As the creator of the DeSo blockchain, I want to talk about how crypto will fundamentally change social media and solve the bot problem 🤖
When Elon took over X, he made everyone pay for a verified check. There's only one problem with that plan, which is that bots can easily afford it. How do I know? Focus, our next-generation SocialFi app, was ASSAULTED by verified bots when we launched our invite-only "Bounty Hunter," which gives $100 to Verified Twitter users.
The problem is that it's equally expensive for a bot to buy a blue check as it is for a legitimate user, and so it doesn't provide enough differentiation. The key is to have something that's effortless for real users but prohibitively expensive for bots. What could that be...?
It turns out crypto wallet balance is an *amazing* metric in this regard. Whales naturally keep thousands of dollars in their wallet, but a bot can't afford to keep more than a few hundred at most. And it scales in the sense that the more you have, the less likely you are to be a bot, even if you don't have a long track record of posting.
Focus is truly novel in many ways, but perhaps the most interesting is how it tightly integrates assets with one's social identity.
And it doesn't stop there. Once on-chain assets are tied to identity, you can build much better ranking algorithms, a better upvote mechanic that factors in wealth, and many other novel innovations that can finally prevent bots from having a disproportionate influence on our discourse.
You may never have heard of Focus, but it's the only app in the world that's innovating on this stuff right now, and it's going into public access next week. We've been working on it for years and I'm excited for everyone to try it. I truly believe it's an app that can not only materially enhance the quality of our information on the internet, but also solve a lot of problems related to misinformation as well.
In crypto, we have a superpower when we build apps: The possibility of getting rich by being early to something make crypto apps inherently more viral. But there's a problem...
The problem is this "Jet Engine" of speculative fever has generally been strapped to cargo that doesn't create sustainable long-term value. Until now, virality in crypto has been the product itself, rather than a growth tool.
This has frustrated people, and I think it's a big reason why a lot of people hate on crypto. They see the viral power of crypto products, and they see people getting rich off of this superpower, but without creating anything that "lasts," for lack of a better term.
I myself am guilty of this, though my intentions were pure. BitClout, an app I developed, was the most viral app I've ever seen, let alone actually used. But its core mechanics weren't "meaty" enough to keep people using it after the initial speculative fever had worn off.
Focus, launching this week, is designed to be everything that BitClout wasn't in this regard. Focus is an app that takes full advantage of the "Jet Engine" of speculative fever, and frankly innovates on prior art quite a bit. But to create a network effect around a real product, rather than a fleeting sensation.
I have high confidence that Focus's "Jet Engine" will work, and that the app will be extremely viral. However, whether Focus will succeed in achieving lasting value remains to be seen. In fact, one could argue that no app in crypto has ever achieved lasting value not inherently derived from speculative fever in some way (with some notable exceptions like stablecoins).
But I know one thing about Focus: It is the best attempt I've ever seen in crypto to create lasting value that sustains beyond the initial hype. We designed it to be THE example people point to when someone says there's "no lasting value being created by crypto."
Let's see if we succeeded...
https://t.co/YpM6XWefHP @desoprotocol is tackling the cold start problem head-on, rewarding influencers with $FOCUS tokens, elevating the creator economy on the blockchain. @nadertheory#Focus#CreatorEconomy
I've joined @AlphaOnBitcoin, and I'm getting a kick out of it!
Chat. Trade. Play. And other prompts are making the app easy and exciting to use.
I'm happy to hook you up here:
#alphaVORP5D
https://t.co/1M3enDFJK5
This community is for those involved in the DeSo blockchain. I will be posting updates here but I hope you all will help. If you know any DeSo users, please invite them.
https://t.co/FsqbM1iQ9H
Big upgrade to Openfund coming in the next week or so that will enable trading with USD as base pair while adding support for BTC, ETH, SOL, and... wait for it... DESO.
Yes, you will be able to trade DESO on DeSo, with every order *fully on-chain* via the DeSo DEX :)