After blockchain emerged as the core technology of the fourth industrial revolution, companies began to incorporate blockchain technology to their new social media platforms. STEEMIT led the game. STEEMIT is the first platform on which contents creators and curators receive proper compensation for their work. At first the system seemed perfect. In time, however, users with greater Steem Power dominated the compensation. The STEEMIT community turned into a place where only the fittest survived and profit was determined by Steem Power rather than the quality of contents.

STEEMIT is inconvenient in other ways as well. For example, it takes three to seven days to create a new ID. It is also impossible to change or recover a password. The password is issued in the form of a difficult-to-remember encrypted code
(e.g. P5K3aZvt6GNBP11XHoBtUaopJkUuAsyFqpb1TgtKyUCh7nTDFzpNz). If you forget your password, you cannot recover your account or Steem nor receive compensation. Contents that are harmful or violate copyrights cannot be deleted because it is impossible to delete or edit contents on STEEMIT.

New companies, such as TTC, Appics and UUNIO, emerged to solve STEEMIT’s shortcomings. Each platform appeals to users by advertising their strengths. Let’s learn more about these platforms that will lead the blockchain-based social media ecosystem.

Weight of Voting

Each platform applies a different voting weight.

In STEEMIT, voting power is determined by money. The value of one vote is determined by how much Steem Power (SP) you have. Profit is generated by receiving recommendation from ‘Whale’ users with high Steem Power. If you do not receive upvotes from these whales, compensation is substantially low. Also, since great curator compensation is only possible through upvotes from whales, posts by whales are always popular even if the content is not good. Competent postings by new users receiving fewer votes while mediocre postings by whale users are always popular. In other words, the weight of voting is hindering contents from becoming diverse and beneficial.

TTC decides on voting power based on reputation. Reputations range from 1 to 100 and change depending on the amount of user activity such are the number of registered contents, followers, visitations, reports, etc. The problem with this system is that it encourages selling and purchasing accounts. Since there are 100 levels of reputations, it is very difficult to raise the reputation by 1. Since the value of the account rises with the increase in reputation level, there is high possibility of account trading. Accounts sold this way are likely to be abused or used for advertisement purposes.

UUNIO, on the other hand, gives equal voting power to all. This reduces the possibility of abusing greatly. In order for a case of abusing to occur on UUNIO, a community of few thousands to tens of thousands of people must be involved. It is very easy to spot such a large size community abuse on the system. The compensation is not worth the cost and effort that goes into purchasing a UUNIO account and there is also high risk of regulation. Since each vote holds equal value, power will not be monopolized by a few users or lead to self-voting practice.

Compensation Period

All three platforms have the structure of generating greater profit through recommendation.

Two of the platforms, STEEMIT and TTC, however, have a profiting deadline of seven days and 24 hours, respectively. Contents on these platforms are shared and recommended by users but creators cannot receive any compensation after seven days or 24 hours. They retain the problem that previous blockchain-based social media have of the creator not generating profit.

Stanley Kubrick’s film 2001: A Space Odyssey inspired George Lucas to become a world renown film director. Many youths who dream of becoming a film director still watch Kubrick’s movie. Outstanding content transcends time.
A STEEMIT user posted a writing that was so popular that people still looked it up after 8 months. Many people still recommend and share his posting but the creator has earned nothing since day 7.

UUNIO will resolve the fundamental problem of previous platforms by getting rid of the compensation period. The creator’s contents will continue to be recommended and compensated even years after posting. This includes both everyday postings and professional writings. The fact that there is no expiration date to the compensation period will ensure the value of the contents and create an innovative system that no other platform was able to establish until now. This will help provide continued compensation to users.

Token Economics

One of the challenges of Token economics is ‘How to create supply and safeguard the value of the coin.’ Many companies have previously tried to create supply for their coins. The most effective way is to profit coin holders. People will buy coins to gain profit and reduce the supply of coins to raise its value. TataUFO’s TTC does not have any reasons to possess their coins. Since there is no reason to own a coin, users will cash out all the TTC they have gained through their activity on TataUFO. This lowers the value of TTC.

The main method of coin distribution is PoS (Proof of Stake). How it works is you distribute coins to master nodes that possess over a certain amount of coins in the form of interest to hold coin supply. Quantum and Neo are using the PoS system. STEEM adopted the Steem power system to raise the value of its coin. Steem Power is not listed on outside exchanges, making transaction possible only in the form of Steem. Changing Steem into Steem Power, on the other hand, is locking the value of Steem in the form of Steem Power. It takes 13 weeks to change Steem Power into Steem. STEEMIT grants power within the STEEMIT platform to those who hold high Steem Power.

UUNIO uses two types of encrypted currencies: UUNIO which will be listed on outside exchanges and UNIFul which will not. Like STEEMIT, exchanging UUNIO for UNIFul seals the value onto UNIFul and reduces the supply of UUNIO. Users are granted the right to give a different number of recommendations on contents depending on how much UNIFul token they possess. The user grade is determined by the sum of their activity amount on social media UUNIO and possession of UNIFul token. Each user receives an interest in UNIFul tokens depending on their grade. UUNIO reduces the supply of cryptocurrency and creates demand through the interest system and differentiated recommendation allocation.

Conclusion

Until now, users did not receive proper compensation for their contributions to Facebook and YouTube. With the advent of blockchain technology, users are now able to profit by using social media. Many blockchain companies are appealing their strengths in the social media market. Marketing compensation as a huge plus, blockchain-based social media is appealing greatly to both blockchain experts and general users. The ultimate goal of the blockchain technology is decentralization. The decentralization of contents, profits generated from contents and rights associated with them is in the making.

Social media blockchain is expected to become popularized first among various blockchain-based technologies. You are witnessing the warring states period of blockchain-based social media platforms. In the platform market, the winner takes it all. Only those that offer smart compensation and great user experience will survive the war. Keep an eye out on which blockchain social media will win to replace the existing social media platforms.