EOS, -4.44% developers block.one have announced a new social media platform called Voice. The platform is built on the public EOS blockchain network, and aims to reward users for posting engaging content with Voice tokens. The tokens can then be used to vote on other posts and increase their visibility.
Broadly speaking, the concept of Voice seems to be similar to Steemit, a social media platform that runs on Steem STEEM, -3.18%, a blockchain protocol designed by block.one CTO Dan Larimer. While Steemit is still operational and does see some activity, the company had to lay off 70% of its staff in late 2018 due to unsustainable operating costs.
Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer announced the platform in a keynote speech at the company’s June 1 event in Washington DC:
“Just look at the business model. Our content. Our data. Our attention. These are all incredibly valuable things. But right now, it’s the platform, not the user, that reaps the reward. By design, they run by auctioning our information to advertisers, pocketing the profit, and flooding our feeds with hidden agendas dictated by the highest bidder. Voice changes that.”
According to the Voice.com website, the service will use a “special authentication system” to ensure that each Voice account is linked to a person and not a throwaway or a bot account.
Block.one’s foray into the social media space is certainly not the first attempt of a blockchain project to snag some market share from titans like Twitter and Facebook, but none of them has gained significant traction thus far. However, block.one has a massive war chest (let’s recall that the EOS ICO brought in $4 billion), which should make it a bit easier to contend in the saturated social media industry.