Transaction Memos
I believe the transaction memo feature was designed to allow for the sending of some information in tandem with the sending of some money. In other words, the money was meant to be more important or at least just as important as the message that came with the money.
This feature has served various use cases such as making deposits into cryptocurrency exchanges where the memo is used to match a Steem account with a cryptocurrency exchange account.
Low Transaction Minimum
I also believe the low transaction minimum and the zero transactions fees on the Steem blockchain were meant to encourage tipping as an optional alternative for rewarding valued content.
Transaction Memos as Messages
The low value frictionless transactions have led to the use of the transaction memo as a public messaging system. In this use case, the message that comes with the money is more important than the money itself. The message and money are also almost always unrelated in this use case.
This improvised public messaging system is somewhat a crossbreed between private messaging and public timelines in traditional centralised social media platforms. As far as I know, the Steem blockchain has an inbuilt private messaging system that has not been implemented by any of the UIs.
Transaction memos as messages on steemit.com on desktop.
Transaction memos as messages on busy.org on desktop.
On steemit.com on mobile, the transaction memos are not visible in portrait orientation.
The transaction memos are however visible in landscape orientation on steemit.com on mobile.
Spam
Transaction memos are being used to send spam due to:
• the ability of the sender to send messages to everyone or to targeted specific individuals due to the open nature of account information and finances
• the ability of the sender to send messages at near zero costs (0.001 SBD or 0.001 STEEM)
• the inability of the receiver to effectively ignore the message as it does not require to be opened and it will continue to be visible until other transactions push it out of view
• the public nature of transaction memos which allows for other users curious about the receiver's wallet balance or transactions to see the message
• the inability of the receiver to block the sender from sending them money and the accompanying message as even accounts you mute can still send you money and a message
• the inability to flag or downvote transaction memos in a way that will affect the sender's reputation
• the inability of low reputation to hinder accounts from sending money and the accompanying message
Suggested Solution
Blockchain
Add a feature in the wallet that allows users to specify the transaction minimum they are willing to receive from each of the following groups of accounts:
• accounts they are following
• accounts following them
• muted accounts
• unconnected accounts
• specific individual accounts
This is how the suggestion can look like on steemit.com.
The transaction minimums can be valued in STEEM DOLLARS so that only one setting per group is required. STEEM transactions will then be valued in STEEM DOLLARS at the prevailing exchange rate.
This is the suggested solution with more context on steemit.com.
Accounts they are following
Users that know each other can follow each other and continue using transaction memos as a messaging system at lower prices which are still decided by each receiver.
Receivers can also follow their favourite brands in order to grant those brands messaging price discounts similar to those they grant other users they know and follow.
Accounts following them
Adverisers can follow receivers in order to enjoy messaging price discounts the receivers may have granted their followers.
Receivers must be aware of the very real possibility of advertisers unfollowing the receivers after the message has been sent. There is no economic gain in unfollowing the receivers but rather an inconvenience when the need arises to follow the receivers again in order to enjoy the messaging price discounts again.
The setting for this group will be overridden for accounts the receiver follows back or mutes.
Muted accounts
Identified trolls and spammers can be muted and priced out completely from the ability to use transaction memos as a messaging system.
Unconnected accounts
In traditional centralized social media platforms, there are usually features to limit or restrict direct communication between unconnected accounts. This is done to reduce incidents of spamming and trolling.
The same can be achieved on Steem by giving users the ability to price out unidentified spammers from being able to send them money and the accompanying messages rather than just giving the users the Boolean option of allowing or not allowing for the receipt of random money and messages.
This way every user decides how much their attention is worth to them and hopefully the quality of promotional messages will improve. Getting paid to receive adverts can then become a sustainable reality. At the very least, users will get paid what they want in order to suffer through receiving spam they are already receiving.
Either way, capital will flow into Steem from quality advertisers or spammers. This is money that will have otherwise gone to ad companies such as Google and Facebook or more shady spamming services.
Specific individual accounts
The ability to price out or give discounts to specific individual accounts without changing the connection or follow status will give Steem users even more control over the value of their attention.
Settings for specific individual accounts will override any setting from any other group.
UIs
I concede that the above suggested solution can be implemented on UIs such as steemit.com and it should probably be tested out on UIs before it is implemented on the blockchain itself.
I also believe that implementing the above suggested solution on the blockchain will:
• allow for easier account management similar to that of account information or profiles
• reduce the amount of spam transactions on the blockchain thus freeing up resources for more valuable transactions
Advertising
Advertising has been one of the primary ways of monetizing free online content. In recent years, online advertising has become more and more intrusive and this has pushed consumers of the free content to use ad blockers. The ad blockers have then contributed to declining ad revenues for most online content publishers while ad revenues keep growing for Google and Facebook. Ad revenues for online content publishers are also increasingly dependent on Google and Facebook for visibility and this gives these two companies censorship and monopoly powers.
It will be difficult for UIs to monopolize this form of advertising as it is based upon users having access to their wallet information. The ability to effectively advertise to Steem users across various UIs in a mutually beneficial manner will attract capital into the Steem ecosystem and make it less dependent on speculation as a way of generating value.
Steem has decentralized online publishing, and it can also decentralize online advertising.
The use of transaction memos to send promotional messages is proof that life, or in this case advertising or spam, always finds a way.
Posted on Utopian.io - Rewarding Open Source Contributors