Cent is going to save the world.
https://beta.cent.co/
Seriously, it’s a pretty big deal. For those of you that follow our blog, first of all, thank you, but you will also you will remember about a month ago we reviewed some of the new age social media. These included; minds, steemit and publish0x. After we published the article the artist sparrow @blackboxdotart suggested that we take a look at Cent.
We had already signed up to cent but hadn’t used it much, this was down to the fact that it was a bit confusing. To feel like I knew what I was doing I had to watch the introduction video but after that, I was on my way. I would suggest you watch this video it helps understand what the site is.
https://intercom.help/cent/en/articles/3028516-overview
Before I explain what cent is and why it is going to save the world lets look at the more interesting aspect of these social media, the reward systems.
Publish0x; uses a system where users tip each other but the site provides the tips free via airdrops of funding it themselves.
Steemit; using the steem blockchain so users slowly earn steam power to spend they can also fund their accounts themselves.
Minds; using an ERC-20 token minds lets you passively earn tokens over time by contributing content to the platform.
These systems are cool but it is the small twists that make cent unique.
First, though we need to look at free speech this is a huge issue on social media at the moment the question being; how to deal with it?
In the real world, speech is limited by consequence normal via monetary disincentives for example; if you say something racist outside of work to someone you might lose your job. In the online world, this has only recently been the case people are now punished for their speech. Normal this is in the form of being “cancelled” and is much the same as in real life you lose your job etc.
But it doesn’t have to be this way… instead of punishing people for being a dick online.
What if we could change the incentives, what if we made it so people rated the comments and there was a possibility of gaining money by being the top-rated? Why be a dick if it isn’t profitable, even with a small amount of cash up for grabs people are focused to think about their responses.
The best idea/ posts will get the most funding and this funding comes from people’s pockets. It is a free market economic model but for ideas. Ideas can have a value in the most simplistic of forms now a post can get you 10 cents that’s not bad. We’ve made more money on cent than any other platform and we’ve spent the least time on it.
But how does all this stack up in practice? We started our cent journey by filling our account with 8usd. They have an app that is beta which works great, other than not being able to do any of the money functions. But saving a draft and popping onto the pc to do that is no big deal and you can post without putting money down.
We made a few posts followed a few people and found a real live community. The best one across any of the blockchain media by far, it felt and feels alive.
Cent there is generally interesting content to look through a lot of crypto-based stuff but that is to be expected. So we made a post and seeded it with 2 USD how I think this works is the people who responded to the post will have their comments voted on at the time you set. The comments that receive the most upvotes will get the share of the seed along with a small amount for the people who sorted them. What’s great is cent works all in ETH so no need to exchange anything.
All the comments on cent are generally nice because people want some of that cash. It stands to reason that if you are critical it would need to be very well thought out to get the upvote. This creates an atmosphere of critical thinking which is not something normal synonymous with social media. So basically I'm saying if you want people to be nice you’ve got to pay them. Yes, that is exactly what I'm saying but you only have to put like 19 cents down. The thing is anyone can tip anything a post, a comment even on that the OP hasn’t put a seed on. This doesn’t happen all that much to comments yet but as the platform scales, I’m sure we will see it more.
Cent changed the inventive because you ether earned that money very slowly by making good content and other users tipping or you put cash down. People are more inspired when they can make a little money and they think more.
A like is free but seeding a post will cost you but if that post then gets seeded by someone else you get a little bit of that too( a pyramid post if you like ).
A free market of ideas but with a cash inventive if how we solve the online issue, not punishment after the fact reward before.
I hope all this positivism isn’t shattered as the platform scales but I have high hopes. While the community is small if cent continues like this we may have our first positive social media and it is all thanks to capitalism and free-market economics(with a bit of pyramid scheme economics thrown in, the good kind).
Instead of “don’t feed the trolls” soon it will be “don’t pay the trolls”.
So come and join this amazing community and platform at https://beta.cent.co/
