endorsements of skills anonymously done by random people in the network instead of given by specific people. The platform has 2 types of token: Reputation tokens and tokens used by advertisers to pay for services on the platform. Reputation tokens are earned by validating claims made by other parties as well as having claims you make validated by other parties on the platform.
Hybrids
Humans.net
Humans.net is an attempt beyond mere social networking. It is an interesting hybrid project that promises much of what many blockchain-based social networks promise (data sovereignty, censorship resistance, peer to peer services that doesn’t allow for exorbitant fees by centralized parties (i.e. Uber)).Humans.net aims to index and catalog people around the world in a similar way that Google did with page rank. People are able to effectively search for other people within the parameters of their business interests much more effectively than previously. In a gig economy, this could be a very valuable tool.
Second, the team builds an AI-based verification system that is more useful than mere ratings or reviews. The idea behind this verification system is that it takes user’s preferences and needs into account when ranking the utility of different services. The rating system is built on a multi-vector assessment of the interests of those who assessed, and the interests of the one who is currently watching the assessment. Users will be able to choose an entity (person, object, company, etc.) according to the characteristics they need at the moment.
The team already has a working solution for this feature and has a thriving community (215,553 users) as well as a significant network of global partnerships. If these features scale, they would significantly differentiate the platform from its competitors.
onG
OnG is another hybrid project that is actually not trying to be anything like any existing social network. Instead, they are meant to be a platform that connects all of the social media accounts of a user, a consolidation of centralized and decentralized social media networks. This model also includes the reputation token and payment token model. Value propositions include getting rid of fake news and encouraging users to interact with other users outside of their ideological filters.Which are the most valuable networks?
Humans.net and Indorse are networks worth looking at. These platforms will likely gain prominence. The platforms enable professional economic activities and don’t rely on things like political preferences and a burning desire to be paid for watching ads.Humans.net: The implications of the humans.net platform are significant. Peer to peer and AI-based ranking algorithms that optimize search for humans with different skills while decreasing costs are particularly intriguing. Consider websites for skills like tutoring. The best sites currently charge a 40% overhead. Significantly decreasing these costs would create a lot of value for the increasing number of people working in the gig economy. Being able to cut out the middleman for services like ridesharing, and accurately assess the ability of professionals should create a lot of value for both workers and customers.
Indorse: The huge demand for the utility of the Indorse platform is self-evident. It’s simply a more trustworthy version of LinkedIn. Unlike platforms like Sapiens that have a political agenda among other things. Indorse is simply pursuing a clear market need. This is not to say that there is no demand for a censorship-resistant and fake news resistant social network. However, such demand is likely niche and not as useful to advertisers as a system that allows them to be very certain about the professional claims people are making.
The Big Picture
New social networks, whether they be as ubiquitous as Facebook or serve more niche demands, are inevitable. These experiments adding new capacities via the blockchain are particularly intriguing as no one knows what the differentiating factors will be. As always, teams determine the success of projects as many pivots are inevitable. In addition to the novelty of their ideas, many on the teams at indorse and humans.net have demonstrated competency over their careers. For these reasons, these projects warrant further examination by all interested parties.Read the full article here: Blockchain-based Social Networks: State of the field and how to profit from them