The new decentralised social network will use the cryptocurrency to reward content creators and those who help promote the platform. It plans to start generating revenue from its first working day.
The users of the platform will be able to send micropayments as little as 0.05 US cents to publishers of interesting content. Furthermore, as Steven McKie, Yours Operations Manager, told BraveNewCoin, early supporters of popular content will get a share from subsequent tips. Thus, not only content creators but also those who upvote the content can earn some bitcoins. Users can also earn money if they post an off-site link to the platform or endorse such a link.
Not only payments but also user identities will be decentralised, according to McKie. However, users will be able to control their data and their private keys, enabling them to take their money out of the platform at any point. The company intends to compete for the leading place among similar projects. Says McKie:
“No matter where on the web the content comes from, we want Yours to be the destination for where you come to monetize that content.”
A social network based on similar principle, Steemit, launched in beta version in May, has achieved great suсcess, attracting a large number of customers and bringing its cryptocurrency, Steem, to the third place by market cap in the blockchain ecosystem after bitcoin and Ethereum. However, the creators of Yours are sceptical. Аccording to Ryan X. Charles, the leader of the project,
“Although we are delighted to see blockchain social media a reality, we worry that Steem can’t last. The burden of building not just a community and a technical platform, but also a novel cryptosystem and supporting economy, is extremely high. Security and scaling problems with their blockchain have a smaller team of experts incentivized to solve them, so solutions will come slower. Companies and services such as wallets and exchanges will be fewer in number and less featureful. When they encounter regulatory issues, they will have fewer allies.”
He believes that if a blockchain-based social network is to be built there is no alternative to bitcoin with its powerful ecosystem and a “huge number of open-source contributors and companies.”
The company will receive a portion from every payment so it plans to generate revenue “from day 1” of its launch. McKie claims Yours enjoys “overwhelming interest” from investors. It plans to make a decision on funding in the near future and launch the social network later in the year.