Myriad: The Next Generation Social Network
Octopus Network Showcase Day 2021
Octopus Network has recently launched a series of introductory videos to the Octopus Network and projects building on it. In one of the latest videos, CEO of Myriad, Jean-Daniel Gauthier gave an introduction on Myriad, a Web3 decentralised social network.
Myriad is a decentralised social platform where you can browse native content or content coming from mainstream Web2 social media. Myriad allows you to send any token, starting with stablecoins, to artists and content creators even if they are not on the platform yet. Once they have joined, they receive the tips and you get Myriad tokens as rewards.
“Myriad turns any content from Web2 social media accounts into substrates tipping wallets. Effectively, it means that Myriad bridges Web2 with Web3 and does it through incentives, rewards and monetisation.” -Jean-Daniel Gauthier
The problem of Current Social Media Platforms
As Barton Jenson, the Architect of Myriad explains:
“The problem with current social media platforms is that their incentives do not align with the incentives of their users. Social media orgs are interested in making money which means selling user data at the expense of the users who generate the data, and means to manipulate their speech on the platform to appease the advertisers that pay them and increasingly, to appeal political interests that pressure them.” -Barton Johnston
Back when social media was smaller, they had the realistic threat of users leaving their platform if they were interfering too aggressively but as they approached global market dominance this threat has significantly diminished.
The idea behind this system is to give users the tools to prevent experience crafting by the network operators and to put the incentives of the users and network operators back on the same page.
“Users are no longer held hostage to the network operators. Instead of only one network operator we have federations of network operators so there will always be one that respects your speech. And users have tools out of the box to choose how their experience is organised in a way that cuts out the common channels and network operators with typical influence to select what the user sees. That means that you use social media in the way that is most productive to you”.
The algorithm “shaping” the experience on Myriad is always available to users to consult and be changed in favour of a different one. User can even create their own. This provides a wide degree of control on how to control their media experience.
Decentralised Advertising On Myriad
Myriad has also created a system that puts in place a different kind of model for advertising:
“We developed an idea for decentralised advertising that features an incentive triangle. You have advertisers who are willing to pay to get their ads in, you have experienced creators who are configuring a feed that is subscribed to by the users, and if between you have an ads space and the users who maintain that.”
Creators choose what ads space they want to roll into their experience and then advertisers compete to have their ads accepted into the space . Advertisers need to maintain the quality of their space to maximize the value of their experience. So, a balance between the advertisers, creators, and users is incentivised.
How Incentivisation Works on Myriad
A major way in which Myriad is distributed is how users can give tips to a social media profile that does not yet exist on Myriad, and later if that user joins Myriad, they get the tips.
“Users that tip the accounts that join will receive a portion of tokens for that service. We are also incentivising the importing of content hosted on other networks to Myriad both by rewarding users for importing it and giving them extra reward when collecting tips on it. And can additionally earn by running a node too.”
The basic idea is that Myriad can send to other users, of any platform, cryptocurrencies in the form of tips. This incentivises them to join Myriad in order to collect the tips, and joining will allow those who incentivised them to be rewarded. Users can also monetise by importing content, receiving tips for the content, and by running a node.
The incentive mechanisms and structure put in place by Myriad makes sure that once the network will get started, all the participants involved will want to keep their engagement as the value and volume of Myriad grows.
Myriad Fosters Communities and Enhances Their Sovereignty
In mainstream social media platforms, users can create communities but are forced to abide by the platform’s rules. Myriad communities follow very different principles:
“Myriad leaves community hosting with federated nodes run by members of the public who have the choice over the kind of communities they will host. And while a community is hosted, it is subject to a democratic process between the owners of the token representing that community and is instantiated as a DAO.”
In this way, people remain in control of what they want to host and how their community is run, and are not subject to the dual sovereignty problem with a global platform owner.
Myriad’s Roadmap
Starting from June 2021, Myriad will introduce different features that will further enhance its structure and materialise the goals summarised in the image below.
If you are interested learning more about the token distribution and budget, and to have a preview of Myriad, check the last part of the video.
LaDevochka is a writer for 4NTS Guild. You can check out their Medium for more content or follow them on Twitter.
