Consentium — Platform for Communities
Overview
- Total Supply: 240M CSM Tokens
- For Sale: 168M CSM Tokens
- ICO Price: USD$0.25 per CSM Token
- Soft Cap: USD$10M
- Hard Cap: USD$42M
- Pre-Sale Bonus: 10%
- Public Sale: 20 April 2018 — 30 April 2018
- Raised to Date: USD$20M
Introduction
Chat apps with crypto support is nothing new, with decentralised app focused Status, a high profile ICO which raised USD$100M in 2017. or decentralised messaging app e-Chat. Consentium, however managed to reinvent the wheel.
A chat app is the bread and butter of smartphone users. Unlike in the past where users have stuck to one core chat app, we now have multiple chat apps installed within our phones each for a particular use case. Such as WhatsApp for close family and friends, Slack for work and Discord for our online gaming groups; user behaviour has since changed to adopt chat apps that caters specifically to the different purpose rather than trying to force fit a generic chat app for specific purposes.
Consentium comes in the space where it allows content creators or influential individuals to build groups and monetise their followings. Group creators are able to facilitate transactions and get a cut of all transactions that happen on the Consentium platform, they can then in turn reward their following with a portion of the transaction fees collected. Consentium calls this the Chat Community Monetisation Model or CCM for short.
Technology
Encrypted Messaging
Chats are encrypted via SHA-256 like Telegram, though it is not fully decentralised, it still uses the same End-to-End Encryption technology that WhatsApp uses. Robust against man-in-the-middle attacks. The real world application for decentralisation of chat messages would be impractical too as the blockchain technology is simply far too slow.
Conversions and Transacting
The app will allow storage of multiple cryptocurrencies. At launch, it will have support for BTC, ETH and their own CSM tokens. There will be Instantaneous conversion between currencies from Fiat to BTC, ETH or their Consentium coins, I’m assuming this will be a centralised system, much like how exchanges operate.
The key part is user adoption for these services, from fiat to crypto it has to be seamless, easy to understand for the user. Personally I think the Coinbase mobile app does this very well, converting between currencies effortlessly and breaks down fees pretty transparently and it looks like Consentium has drew inspiration from the Coinbase UI, and has pretty similar user experience.
Chat Community Monetisation Model (CCM) Engine
There will be a 1% transaction fee irregardless of transaction amount, this 1% is split 0.5% each for both transferor and transferee. The fee then goes into a redistribution pool, dispensed to community creators and users on a monthly basis.
There are gamification aspects to encourage active participation, as well as advocating for a trusted community. The reputation system will encourage community leads to not just focus on quantity, but quality groups, leading to less exploits and gaming of the CCM Engine.
Community managers can set the mechanics of the reward and control rewards being awarded to group members. Depending on the type of members they’d like to attract, they can adjust their reward system accordingly.
Industry Applications
Premium Groups
Currently cryptocurrency traders have closed groups that requires payments monthly for access to trading signals and educational content. Consentium would be able to cater and facilitate payments for such groups that require a paid subscription. Group creators will be able to manage and handle them much easier, and at the same time reward more active users that contribute to conversations. Similarly we might see the same for other interest groups develop just like how influencers build businesses around their followings. It’s like YouTube, being a platform that allows monetisation for these content creators, they will create content and build their followings from there.
Locked Content
Anyone can create content that is “locked”, only to be unlocked by paying an amount set by the content creator. I.E a video or visual that cannot be seen unless the users pays to unlock them. This is a traditional paywall model that many publications have been doing such as Harvard Business Review and The Economist.
Bot Monetization
Like Telegram and Facebook Messenger, Consentium will allow an API for developers to build bots that users can interface through with chat. Businesses can allow bots to service customers directly on their business groups and perform transactions through the bots.
TL;DR: Why Will It Work?
The business model Consentium goes for is a system that propagates itself. Much like platforms like YouTube, group owners are incentivised to bring and build their following on the platform. In fact they will be spending to attract users to their groups now that they can monetise them in the future, allowing businesses to be created around Consentium. Think of all the content distribution networks and businesses that started from the haydays of YouTube.
