45M Strong Crypto App Targets Twitter With New Social Media Platform

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Information about bots, bullying and bums. Billions of people use social media despite sometimes feeling discouraged by the experience; toxicity often on full display.

A crypto startup with tens of millions of smartphone users mining their native token aspires to change that reality by launching a new social media app that encourages positive behaviors while discouraging what users deem negative.

Created by Pi Network and dubbed Fireside Forum, the initially text-based social platform features a model where users can spend tokens to reward and elevate posts they like or invest them to penalize posts they like. do not like. The company’s goal is that the Pi Network model will help remove content deemed spam, misleading, toxic, or all of the above.

Web3 should solve some of the downsides or flaws of Web2 social media, namely information overload, misinformation, trolling and internet violence, said Pi Network co-founder Chengdiao Fan, titular a doctorate from Stanford in social computing. Using powerful tools available in the Web3 blockchain and cryptocurrency and using them as a mechanism to create disincentives and incentives, and a balance between the two, will somehow automatically moderate behavior.”

Just as users can brag about content produced by their online counterparts, people can also earn rewards when their posts are popular.

Ever since Pi Network launched about five years ago in 2018, its founders have said they dreamed of creating a social media platform devoid of the many elements that often mar the user experience on traditional networks like Twitter. , Facebook and Instagram.

It’s been proven that when people add even a small economic incentive or deterrence to their actions, they suddenly become much more rational, said Pi Network co-founder Nicolas Kokkalis, also a Stanford Ph.D.

Pi Network has so far expanded its ecosystem by enrolling 45 million engaged users who have downloaded its app to mine its Layer 1 token. The company’s founders said they define engaged users as people who downloaded their app, logged in, and then mined tokens.

The company bills itself as a utility-based ecosystem for third-party applications on a mobile web platform, which “offers a mobile-first exploration approach, with low financial cost. Currently, the Pi Network token is not currently traded on an exchange and is only useful within the company’s ecosystem.

We are currently in a phase that we call closed mainnet,” Kokkalis said. “During this phase, we are migrating people from the mobile app to blockchain while running a decentralized KYC (know your customer) application that have built us.”

The company uses a KYC process largely aimed at ensuring that its users are real people; a step implemented in order to weed out fake accounts run by bots that often frustrate users on Twitter.

Alternatives to Twitter

Pi Network isn’t the only blockchain-enabled social media app trying to tackle the establishment. Lens Protocol allows users to create their profile as an NFT while retaining ownership of their connections, posts, and data. Users can also switch between platforms seamlessly while taking their profile and data with them, according to the company.

Mastodon, while not a blockchain-based app, marketed itself as both a “decentralized” social media platform and a direct competitor to Twitter. The platform had more than 10 million registered users in March, according to Statista.

One fan slammed Twitter’s recent move to charge some users subscription fees as traditional internet companies begin to realize what she and her co-founder Kokkalis have said they’ve long known: charging users can help secure authenticity.

Pi Network has three million users who, after passing the company’s KYC and migrating to blockchain, in part using a digital wallet, will initially be able to register for the Fireside Forum, the founders said.

2023 The Block Crypto, Inc. All rights reserved. This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended for use as legal, tax, investment, financial or other advice.

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