With more social media users aware that their personal data can be harvested without permission on centralized networks such as Facebook or Twitter, decentralized social platforms have emerged as one of the most in-demand blockchain-based products.
Built upon the Ethereum blockchain, social networks harness social tokens to reward their communities. In turn, users can utilize their earned digital tokens to promote content on these platforms or support other users’ original content.
The onset of decentralized social media began in July 2016, when blockchain developer Dan Larimer invented Steemit to be a pioneering blockchain-based social media platform that enables users to earn rewards via Steem tokens for posting, sharing and commenting on content.
Since then, other similar networks have come up promising to protect user privacy while allowing users not just to create interactive content, but also earn money for their contributions.
Unlike centralized social networks where you don’t get anything from what you contribute, blockchain-based social networks allow you to earn from your content and have fun interacting with others on a censorship-free platform.
The Era of Monetizing Social Media Platforms
The Steemit platform helped unlock the potential of blockchain tech to offer users a fairly censorship-resistant platform and a way to reward users for engagement.
Seeking to improve on the crypto social media market, Empow was launched to focus wholly on eye-catching & interaction-triggering contents.
Empow’s blockchain-based platform centers on various kinds of visual and interactive images, videos, and GIFs, while remunerating content creators on the platform with EM tokens.
Similarly, Ethereum-based platform Sapien, a social platform that is designed to battle “fake” news, utilizes SPN tokens to serve as a stake in the network facilitating interaction.
Shifting Toward Blockchain-Based alternatives
The current trend seems to be increasingly shifting towards blockchain-based social media alternatives.
Case in point, Minds, an ETH-based social platform that claims to protect against data breaches and surveillance is finding an entirely new user base of more than 100K Thai users, after a mass exodus from Twitter in May 2020 due to fear of users losing anonymity.
Another recent example is a new crypto company dubbed “Roll” that has already enabled 160 artists and influencers to mint their own social tokens, then gift or sell them to their followers.
Similarly, Block.one recently revealed that it is now planning to roll out a new social media platform dubbed Voice on July 4th of this year.
The blockchain-based platform aims to offer users a decentralized social media alternative where they can earn rewards via the platform’s native social token.
In conclusion, decentralized social platforms are ushering in an exciting time for social media enthusiasts and crypto lovers.
This is because the proliferation of new generation social media provides unique opportunities in cryptocurrency and security for users.
