MEDIA PROTOCOL & THE NEXT CHAPTER OF ONLINE CONTENT DISTRIBUTION

One of the most popular scientific fields that have gained prominence since the early 2000s are social sciences. I first came to learn and appreciate this when I began reading books such as Freakonomics by Steven J. Dubner and Stephen D. Levitt and the series of Nicholas Nassim Taleb, such as Fooled by Randomness and The Black Swan. One of the most frequent topics in both series The recent burst of social computing has thrown into the spotlight a lot of research data that can be used to analyze how humans interact and react to information and the biases in that process. The Internet has played a huge role in availing information, too much information, to everyone, and influenced how humans react to that information. Unfortunately, the human mind is an infosec disaster and can be easily manipulated and misinformed to personalized interests, and such cases are evident severally over the course of the last two decades. Currently, it might be difficult to appreciate this without any context. To get a comparative analysis of the same, we have to go back a few years before the mainstream growth of the Internet, somewhere around the 1980s. The world was different back then, and many ‘professionals’ abused the lack of information that their clients had to live with. The Internet 2.0 era has seen the outburst of information. And now, the next chapter of the story of the Internet, blockchain technology. While blockchain technology still does not have any product ready usecases, the technology holds a lot of promise for not only fintech but other fields specifically the content distribution, basically the web. From decentralized social media platforms to peer-to-peer content platforms the way we interact with content online will never be the same again.

(Mis)Information is the currency of the Internet

Recent developments in the internet technology seen have awakened us to some gross missteps in the construction of our current internet infrastructure. The internet has shattered all predictions in the short and the long term about the impact it would have in the history of mankind. There were naysayers back then at the beginning of the Internet, people who doubted the magnitude of impact that the Internet would have in the coming years. What the now referred to as ‘Internet 2.0’ era did was democratize information. No longer did anyone have to consult a real estate agent to find out about house prices. Or any other professional about any simpleton information that was not worth the lucrative fees charged for the same. All this could be found in the internet and it was free. And the rest as they say is history. This however, created a new problem. The internet is one big unregulated content marketplace exploited by huge corporations for personal benefits.

Fundamental flaws

Everything about the Internet seemed rosy for the first few years at least. The calm before the storm. In much the same way that we cannot forecast the potential of any new technology, so is our limitation to discover any hidden deficiencies in the same. And these were brought to light by the meteoric growth of Internet 2.0 giants such as Google, Amazon, Verizon, Facebook and Instagram and many more. The popularity of the Internet established the concentration of power to a few individuals and corporations who have vested monetary interests. Recent malpractices such as the growth in prominence of fake news has resulted in intense ramifications all around the world. Facebook has been accused of being unable to combat fake news on its platform, and its platform being used to manipulate the 2016 elections. The fact that popular media is used for distributing content that can be used to incite people online unchecked is another outstanding menace. Only recently have efforts been raised to create a framework in which these companies can abide by. For example, on May 25 the GDPR came into effect that redefines how internet companies obtain, and use our data with huge penalties for those who fail to adhere to the guidelines. Blockchain technology is able to create an innovative solution that will boost the transparency of content that is produced through incentives. Readers can be able to tip the best content and publishers who create incorrect content cannot be able to delete the same because it is recorded on the blockchain. This means that a publisher’s reputation cannot be altered come what may. If any publisher respects their reputation they will have to be honest and transparent because their success and future depends on it. Publishers can no longer cut corners by buying their way out or influencing the reach of their content because the content can easily be monitored on the blockchain. This is one of the outstanding qualities of the Internet of Value. No longer is it adequate to merely have information online. Being able to have the correct information, and accrue the rewards to the actual individuals, publishers and readers, alike will be the new norm.

Media Protocol ushering in the Internet of Value

Media Protocol proposes a novel solution for online content distribution that concentrates benefits to the publishers and readers, cutting out the intermediaries. The new platform will enable the two to interact on a direct channel directly incentivizing the creators for the content and the readers to be able to communicate their feedback along the same channel. Media Protocol will be an open source protocol that can be used by a number of applications that want to leverage blockchain technology to create a more open, peer-to-peer content distribution marketplace. Currently, users can be able to interact with the first dApp on Media Protocol, CryptoCatnip to earn some MEDIA tokens while getting the latest news on cryptocurrency.
Other uses of MEDIA tokens are the fuel for running the value exchange on the Media Protocol ecosystem e.g. rewarding publishers, advertising and so on. The tokens can be exchanged for real world money on cryptocurrency exchanges.

Smart URLs

Media Protocol’s novel solution to the data dilemma online is the creation of Smart URLs. Unlike normal traditional webpages, smart URLs make it possible to tag digitally, and promote using tokens. Run on smart contracts to reward anyone who engages with the content. There is a cryptocurrency wallet on the backend where the content is, and the users end on the application to enable the transfer of tokens to and fro. The amount of tokens that are used to promote the content is easily visible for anyone to see.

Following the real time updates of smart URLs on the Cryptocatnip application