Driven By Doubt

The best products don’t just provide solutions but, rather, introduce doubt. Doubt as to why things are the way they are and why they cannot be different. Doubt in the process and technology that currently exists and doubt that something better couldn’t be built. Doubt as a driver is a powerful thing, and one that pushes us forward every single day at Po.et.

At Po.et, we doubt the current media ecosystem at large. As someone who has rebuilt within the architecture of the current ecosystem multiple times, the problem isn’t within the walls but within the foundational framework itself. The systems of operation are not meant for the future-thinking generations building the next wave of media properties and platforms. And that not only stifles our ability to move quickly, but turns away the thinkers that can strengthen and reconstruct the ethics and values of what a modern creative ecosystem needs to be.

At Po.et, we’re setting the stage for the next chapter of the creator and platform relationship. This narrative will flip from creator’s saying “I want to create for platform” to them saying “platform wants to create for me.” Advertisers and consumers/subscribers are becoming more creator specific, which means less emphasis on platform as brand and more on creator as brand. The future is creator as brand.

This realization is already happening. The platforms have taken full advantage of the management of creators and have recognized the value they bring for the creators themselves. This will slowly drift into media companies as more begin to realize that the battle effort shouldn’t be toward identifying the faults of their competitors, but emphasizing the value that they bring themselves.

And this isn’t just on the creator side. The value and ways of driving revenue for creators through advertising and subscriptions are all driven by wanting to own a message directly. A relationship directly with the creator that’s interoperable, regardless of platform. The revenue driving tactics no longer want to be partial to one platform or brand. They want to own the creator and content wherever that creator and content live. No one wants platform direct. It’s now creator direct.

This new role for media companies and creators, when recognized, will be massive. Media companies now serve not only as curators of information but representatives of the talent they make public. They now can manage the reputations of creators and functions like where they should be distributed and who they should partner with. Reputable indications as to the value they bring versus that of a social platform. The opportunities are endless.

This provides a monolithic shift in the opportunity for creators and the restraints of the companies that are currently working as hard as possible to best represent them. Now it becomes less an argument about media being saved from the duopoly, ad spend, crypto, tipping and new revenue, and more about the role of media companies in the next wave of the web. Manage creators, help creators become reputable, successful and cultivate it as a brand. Together, this pushes us into the next economy for creators. A better web for all.

Here’s a Quick Update on What We’re Up to at Po.et:

September has been a busy month — both for me in my travels across Asia and for the Po.et engineering team, which marched steadily closer toward completion of mainnet.

I spent much of this month bouncing between different cities in Asia to participate in events on blockchain technology and media.

I started in Shanghai, where I took part in a meetup on the topic of media’s role in the blockchain industry. Note the order of words in that sentence: We were talking about what media means for blockchain, not vice versa. The distinction is important because, to date, much of the conversation about the intersection of blockchain technology and media has centered on how blockchains can disrupt traditional media. That’s worth talking about, but so is the impact of media on blockchain companies.

I also spoke in Shanghai at the Blockchain Global Summit. Along with David Bailey, CEO of BTC Inc, I discussed media, blockchain technology and online freedom.

From Shanghai, I moved onto the INFORM News Media Summit in Sydney. You can catch an interview that I gave to Sky Media about how I see media companies of the future leveraging emerging technologies (and what that has to do with Po.et) here and here.

You can also check out a podcast I did recently for the September 18 episode of Adlandia. Laura, Alexa and I really dive into what blockchains means for all creators and driving a new economy. It’s a fun listen and one that is extremely relevant to Po.et and its initiatives.

84 Percent of the Way to Mainnet

While I was busy engaging with audiences in Asia, the Po.et engineering team was hard at work bringing us closer to mainnet release. Its accomplishments are reflected in the fact that, as of September 17, mainnet progress was 84 percent complete, compared to 75 percent in August.

That’s an impressive statistic, although it reveals only part of the picture. As Eric Elliott explained recently on the Po.et blog, the burndown rate has also stabilized, which is a healthy sign that the engineering team has achieved a steady rhythm toward completing all of the remaining tasks required before mainnet release. I encourage you all to dig deeper within Eric’s post to learn more.

To Mainnet and Beyond

The future of Po.et is bright. The mainnet launch is the first major engineering milestone to legitimizing the work and efforts that go into building not just a new company, but a culture.

For the world as a whole, mainnet completion will bring us significantly closer to building what we call the “verifiable web” (see: blog post). You can read the post for a full breakdown of how the verifiable web works (and, if you want, even break out your bash terminal and follow along with Eric as he explains the intricacies of hashing and determinism).

But here’s what the verifiable web means in a nutshell: reputation.

We need to build a reputable layer on the web for both creators and consumers to better understand the ingredients behind what they consume, when they consume it. It’s a web of transparency, openness and most importantly, trust. Po.et is about creating a culture, shaping a world that treats content and creators in a more equitable way and being a leader in a change for media that is, ultimately, inevitable.

Thank you all.