ONO White Paper: A Social Network Launching on EOS

onosocial (54) in ono • 7 years ago (edited)

This article was originally published by us on Medium: https://medium.com/@ONOsocial/ono-white-paper-e33102d3aad5

Chapter One

Brief Introduction

1.1 Principles

1.2 Pain Points

1.3 User Demand

1.4 ONO’s Solutions

Chapter Two

ONO DAPP

2.1 ONO Product Architecture

2.2 ONO Product System

Chapter Three

Technical Framework

3.1 Status Authentication System

3.2 Content Storage System

3.3 Consensus Mechanism and Incentive Mechanism

3.4 End-to-End Encrypted Instant Messaging

3.5 App Open Platform
3.6 Advertising Algorithm

Chapter Four

Economic System

4.1 The Total Amount and Distribution of ONOT

4.2 ONOT, a certificate of value

4.2.1 What is a value certificate? A story about the Chinese ginger.

4.2.2 Adding and destroying ONOT

4.3 ONOT — free flow pass within the social media network

4.3.1 Humanity’s Social Gold Mine
4.3.2 Application and circulation of ONOT
4.3.3 Feasibility analysis of ONOT circulation
4.4 OP (ONO POWER)

Chapter Five

ONO advertising system

5.1 ONO advertising model

5.1.1 ONO’s unique advertising model — the advertiser

5.1.2 ONO’s unique advertising model — content creators

5.1.3 ONO’s unique advertising model — user

5.2 Achieving and continuously operating of the advertising system

5.2.1 The income distribution of the advertising system

5.2.2 Formula
5.3 ONOT value added support based on the advertisement system

Chapter Six

ONO Partner Mechanism

6.1 Keynote Partners

6.2 Construction Partners

6.3 CommunityPartners

6.4 Community Volunteers

6.5 Super Partners

Chapter Seven

Common Programme

Chapter Eight

Development Plan

Chapter Nine

Challenges and Strategies

Chapter Ten

Core Team

Chapter Eleven

Investment Organizations and Partners

Chapter One

Brief Introduction

ONO is a social network based on blockchain technology which focuses on the value of attention and offers a free, decentralized social platform to a new generation of users.ONO believes in the value of attention.

As far as ONO is concerned, there exists many valuable human social activities within a social media ecoystem and ONO recognizes the inherent value of both the supply-side and demand-side of human cognitive and social energy.
ONO believes in equality. As far as ONO is concerned, everybody is born equal in personality, so the ways to earn rewards and gain attention in social platforms shall also be equal.

1.1 Principles

The internet gave birth to the large-scale private social platforms including Facebook, Twitter, WeChat and Weibo. In these platforms which are controlled by centralized companies, many millions of users are contained within them. The platforms manage the users and create all the rules about the content posting policies of the platform and they siphon off vast amounts of wealth which are generated not by them, but by the content creators. In Q3 of 2017 the revenue of Facebook reached $10.3 billion USD, 98% of which was from advertsing. [1.1] Content creators, who are the only contributors to Facebook’s data, gain nothing of this $10.3 billion USD. ONO plans to establish adecentralized social network based on the principles of freedom, equality and social public governance, in which, the value of attention is properly defined and the content creators can fully reap the true rewards of the value they create.

As far as ONO is concerned, attention and time are the most precious resources in future society and also are the resources most valued by the ONO community. The social media content placed within the community has more value than the content by itself. In addition, the time and energy that was spent by creators also is considered part of the overall value of the content. The power of users' attention directly impacts the value of the content; hence, the attention of the users will be economically rewarded as well as the content creators.

In 2017, the quantity of blockchain technology and digital currency users grew in an exponential way. The number of active digital wallet users have increased from 5 million at the beginning of 2017 to the current 20 million. Additionally, users with interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency also grew 500% in the past year [1.2.] The exponentially increasing number of users reflects the massive user demand for blockchain solutions. The sudden popularity of CryptoKitties [1.3] ushered in a turning point for a new blockchain golden age.

1.1 Q3 Financial Report Illustrations of Facebook in 2017 http://tech.qq.com/a/20171102/007691.htm?qqcom_pgv_from=aio
1.2 Getting the result by observation from Google Trends tools http://trends.google.com
1.3 CryptoKitties https://baike.baidu.com/item/Cryptokitties/22251991?fr-aladdin

1.2 Pain Points

Since the blockchain came into being, the “trust mechanism” has been replaced by the “consensus mechanism” and the “encrypted algorithm” gradually, which is why the blockchain is widely and warmly welcomed. Hence, the central nodes must adopt the trust mechanism. Additionally, a centralized management structure must be applied towards all related businesses, but this might lead to the overwhelming power of central nodes and give rise to a series of corruption problems.

In current centralized social platforms, the same problems might occur, which could harm the interests of users and become problematic issues. ONO not only takes into consideration the problems inherent in centralized hierarchies, but also takes into consideration the many and varied failed experiments caused by boatloads of uncontrolled factors in totally decentralized organizations. That’s why ONO has decided to add a little top-down wisdom into a bottom-up system, in order to correct the mistakes and uncontrolled factors in the bottom-up system.

First, Deluge of Low-quality Content

Insufficient Incentives

The centralized platforms siphon off the vast majority of the social energy and attention which is created by content creators and platform users. Furthermore, the lack of incentives for users to generate high-quality content, worsens the situation of lack of drive for content creators, which results in the loss of high- quality content and exceptional users.
Example: a large amount of internet celebrities are unsatisfied with the realization of this insufficient incentive condition. Therefore, the loss of internet celebrities continues on.

For example, in 2017, some bad events occurred in Zhihu. Wukong Q&A decided to create an affiliation with www.toutiao.com and signed contracts with many former internet celebrities in Zhihu. It’s worth mentioning that the price for www.toutiao.com to hunt and employ these former internet celebrities in Zhihu is very low [1.4.]

Bad Money Drives Out Good People

In most centralized content-based platforms, data flow is the only criterion to define the value of the network; and the rigid demand for the long-term development of the content-based platforms is neglected, which gives rise to boatloads of clickbait, sensationalist headline writers and vulgar content.
For example, Bai Jiahao, UC, of www.toutiao.com and other WeChat official accounts are despised by users because of sensational headline writers or vulgar content. [1.5].

Second, Insufficient Safety and Lack of Care For Users

Insufficient Safety

In centralized social platforms, the safety of the users’ information cannot be guaranteed and the users’ information is at risk of being stolen. Some platforms even take advantage of the users’ data for massive financial gains.
Case: Each year, the information from over 300 million users is sold on the black market. The information is so detailed that it can be obviously shown to have come from various social media platform [1.6.]

1.4 Public Opinion Monitoring Report on “War for Talents” Event between Wukong Q&A and Zhihu http://www.iimedia.cn/55436.html
1.5 omment on “Sentimental Headline Writers” by Media for Party Affairs: Criticizing “Go to Sleep with You by Crossing Big Parts of China"

Restricted Freedom

The centralized platforms, via centralized algorithms, completely control the distribution of content, and siphon off the social energy for financial gain. Ordinary users will never be listed in the “hot search” or “trending topic” even if they produce quality content. Unless users pay promotional fees, they will face restricted exposure and visibility. Some platforms are even manipulating public opinion with “zombie” users who write fake responses, or controlling and restricting the activities of legitimate users [1.7.]

The centralized platforms conduct blackbox operations, ban users at will, and arbitrarily handle the accounts and content of users without any reason, for which, the users cannot safeguard their legal rights [1.8.]
Case: more than 90% users in Weibo’s most-searched hashtags (with most usage rate) are stars and internet celebrities who are signed with Weibo. However, if a star account with over 10 million fans does not purchase robotic users to write fake posts, the likes under a single Weibo post will be under 300. So, what’s the real network flow for the most searched hashtag? [1.9].

1.6 Shocking: Data of 600 Million Users are Sold and Circulating in Black Market http://new.p2peye.com/article-486870-1.html.
1.7 Any Solution for Restriction of Flow in Weibo? http://www.zhihu.com/question/54411956
1.8 Kuaishou Angrily Dissing Weibo for Kuaishou Official Weibo Being Banned to Post for Seven Days: Not Simple Behind
http://www.techweb.com.cn/internet/2017-05025/2528464.shtml
1.9 Uncovering Secrets: Secret Dirties of Weibo Water Army that You Don’t Know http://www.sohu.com/130392581.465313
Third, Sense of Belonging and Sense of Participation.

Lack of Sense of Belonging and Participation

In the platforms, such as Weibo, WeChat, www.toutiao.com and Zhihu, the relationships between the platforms and the users are relatively separated and isolated. The roles between them are opposite to each other, therefore, a conflict of interest always occurs.

Fourth, questions shall be more valued than answers

The progress of science not only enriches our knowledge, but also expands our sense of curiosity. While forging in new knowledge, the progress of science also triggers more questions. When artificial intelligence keeps on storing and evolving the future of knowledge, it can be predicted that besides answers, the computers could give you nothing. Good questions are sparser than good answers.

Pain Points of Content Creators Unable to Monetize Content

Squeezing Profits

In many centralized social media content platforms, content creators cannot earn rewards, and the profits made by the network flow are completely absorbed by the platforms.

In centralized social media, only the top users can truly benefit financially from the network flow in other channels. Most ordinary users who are enhancing the market value of the platform are unable to gain any profit.

Complicated and Non-transparent Profit-earning Procedures

Even people in We-Media who can monetize their content will face a number of problems in centralized platforms, such as non-transparent prices and extremely complicated trading procedures. In fact, content managers for internet celebrities in centralized social media platforms have to use an exploitative system to gain advertising revenues. Most managers adopt this exploitative method, so the profits are actually quite small [2.0.]

Example: the offer of an essay given to an internet celebrity in Zhihu is 3000 RMB; however, the third-party organization and the service provider will charge a fee of more than 10,000 RMB, thus the third-party companies gain high commissions.

Pain Points of Developers

High Distribution and Promotion Fees

In the current distribution markets for software app platforms, developers will pay high fees to release their software into these app stores. The high fees will further squeeze the profits from excellent small and medium-sized developer teams, which results in them earning almost nothing. Example: The mobile app market platforms have a high fee commission structure for developers. 30% to 50% of the app revenues go into the pockets of Tencent and Apple App Stores. [2.0]
Also, the App Stores might ask for legal documentation for the software. Additionally, the platforms will charge extra fees for publicity and promotion.

2.0 The False Annual Income of 10 Million RMB for An Internet Celebrity by Advertisements: They Earn Just A Little Actually. http://tech.163.com/1001/07/C29C59BE00097U7R.html

1.3 User Demand

High-Quality Content

In the ONO social network, behavior of the users will define the value, and guarantee the quality of content. In the meantime, the incentive mechanism within ONO will promote a continuous production of high-quality content and attract more users, who will continue with the production of more high-quality content, thus forming a synergistic and healthy feedback cycle.

Safety and Free Social Experience

The data of ONO will be stored in the blockchain. It is a self-governed blockchain social network DApp, free from the corruption problems generated by centralized platforms. The algorithm of ONO will compute the personal preferences to predict behaviors of users, in order to prioritize the individual preferences of the users. ONO will notify users of the likes by his/her friends that they focused on but which they are not aware of. It can even recommend to these users some content that the users dislike right now but might want to take a look at in the future.

The hot search and incentive algorithms of ONO are totally open-source and open to the public, which is indicative of fairness. In the network, all users can experience complete safety and freedom.

Demand for Equality and Respect

To gather a large number of users in the platform is the core of community culture. The preferences and attention of users foster the culture of the ONO social network. Equality and respect are not an empty promise in the ONO community. The value of attention of each user can be reasonably quantified, and the users can gain profits in the shared community network by ONOT virtual goods.

Needs of Content Creators

Simple, Transparent and Effective Profit-Sharing Mechanism

In ONO, if any user releases any high-quality content, ONO will automatically distribute profits via the POC algorithm, and the users can directly be rewarded ONOT, without any other operation. ONO will share profits with all users in the social network. The users can continuously gain the profits generated.

Needs of Developers

ONO will have free or extremely low issuance sub-accounts, low commission and constant developer support within the network.

The relationship between ONO and the third-party development teams within the platform is symbiotic. The developers building in the ONO platform will become an integral part of the ONO social network system. They will build the prosperous social ecosystem together with all the users in the social network.

The third-party DApps must use ONOT for payments, to provide more use cases for ONOT and also to provide liquidity for ONOT. In the meanwhile, ONO will also continuously offer network support to great DApp developer teams.
In the first year, ONO will not charge any distribution fee; then the distribution fee will be progressively increased in the next four years from 5% to 25% and then fixed at 20%, which is far lower than the average level in the industry.

1.4 ONO’s Solutions

The underlying philosophy of the ONO social network is to combine core social values with the original vision of the creation of the internet. The concepts of freedom, equality, social public governance and diversity are the healthy components of a diversified social networking ecosystem. Starting in 2014, the ONO team started creating Research and Development (R&D) products. The first of which was ERA, the which created a value-based social network, and then CryptoDogs based on Ethereum. All these social networks we built, successfully met our goals.

The ONO platform realizes that in order to establish a decentralized social network, firstly, it needs to protect and respect the three main interests of users: equal dignity, equal rights and reasonable profits; secondly, it shall provide easy-to-use and enjoyable product experiences which will exceed all expectations.

ONO replaces the centralized and exploitative “ownership” business model with an ONOT blockchain-based social network rich in virtual products in order to balance the economic benefits of content creators with the users who give their attention and the platform provider. It provides a solid, highly principled foundation for the construction of a decentralized, community co-governance and diversity-centric social network.

ONO believes that to solve the above-mentioned user pain points, a complete content ecosystem needs to be based on common goals, along with and a virtual commodity economic system. With a variety of symbiotic mechanisms these two independent ecologies will create a continuous feedback loop within the consensus and developer ecosystem.

Content Ecosystem: Reputation Mechanism

The reputation mechanism is the most important mechanism in the ONO ecosystem. In order to guarantee that a high-quality ecosystem can be established, ONO creates a reliable assessment mechanism, to punish the users who conduct evil behavior, such as destruction and harassment. The reputation mechanism will be applied in the media content system and referendum system.

In the content system, if the content released by a particular user is liked, reposted, commented on and shared, the reputation of the user will go up; if not, the reputation of the user will go down. The reputation fluctuates according to the quality of content released by the users. The content released by users with high reputations will be first put into the recommended zone. When the reputation of a user falls dramatically, all content released by this user will be collapsed and other people will not be able to see the content.

In the referendum system, users will assess whether the execution results of proposal executors comply with expectations and will make the final evaluation of executors. The executors are able to offer high-quality services and will also accumulate their reputations step-by-step. The proposals of these executors in other executing referendum will be preferentially displayed. However, in the case of the executors breaching the contract or whose executing results could not reach the standards, their reputation will be undermined. When their reputations are undermined to a certain extent, the executors’ projects will be collapsed and they will be unable to participate in the competitive bidding.

Distribution mechanism

The distribution of content in ONO is combined with users’ behavioral assessment and reputation mechanism. All activities of users such as reading, reposting, replies, shares, likes and dislikes of content will be recorded. Ultimately, all this data will be combined with the reputation mechanism, and open rules will be adopted to evaluate the quality of content. The high-quality content will be shown in the homepage of the network. The feature of real-time fluctuations of reputation gives users a transparent way to operate in the network, thus guaranteeing the healthy development of content ecosystem.

Incentive mechanism

With an open sourced algorithmic incentive mechanism (see 4 for details), ONO encourages users to create high-quality content, participate in platform building, be active in the social network and earn token rewards. Third-party developers can also develop mini apps based on the ONO open platform to provide diversified experiences for users and earn ONOT benefits. The entire token ecosystem will utilize smart contract to establish openness and transparency and also to guarantee the interests of all creators.

Consensus Ecosystem — Referendum (See 2.2–9 for Details)

In order to establish equal rights, the philosophy of ONO is to provide an equal and continually amended and developed “Common Programme” system. Furthermore, all users can equally participate in the proposal and voting model. It will be composed of sharing rights and interests equally with all participants and also the prosperity of the ecosystem will be a shared common goal among users, platform developers and content creators.

The referendum is one of the most important components of the ONO social network. It expresses the goals of freedom, equality and social public governance as well as reinforces ONO’s guiding principle: “The interests of the users are more important than anything else”. In the referendum, all ONO users with unique digital identities can publish proposals for the ecosystem’s infrastructure, platform management and dispute resolution matters. The premise of the continually amended and improved “Common Programme” is based on consensus among the people in the entire network. The proposals will consist of fund-raising projects, referendum activities, reports, budgets, proposal executions and so on. The proposals which successfully raise enough community support and gain more than 50% of the votes of the active nodes will have the chance to be executed. Furthermore, the results of the proposals will be published in a transparent fashion.
In all procedures of the referendum, the ONO team will be major participants.

The “Common Programme” will be considered as the definitive guide for the prosperity of the social ecosystem. From beginning to end, the user-created proposals are all decided upon by the ONO users independently, with equal chances for all participants. All procedures and data of referendum activities will be recorded in the blockchain in an open and transparent way.

Developer Ecosystem — My Box (See 2.2–8 for details)

In order to deliver a diversified product experience, ONO will cooperate with third-party developers to build out the developer ecosystem.

My Box is the app store of ONO. In order to guarantee the diversity of the social network, ONO supports third-party developers to participate in and develop various types of DApps, rich applications and a small number of games and so on. The users can use their ONOT tokens to purchase virtual good from My Box. And the developers can earn ONOT tokens via selling applications and distributing application revenues. The distribution of application revenues will be conducted according to the “Developer Revenue Distribution Mechanism” in different phases and recorded in the blockchain, to guarantee that the revenues are open and transparent.

In order to promote the developer ecosystem, ONO has a head start on developing several mini apps, to be modeled as the use cases. For example, the end-to-end encrypted chat-based instant messaging app and the adventure location-based map app are just two use cases. In order to promote the prosperity of the developer ecosystem, ONO will nominate the members of the developer community from the submitted proposals of the referendum, so as support the third-party developers with tokens from the reward pool, thus reducing the development costs and risks in the early stages.

Remaining Chapters of White Paper will be soon published here.