What if MySpace added an SMT?
Just as a bit of fun before bed, I thought I would explore the possibility just a little and then open it up to the audience in the comments section.
Figures are pretty dodgy but supposedly last November 2017, there were 50 million unique users who logged into MySpace, the dead social media site. I don't believe those numbers as at it's peak there were only about 120 million active monthly accounts but, even if there are 10 million users, that is a decent size community. Not only is it a decent size, they must be pretty hardcore fans to still be there meaning, they are also engaged and invested with their time and effort.
At the moment, there is a lot of aggregated news and content because the only income model is through targeted advertising. There are millions upon millions of 'dead' accounts and there are some reports that people are still using it for getting content for things like Throw Back Thursdays to use on other sites.
But, could an SMT revive it? Imagine if an SMT was implemented today on MySpace that worked essentially like Steem, what would happen?
What if it chose to distribute the tokens to all users but, reward the current users with additional volumes. Rather than making whales though, they would have many power users that never left. They could also airdrop to all accounts and potentially lock the sale of the tokens for a period of time with a disclaimer where for example, before the release of the tokens, any accounts that haven't logged in, claimed and fulfilled some obligations, will have their tokens burnt. This has the added benefit of clearing out all inactive accounts.
Up until the release, they could have the token otherwise usable to vote, curate and get return on but, it all gets powered up into the accounts. They could also have an internal market with a percentage of the tokens to sell to anyone who wants to get in early and build their account during that lock-in time and thereby take direct investments without the advertising requirements.
What I wonder is that because the community is small, they will have a better chance of success considering it isn't a ground up build of a monetized content community and perhaps, rebuild some of what was lost to Facebook. Not only that, they would be able to better handle the 'policing' of their community as they largely already have the mechanisms in place to do so and as they aren't decentralized, they don't face the challenges Steem may face. And of course, they can distribute widely and with precision as essentially the content to mine it has already been produced, the accounts are still there, just dormant.
Essentially, SMTs are designed for exactly this purpose, to monetize content communities and what better proof of concept would it be than to bring the fallen back from the dead? For very low investment costs, they could remodel their site to suit, declutter the environment and not only relaunch, but incentivize every user to come back and try MySpace with real value that empowers them and makes them investors in the platform, rather than as cattle to be milked like on Facebook.
I think it is pretty clear that users across all media are changing their habits and as information increases, they will realise more and more that their content has economic value that can be personally benefited from. Rather than social media, media becomes integrated into all levels of economic activity and provides a plethora of paths for all people to create various revenue streams to supplement dwindling employment opportunities in their local regions.
For Steem, as long as people are using SMTs, it doesn't matter if there are rival platforms because it isn't about being the only, it is about distribution of the tokens and the decentralized concepts.
Obviously I haven't thought though all the details or every facet of this but I thought it would be an interesting thought experiment to play around with for some people who are interested in the long awaited release of SMTs next March.
What do you think, could an SMT help MySpace reclaim some of its former glory?
Taraz
[ a Steem original ]
I will get to comments in the morning as it is after 4am here. :)
It could work, but it could also make it all about money, not loyalty. Either way it is worth a shot
Yes it could but since its model is centralized monetization through ads, it might be able to monetize the users and keep their own monetization separate.
This is a mind-blowing idea given the potential crossover this could create. The opportunity for them to establish a unique business model using the proof of brain concept would help get more engaging content there. The marketing potential would be great as they could sell the changes through a media blitz that could grab the attention of many media sources given the amount of attention spent recently on both social media and cryptocurrency themes. The challenges will be whether management of a centralized platform giving up control to their data as decentralization could make it impossible to censor content. Desperate times call for desperate measures so it could be something they could consider!
They don't need to decentralize, they just have to add a token layer. They would still be able to be assholes.
An SMT exists on the STEEM blockchain. There is no such thing as a centralized SMT unless the initial distribution is very lopsided. If MySpace decided to introduce an SMT of their own, they'd have to create a Steem account for each of their user. Of course, they could hard fork Steem and create a blockchain of their own.
They don't need to decentralize all control to users, they can maintain their centralized governance.
Yes, but the users won't be able to hold SMT tokens without having a Steem account. Do you mean that their SMT would be handled by having MySpace keep all the private keys? Or did you mean they'd they wouldn't be using a public blockchain at all but a centralized ledger?
Dunno, that is the point. They wouldn't want to give up control completely to users and they would likely want to keep much of their advertising model intact.
I'm far from understanding all this but it sounds pretty cool. As for my space I thought it died a long time ago. Hard to imagine their Signs of Life or even a heartbeat. Thanks for sharing
Yeah, lots of people think it died but apparently it is going 'strong' although more ghosty than it once was.
I think an SMT could definitely help MySpace to revitalize itself. That's the exact use case SMT's were envisioned to have in the Steem white paper.
It would be a massive and immensely interesting test case.
Didn't realise MySpace was still a thing. They may very well revive with a plan like that. Guess it depends on whether or not they believe in magic internet money? :)
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It is just a matter of time :)
rEgIsTeR oNe MiLLiOnS aCcOuNtS
You should do it before they announce it because they could airdrop without giving people an opportunity after. you should also consider what they might demand each account to fulfill to claim. have a million IDs to verify?
Amazing post .. This is so helpful information to all . Thanks for sharing @tarazkp
Upvoted.
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You got a 66.94% upvote from @ocdb courtesy of @tarazkp!