Huddln is a decentralized app where users control their own content. The protocol is built on ethereum+distributed storage to allow users to share their content between apps and give the control back to users. The protocol consists of user features such as staked content monetization and deposited events. Huddln focuses on user incentivization at the forefront and ownership as its foundation.
The Identified Problems
We identified that current social media platforms have data privacy issues, lack of monetization, and misaligned incentives. Current social media platforms don’t allow users to retain possession of their own data, which leads to misuse of that data.
- Misaligned Incentives — Most social media platforms are not made to incentivize personal branded content. There is the possibility of sponsorships, but those are often limited to users with a large following. We saw an opportunity to allow all users of our platform to make money off of their own content.
- Lack of Monetization — There are cases where incentives do actually align, but when this happens, there is still a massive problem with users being unable to gain any money from their personal branded content. Some sites may encourage upvoting and tipping, but this does not provide a steady streamlined income for each post a user creates without having to heavily invest in online marketing.
- Data Privacy Issues — Facebook and other major social media sites have the ability to sell user data to the highest bidder without having to give the user any compensation for the use of their data. Additionally, even if revenue is distributed, it is generally the minimum allotted amount. With Huddln, you never have to worry about a company collecting your data. You are in control of all your own information, and it is yours to do with as you wish.
The Huddln Features
Once we found the core issues and solution, we took our findings and created innovative strategies that are implemented on the Huddln platform. Our core features include:
- Multi-layered Ecosystem — The site uses a distributed storage system so you can share your content easily with other users while retaining complete ownership of it. We ultimately strive to maintain a decentralized ethos, and believe a gradual shift to a distributed storage system builds a strong foundation.
- Huddles — Huddles are a mechanism to coordinate funding across a group of peers for a specific event. Whether it’s something casual like a flag football game or something more serious like a business conference, Huddln’s use of smart contracts will allow funding to be collected and distributed in an autonomous fashion relative to the consensus of the group as a whole. Huddles effectively serve as a deposit system.
- Encrypted messaging — Huddln incorporates encrypted messaging to provide our users with peace of mind that their messages are always protected and will never have the potential to be leaked to a third party. With this in mind, we hope to encourage our users to always speak freely about their opinions, knowing their private messages will not be censored.
- Content Staking — We designed Huddln to assist our users with content staking and shared tips with ETH, allowing you to monetize your posts and events when you want to.
What makes Huddln different?
Unlike other decentralized social media platforms, our goal is to create a system of smart contracts & distributed storage to allow users to abstract their data away from the apps they use. This allows users’ data to travel with them to different platforms, and removes the trust required when using current social media platforms. Furthermore, Huddln is a media network focused on monetization of content through blockchain. Huddln combines ownership principles with real market values.
Conclusion
Huddln is creating a social platform to enable users to not only bring content back under their ownership but to also utilize that content in unique ways. We understand that content ownership alone will not drive adoption, and recognize that we must also create unique, fun features to attract everyday social media users. Content monetization can drive user engagement and create economies at scale when creators are empowered.
Glossary
Etherum: Ethereum is a decentralized platform that runs smart contracts. https://blog.coinbase.com/a-beginners-guide-to-ethereum-46dd486ceecf
Staking: From the user perspective, staking is a way of being rewarded for participating in the network ecosystem, it could be compared to interest savings in a traditional bank.
https://www.ledger.com/staking
Distributed system: A Distributed Storage System (DSS) is an advanced form of the “Software-Defined Storage.
https://storpool.com/blog/what-is-distributed-storage-system
https://yourstory.com/2019/04/distributed-data-storage-systems-blockchain
