Creating a Humanist Blockchain Future #4: The Attention Economy with Ryan X Charles of Yours.org

Creating a Humanist Blockchain Future focuses on the intersection of:

• Effective Altruism (How can we do good?)
• Universal Basic Income (How can we allocate scarce capital?)
• The Attention Economy (How can we allocate scarce time?)
• Blockchain (What technology can we leverage?)

In this podcast (Youtube, Soundcloud, iTunes), we dive into the Attention Economy with Ryan X Charles, the co-founder of Yours.org, a blockchain-based content platform that uses LiteCoin to implement “Medium with a Paywall”. Show notes below:

Yours.org

Why Are You Working On The Attention Economy?

• Cryptocurrency on Reddit (2:30)
• Medium with a Paywall now possible previously non-existent microtransactions (4:00)
• Analogies to Rodin.io, 21.co (5:30)

Yours in Alpha and Dogfooding

• Update: Multiple posts and payments per day (7:30)
• “A New Art Form for the Internet”: Giveaway of bitcoin worth $1 to 10 people who breaks the code (9:00).
• Other Internet-Informed Storytelling sbnation.com/a/17776-football/, ncase.me, and pudding.cool (9:30)

Who Are Your Early Adopters?

• People who are transitioning into other forms of work. Discussion on self-Driving Cars, the Future of Work, and Steemit (12:00)

Why No Token?

• “In earlier crypto, using BitCoin/LiteCoin was much easier for users. Didn’t need ICO for fundraising.” (15:00)
• crowdraising.co (17:00)

Business Model

• Platform Cooperativism (18:00)
• 20% transaction fee, but decreasing over time. Held to this promise by emphasis of blockchain-based “non-rent seeking” mindset and more customer exit/voice in diminishing network effects. (20:00)
• Token-based financial incentives diminish network effects (21:00)

Incentivizing non-Filter Bubbles

• HiFromTheOtherSide (23:00)
• Ad-based incentives: ”Looking at the content is disconnected from the meaningfulness of the content.” (24:00)
• Civil (27:00)

Disincentivizing Trolling

• Paying for comments (29:00)
• r/place and how the scarcity of time incentivized cooperation (30:00)

Thanks to Keith Klundt, John Desmond, Colin Wielga, Harry Lindmark, John Lindmark, Veronica Stamats, Jacob Zax, Katie Powell, Jonathan Isaac, Ryan X Charles, Chris Edmonds, Ramsay Devereux, Ned Mills, Kenji Williams, David Long, Scott Levi, Peter Rodgers, Kenzie Jacobs, Jon Frechin and Kash Dhanda for supporting me on Patreon!

About Me: My name is Rhys Lindmark and I’m a social entrepreneur. I’m creating a humanist blockchain future by writing, speaking, and advising at the intersection of Effective Altruism, UBI, the Attention Economy, and Blockchain. I lead the Colorado chapters of Effective Altruism and the Blockchain for Social Impact Coalition. I’m an alumnus of Techstars Boulder 2015. Please reach out if you’d like to connect or have feedback! I’m curious about what you’re working on. You can support me on Patreon, follow me on Twitter, or connect on LinkedIn.

Disclaimer: I own less than $100 of any given cryptocurrency, so my monetary incentive is not directly aligned with Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.