We Made It, Yours
LAUNCH! Captain, we have lift off! We did it! Following a very well-paced and exciting 48hours, we made it to the finish line. It’s Sunday, my belly is currently filled with joy, and The Waffle Roost’s Chicken & Waffles sandwich.
We pushed a working version of Yours for judging to Github last night (isn’t it amazing what Red Bull and junk food can create in 48hrs?). We laughed, we cried (at how good the food was) — and we think we’ve created something truly amazing.
What we originally sought to do was to construct a way for users to be able to monetize their content in a fun and engaging way. A way that not only felt natural, w/ a simple Reddit style interface (Ryan did work at Reddit, so makes sense).
But, we wanted to take it a bit further than that. So, we built it atop the Datt module that allows for decentralized P2P networking (this part will be finished in coming months) and for our new system to take bitcoin payments. Ryan actually worked on BitPay’s “Bitcore” Javascript implementation. So, it’s extremely web friendly and works right from a browser. Decentralized, fast, and with a simple method to monetize without the need for outside financial institutions like credit card processors and banks; the less dependency on these authorities, the more freedom we grant our users.
The secret to the sauce, however, lies in WHY you’re using Yours in the first place. When you post content to Yours its not just creating another post on a message board, you are essentially making a bid that others will love your content too. Let me explain a bit more.
If someone loves your content too, they hit the nice little “Endorse” button. A pleasant way of saying, “Hey, I love this content, and I believe in it, take my money”. That’s all well and good. Services like ChangeTip already have a way for you to tip good content and reward it accordingly. But, we go a bit further and add some other fun incentives.
When you make an “Endorsement” you are entered into a pool of other people who also enjoyed that content. And, as others continue to back that content, something interesting happens. You may soon realize your original investment has returned to your wallet, but with an added bonus.
In this initial implementation, and for the scope of the hackathon, we went with a simplistic model to reward content creators.
An example would be: You enjoy a specific post on Yours, so you
“Endorse” a post for 5000bits (bitcoin). You’re the first person to endorse this post, so you’re taking a chance at hoping others find it worthwhile as well; but you also wish to reward the individual that share the content. That 5000bits is then paid out to the content creator so they make money on their contribution. From there, each subsequent person will pay 5000bits + and a a 2nd additional 5000bits in order to Endorse a post. The first 5000bits goes straight back to the content creator, and the second 5000bits is then randomly given to one of the last 2 previous indivials who “Endorsed” the post. This randomization alsos adds a fun element of surprise when you’re paid back for your Endorsement, and then you pose an opportunity to be paid back again, if you are randomly selected following the next Endorsement.
We don’t hold your money, ever. That’s a big responsibilty. So payouts are made as endorsements happen, and you control your wallet on client side. This allows for the most safety of users funds, and lets the bitcoin network handle all the fandangled security stuff, because that’s what it’s great at :).
This model was chosen for the scope of the weekend again, and in the future the secret of this sauce would be to algorithmically adjust the endorsement cost, and dynamically adjust how many people are paid out depending on the virality of a post. Thats the amazing part about a system like this. As the Datt Network is finished with development you’ll have a completely decentralized and P2P system to host this content, that is uncensorable and immutable from anywhere in the world. This ensures that everyone will see the same great content — from all over the world.
Imagine how large and how diverse a community that is P2P and decentralized all over the world can be? The content that could be shared and discussed would persist on a global forum where we learn together, and the same time have fun and make money, too. By utilizing a monetary incentive we maintain the contents integrity, and fight to reduce spam (spamming would cost $ on Yours, and would only benefit others so it’s really disincentivized).
The complexity and power of how this system will allow for greater content monetization will only continue to grow as more developers come aboard and allow for the further growth of the Datt Network backend, and Yours.
Want to give a huge shoutout to Anupam and all his sweet sweet backend skills; Willy for his contributions to Datt module and moral support/coding support and coming in the clutch from San Jose; Paul for handling the online communications through the Slack and our online channels for everyone keeping up to the date with the project; and also Robert Schwentker and Jeff Flowers for giving us motivation and confidence in our ideas.
And remember; we want to empower you to take content created by you, and make it Yours.
We invite you to join the Slack at http://datt-slackin.herokuapp.com and follow @DattNetwork and @YoursNetwork on Twitter.
