An Incentivized, Blockchain Enabled Multimedia Ecosystem

Current is creating a digital token that uniquely rewards a person's time, money spent, and data shared during the media streaming experience. This token can be used to purchase a broad range of products, services, and in-platform advertising.

By consolidating popular media networks into one place, Current already provides more than 200,000 users with a more convenient search and discovery experience. With the launch of the platform token, users will be rewarded for streaming content from their favorite networks like: Spotify, YouTube, SoundCloud, and more..The platform combines behavioral data points surrounding the types, times, and topics played by each person across multiple networks to serve up better recommendations than any single network alone.

Blockchain technology allows for a new system of transparent accounting that is needed for the instant valuation of time, data, and attention. The Current protocol aligns the interests of all stakeholders in the media consumption cycle to create network effects that drive adoption. By creating a new medium of exchange, Consumers get more choice in how they pay for media; Creators and Curators get a new form of compensation, and Advertisers get more transparent accounting and audience information.

The protocol interacts within the Current platform in addition to any other host media network. This introduces a new revenue stream and incentive mechanism for the host network giving it the ability to scale effectively. Over time, developers will leverage the identity profiles created for future blockchain based systems.

The Vision
Attention and personal data are now the most important commodities on the internet. Media, both serves as an effective place to create an attention/data economy and is primed for blockchain disruption. By taking a passive habit and correlating value to it, Current is setting a precedent in today’s digital landscape. Users should get more than just entertainment, creators should get a bigger cut of revenue, and curators should get paid for finding the content you didn’t know you loved.

The web we know today was built on the personal data and time of the unwitting consumer. Today, just four companies own the internet's data. The next evolution of the Web will recognize the value of people and redefine the value exchange between consumers, and corporations. When we set out to build this ecosystem, we put you in mind: the everyday streamer. We considered the variety of media you stream and the various networks you have accounts on, and built an agile flexible platform that adapts to culture quickly. We didn't want you to make any sacrifices, so we integrated with the most popular networks. You want to control who your data is shared with and how it’s used, so we wrote win-win smart contracts that give you choices.

With an estimated buying power of $44 Billion, Gen Z is spending more than 5 hours per day on their phone, making them well positioned for cryptocurrency adoption. By designing our platform with the most digitally active generation in mind, we differentiate ourselves from the infrastructural protocols developed to serve the “initial wave” of avid users and delivers a valuable new audience to the world of blockchain. Gen Z and Millennials are having deeper and more frequent interactions on video and music services than ever before. They are more likely to search YouTube for a given question then to Google it. Armed with an acute awareness, and a strong interest and understanding of the digital landscape, these groups will represent the first generations who will be immersed in blockchain products and services.

In many cases, Current will be the first digital wallet the mainstream public will own.

A New Way to Play Media
The Current platform provides a more convenient and thorough media search and discovery process by consolidating disparate content sources into one place. Aside from reducing the number of apps needed to play music, video, podcasts etc., the platform has more data points available about the media types, times, and subject matter that a person experiences and can generate recommendations better than any single network alone.
Current is available with integrations and intends on integrating more services that host podcasts, audio books, television shows, and movies.

Keeping Up With Culture.
Current integrates with external media networks to meet the demand for popular media only available on proprietary networks. Using third party libraries provides Current with an unparalleled agility to add or remove libraries as they fluctuate in popularity. For instance, live streaming, virtual reality and augmented reality will become more ubiquitous in the coming years; Current is well suited to integrate the most popular content networks that serve those types of media.

More Convenient Streaming
Unlike conventional content networks like YouTube or Spotify, which are limited by the content hosted on their platform, Current can access the content libraries from multiple services through Application Programming Interfaces or APIs. An API is a set of routines, protocols, and tools that govern the interaction of software components.

Reducing Barriers to Ownership
One of the strongest attributes of CRNC is its accessibility and immediate impact to users. Most exchanges and crypto-enabled services require a lengthy registration process, some form of investment, or hardware for mining. Current allows users to start earning CRNC tokens immediately without any barriers to entry. Another issue that deters new entrants into the market is legibility of the application. Ripple, Tezos, and many other blockchain protocols have very complex solutions that require a certain technical literacy and lack a broader relatability. With our hybrid approach, we’re able to garner broad adoption using our existing audience and their daily streaming media habits through a simple user experience and wallet integration, removing all technical complexities associated with the adoption of cryptocurrencies. Lastly, the other barrier to entry revolves around accountability. Many token sales are based on theoretical principles without any sort of product in market.

Designed to evolve over time, the Current ecosystem is being built in a hybrid fashion, with both on-chain and off-chain solutions to accommodate shifting market dynamics in the blockchain, media and crypto industries. In the short-term, the proprietary algorithm will create personalized content recommendations across networks in a universal media platform. The Current protocol and token will introduce new revenue streams and incentive mechanisms that will initially be launched within the Current platform and later be made available for developers to leverage in their applications.

A Universal Media Protocol and Token
The second phase is focused on building a protocol and a utility token that democratizes the value created in the media consumption cycle; shifting benefits from advertisers and intermediaries to people who are playing, creating, and curating media. Launching initially on the Current platform, the protocol will be built to support usage within external networks. This offers the host network a new incentive mechanism and revenue source, as well as a compensation model for their users. In turn, the pool of token holders is expanded along with the value of the ecosystem.

The protocol records transactions on the blockchain that attest a user’s contribution to the network (by consumption, or by curation and creation) and a smart contract distributes CRNC tokens in response to that contribution. In order to handle the scalability bottlenecks, while maintaining trust within transactions, we will consider “state channels.”

Scale: Traction: A Universal Media Platform
During this phase, Current is solely sourcing content from third-party networks like YouTube, Spotify, Soundcloud, Internet Radio etc. ensuring adequate supply of media, to accelerate growth and meet user demand. At this stage, the goal was to find product market fit to establish a strong foundation for the product. With over 300 million songs and over 1 billion videos, over 200,000 people have used Current to listen, watch, and interact with media. The average user spends over 18 minutes per session and our Day 30 retention as of Q4 2017 is over 35% without any incentives built into the platform, well above industry standards at this stage.