Why we are building BOLT
I’ve always operated under the belief that access to information, education and entertainment was a universal right for everyone — and it is this universal right that gives us the ability to to climb up the socio-economic ladder. This was largely influenced by my personal experience running media and TV networks across emerging regions in Asia and Africa as a former broadcaster, and being touched by the stories on the ground by our everyday users.
The truth is this — there are vast segments of the global population that have been left out of the information highway.
Whether in price of access, or quality of content, there is a divide in bringing best in class digital services to emerging markets.
These include:
- Premium content (e.g. live sports, live news) are primarily only available on expensive paid platforms such as pay-tv/cable networks, which is beyond the income reach of the masses.
- Digital service providers are utilising less than efficient third party payment gateways that are not built for global scalability
- Telcos are great to work with for data bundling deals, but implementing a telco-by-telco approach for their proprietary payment gateways (deducted through the user mobile wallet) is often less efficient, less scalable, and more expensive.
It is public knowledge that substantial amounts of information available on the net may be free, but there is a catch.
- Information may not always be reliable or fact-checked — and it is then a frightening thought that there is a plethora of information that are shaping hearts and minds in a negative way.
- Existing social media and video content platforms, within their centralised business models, provide their services in exchange for user data which is then sold to advertisers. Facebook had a revenue base of $11 Billion in the first quarter of 2018. YouTube does not publish its figures, but its parent Google (specifically the advertising business) had a revenue base of $26 Billion in the same period. These companies exist to provide advertisers with access to users. The profits they earn can be considered as the value of the data they collect and “sell” less the cost of the services they provide. Clearly, their vast super-profits are an indication that the value of your data is substantially greater than the value of the services they provide.
- They are unable to mobilise the community meaningfully enough to self censor and moderate to community-determined standards.
In short, they exist to profit from their users, not to serve them.
The decision to develop BOLT on the blockchain is driven by a very simple idea — to empower the community to be more involved in the very ecosystem that is meant to serve them.
The Team at BOLT saw the blockchain as a way to allow for more independence, transparency and positive engagement in the media ecosystem. We felt the responsibility to use our collective knowledge across traditional and digital media to bridge the gap between consumers and the independent producers of video content, games and future services — particularly for the emerging markets where we have significant experience in.
We see an environment eventually where the operation of the smart contracts are so simple and seamless that all participants do not even see the operation of these contracts — whether you are an independent video producer, a broadcaster, or an everyday user in Indonesia.
BOLT is run by a diverse and qualified crew of digital strategists, venture builders and media veterans
The operational experience of the BOLT Team also made us realise the importance of creating value and liquidity for our community of contributors. Hence , we adopted a pragmatic approach of partnering with best in class business, technology and content partners to maximise value and liquidity quickly, including building on the Zilliqa blockchain, and listing the BOLT token on Switcheo Exchange.
In the BOLT Team you have a group of passionate operators that are looking at every facet to ensure we deliver success — whether it is in operating a successful model, to having the best-in-class blockchain partners, on-boarding exciting content partners, to maintaining our level of operating governance to deliver value to our contributors consistently.
And this is just the beginning.
—
Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave us a few claps on Medium if you liked it! Drop us a note at enquiry [at] bolt.global for suggestions on what you would like to read next.
⚡️ Join us on Telegram
⚡️ Follow us on Twitter
