The era of decentralized social networks begins, or why Facebook acquires blockchain startups
The world-famous company Facebook has acquired the blockchain project Chainspace, which was founded by the now ex-employees of University College London. The secret deal, according to Cheddar, took place at the end of January, and it was initially unclear - only the developers went to the social network team, or the corporation bought the startup. Mark Zuckerberg's company is not the only one engaged in the implementation of the blockchain in the activities of networks. Why did Facebook become interested in blockchain development and why there was a demand for decentralized social networks, DeCenter understood.
Was there a project purchase?
On February 4, anonymous sources from Cheddar who were familiar with the issue learned that Facebook hired four out of five employees of the blockspace startup Chainspace. Researchers since joining the new position in the corporation have been engaged in optimizing their own blockchain-development of Facebook, which the leadership of the social network has long been thinking about.
“Like many other companies, Facebook is considering using the blockchain. Our new small team is exploring various technology use cases. So far we have nothing more to share, ”says a corporation representative in a comment for Cheddar.
The press service of the social network confirmed that the university blockchain startups started their work duties on Facebook, however they denied the information on the acquisition of the technology, which was previously developed by engineers: “We are considering using the blockchain, but do not intend to buy Chainspace” .
It is likely that the new team members who previously worked at University College London, like colleagues at MIT and Stanford University, addressed the blockchain scalability problem, namely designing a decentralized system for making a large number of payments, along with Visa, money transfer in WhatsApp messenger.
These foundations are based on the information that Facebook, in 2018, began to acquire blockchain companies to develop their own cryptocurrency, a steablocoin backed by the American dollar, which allows users to transfer money using the WhatsApp application. Bloomberg wrote about this with reference to his own sources. According to them, the new crypto-service will be focused primarily on the money transfer market in India, since it is in this country that the largest number of messenger users live.
At the moment, Facebook is shaping the basic concept and choosing a strategy for storing crypto assets, so the project with a stableblock for WhatsApp is still far from being introduced into the instant messenger. In addition, the corporation is actively recruiting scientists, product managers, engineers, and lawyers with experience in cryptocurrency and blockchain technology. At present, more than 40 people work in the blockchain division, and, probably, the headquarters will only expand.
Decentralization of social networks
So far Facebook is talking about the possibility of making cross-border crypto payments in the framework of the WhatsApp messenger, which since 2014 has been owned by Mark Zuckerberg Corporation. However, experts and users around the world are proposing to introduce the blockchain into the very concept of a social network to ensure maximum safety and security of user data.
The need to introduce the blockchain arose after a major scandal in March 2018, when the media learned that Facebook had been selling access to confidential information for more than 50 million users for several years. Data leakage occurred due to an application with a psychological test that requested access to data from survey participants.
Millions of users around the world were outraged by the fact of the distribution of user data and offered to implement the blockchain as a guarantor of the integrity of information within one company. “The technology will allow corporations to add a level of unchangeable transparency for data tracking. At best, this would give organizations the ability to control access to their confidential information, ”Gemma Green, a contributor to Forbes USA, wrote in her blog.
Thus, thanks to the introduction of the blockchain, the social networks will become decentralized. While Facebook is making timid attempts to interact with digital money transfers, many social networks, portals and sites are being built that are built on the blockchain and are experimenting with the distributed registry technology and cryptocurrencies.
The main trend is rewarded social networks
The most famous decentralized platform Steemit describes itself as the first social network based on the Steem blockchain, a platform through which you can reward publishers, monetize content and expand the community. "Now most sites work in favor of their shareholders, Steem believes that platform users should receive benefits and rewards for their attention and the contribution they make to the platform," the company’s website says. As part of the Steem operation, each user will be assigned points - tokens that can be traded on the market. People, judging the concept of the project, will buy-sell these tokens, or just keep them waiting for an increase in purchasing power for various services on Steem. “I feel like in the Stone Age when I use Facebook or Twitter. They have no value,
Another startup, Sapien, which is a democratized news network, wants to create a new kind of information platform using the Ethereum platform. Thanks to the blockchain, all user data will be protected, and the cryptocurrency will allow you to freely reward the project curators and the creators of individual blogs on the portal for their activities. As Sapien founder Sam Mathews says, modern news sites are outdated and dangerous for users. Sapien, on the other hand, will rewrite the experience of social networks in order to “protect the user and the truth, using the powerful features of the blockchain, with maximum transparency”.
Another blockchain project, Sola, is a hybrid of media and social network, managed by artificial intelligence together with users. The platform, which, according to the website, has more than 700,000 users worldwide, started from the so-called “follow concept”. “Sola spreads information as a viral disease among the most interested users, applying AI algorithms in combination with user reaction. Quality content can easily reach the entire Sola user base. Users publish news, stories and entertainment cards, Sola takes care of the rest, ”say the project’s representatives on their website. The platform uses the Sola internal currency, which has no cash value until someone approves or comments on the content. After receiving feedback from users, reviews are converted into SOL tokens. “This is a service token with a monetary function that provides the Sola economy,” explained the co-founder and CEO of the project, Ilya Zudin. “This allows us to share advertising, user payments and partnerships with users, providing a strong financial incentive to use our service and create high-quality content.”
The Diaspora project currently has over a million users and is one of the most popular decentralized social platforms. According to the concept, Diaspora resembles the Tumblr network, where you can share photos, videos, audio recordings and texts with your community and actively use hashtags that people find each other. “But instead of storing the data of all users on the huge central servers of some large organization, Diaspora uses many local servers (“ pods ”) that are installed in different parts of the globe. You simply choose the pod on which you want to register - perhaps it will be your local pod - and communicate with users all over the world, ”the project website says. In addition, the project does not claim confidential data: “The user does not sell“ any rights to corporations or anyone else who wants to use them. At Diaspora, your friends, your hobbies and your data are your business ... not ours! In addition, you choose who sees your notes using Aspects, ”explained in the project description.
In general, decentralized projects are gaining popularity due to their openness and earning opportunities with the help of internal tokens. This forms a new user attitude to Internet sites that are recognized as vulnerable and completely insecure for members of the community.
Aleksandra Kalinina