With Busy.org: Get your value back !
The next-gen social network platform based on the Steem Blockchain.
We are proud to officially announce the Busy project! Some of you may already be familiar with Busy through word-of-mouth or from @ned mentioning it during the Oslo Cryptofinance Hackathon by @bitspace, or simply from Nate’s (@picokernel) presentation in Amsterdam, Steemfest during the Saturday Appy'Hour.
Credit Photo : @twinner
We tried to keep it secret as long as possible to make sure that we could step in, not with fine words and false promises, but with concrete actions and a real product. We took time understanding the Steem’s ecosystem deeply, the community needs, building a reliable network and an elite team to develop not only the most promising alternative platform to Steemit.com on the Steem Blockchain but also preparing the best strategy to accomplish our mission:
Connect everyone to the next-gen decentralized social network that gives voice and value back to people, by building together a true sharing economy, a more free and trustworthy world without middlemen.
WHY BUSY?
Over the past years, the Internet has risen to become a dominant force in the world economy, more specifically with social media platforms, e-commerce, and online services.
The amount of money generated is astonishing. Facebook and Youtube had more than $10 billion in revenue in the 2nd fiscal quarter 2016. Uber and Airbnb, the top unicorns are valued at $20 billion or more. Paypal 2015 revenue is $9.24 billion. They're seemingly everywhere, backed by a bull market and a new generation of so-called disruptive technology. It’s important to remember that the value created on these networks, which allows these platforms to generate huge profits, comes directly from their users.
As a non-profit organization, BUSY aims to bring value back to the people by replacing these monolithic, centralized, for-profit companies with a Decentralized Open Source Platform, enabled by Blockchain and peer-to-peer technology. We believe that Steem with Graphene can fulfill this mission notably through its high scalability and zero transaction fee model.
WHAT IS BUSY?
Using the power of the Steem blockchain, Busy is an Open-Source social network and communication platform that extends itself to a variety of rich features and functionality including free digital payments and a marketplace for goods and services. On top of that, Busy is also a Non-profit organization offering open-source projects on Steem, which aims to bridge the gap between the old economy and a new economy giving value back to people. Our goal is to develop the best strategy to bootstrap this thriving eco-system and to enable billions of people to take part in this revolution
Busy is:
- A non-profit organization: all donations and potential income will be entirely used to pay expenses and develop the project
- An open-source project and vision: we believe in the wisdom of the crowd and in taking a collaborative and transparent approach, that's why all our work will be open source. Everyone is free to contribute, by all appropriate means to accomplish our mission. Not only coders but also designers, writers, speakers, evangelists, marketers, advisors, etc.
- A social media platform on Steem more like Facebook/Twitter/Rocket.Chat than Reddit/Medium like: On Busy we try to build a platform where everyone can participate, not only bloggers/writers. Not only focus on Money/rewards, but you can also come to chat about different topics, use private messaging, enjoy all type of contents, and bookmark it.
- An alternative interface to Steemit: we work on a different approach with a user-friendly interface and specific marketing for mass adoption aiming to remove all the blockchain and cryptocurrency friction, to make it easier to adopt by everyone and every possible niche.
- An open platform for a future marketplace for Good and services: Busy goal is to build on top of the Busy social media platform, several Apps (like Facebook Apps, or WeChat services). We are offering a secure social network layer to bootstrap any Apps, games, community tools, marketplaces for good (like eBay, OpenBazaar), or services (Airbnb, Uber, Fiverr, etc.).
All developers can submit their project/concept and can be integrated into the Busy ecosystem very easily. We are building this All-in-one platform, embedding killers App into a social network, empowering people using the power of Steem zero transaction fee.
Busy is Not:
- A Steemit competitor: we are not. We believe that we can be complementary to the existing projects like Steemit on this Blockchain. We are working on another approach, another strategy. Both are mandatory. In fact, Busy can bring value to the Steem ecosystem, by adding even more decentralization, diluting the power and providing more trust on the Steem blockchain. By not being the main/official app on Steem, it gives the Busy project more flexibility. Busy will work in close collaboration with Steemit team and have the support of Steemit inc. to bring more value to the Steem Blockchain making it more reliable, trustable, decentralized.
WHO?
Founded by @fabien and me, @ekitcho in July 2016, Busy is now a strong team with several core members, developers, advisors, ambassadors, donors, and so on.
Busy Team
@ekitcho: CEO, Business Developer, working on the global vision, philosophy and strategy
@fabien: CTO, Product Architect, and designer, programmer, leading the way to a real disruptive product
@p0o: Developer, React/Redux expert
@nil1511: Developer
@yamadapc: Developer
@faddat: Server Architect
Our advisors/ambassador
@cass, @smooth, @svk, @clains, @ned, @picokernel
But it's also YOU !
As a decentralized and open source platform in the form of a non-profit organization, we are open to any contribution/suggestion from you. We would love to get the finest resources from this brilliant community to build the best platform ever that can change the world. Our goal is to be able to select and pay every contribution that brings value to Busy. Since the first day we’ve paid every contributor! At the very beginning with our own money and later on with the support from @smooth, @cass, and then Steemit.Inc. (a Big thanks to them)
We're enthusiastically looking for talented people who understand where Busy is going.
OUR GOAL/ VISION
Our goal is to connect billions of people to the best social network platform that can bring value back to the people in a peer-to-peer and decentralized way using the power of the Steem blockchain and cryptocurrencies.
Ensuring compensation for the creators of value
Artists and User-generated content create billions dollars worth of value absorbed by the shareholders of these intermediaries and centralized services.
As a non-profit and decentralized organization, Busy provides the power of cryptocurrency and blockchain innovations within a platform that returns much of its value to the creators ensuring fair compensation.
Creating a true sharing economy
Uber or Airbnb are often described as the sharing economy, a beautiful notion that peers create and share in value. But these businesses have little to do with sharing, they in fact only aggregate as middlemen through their centralized, proprietary platforms and do resell by taking huge commissions.
Today's big disrupters are about to get disrupted! Busy aims to create a true peer-to-peer sharing economy without middlemen and zero transaction fees that allows people to transact safely and freely.
Ending the remittance ripoff
The largest flow of funds into the developing world is not foreign aid but money repatriated to developing countries from their families living abroad. Using Western Union, Moneygram, and other centralized services, the process takes time, patience and costs from 5 to 25% commission. Selling goods or services using eBay, Paypal, makes 1 to 10% commission. The Busy goal is to end the remittance ripoff providing a digital wallet that allows everyone to send/receive digital money with no transaction fees.
Our secret : make it easy-to-use and -to-understand for everyone.
WHEN IS THE OFFICIAL RELEASE, What's inside?
Our Roadmap:
- After Steemfest: Closed Alpha release
We’re inviting a select group of developers and testers to use our Closed Alpha release starting now. Several features are already implemented, and the User interface is growing every day (Almost 1000 commits on Github !)
- Q1 2017: Open Beta release
The Beta release will be in first quarter 2017 for every Steemian who wants to join in preparation of the final public release
- Q2 2017 (If we get Funds): Busy Phase 2
Start the marketplace for goods and services using Escrow and Private messaging. Open the platform to all types of Apps from the dev community
Mobile app iOS/Android + Desktop app
Expected Features for the Beta Release :
- Top-notch user interface / experience like Facebook, Slack/Rocket.chat
- Responsive Web app design for Desktop/Mobile with ReactJs
- All basic features (Votes, Posts, Comments, Search)
- Custom user profile (Picture + Cover + Extra informations)
- Embedding all famous types of digital content (Youtube, Vimeo, Soundcloud, Twitch, Twitter, SteemQ, etc.)
- Internationalization : 5 Languages (EN,FR,DE,RU,CN,ES,JP, etc.)
- Favorite Categories and authors
- Bookmark and filter favorite posts
- Notifications
- Private message 1to1
- Public Chat Channels based on categories (#photography, #travel, #art, etc.)
- Secure connection with SteemConnect.com (secured identity/auth layer for Steem Blockchain, developed by Busy)
- Improved Markdown / Post Editor, including Drafts manager, in-post Image upload
- Different layouts to read/browse the content and improved navigation
This is the first Step of the Busy project. After the Social Network platform release, we want to develop a free marketplace for product and services and integrate different Apps in a healthy ecosystem. We have prepared every tool allowing developers to contribute to the Steem Blockchain and Busy project easily.
Developers, check our Github at https://github.com/adcpm/busy :
- Steemconnect: identity/authentication base layer (working like auth0 + AppStore) allowing Steem blockchain users to log in with their private keys and use trusted Apps, and developers to focus on their app without having to handle private keys.
- SteemEmbed: Embedding all type of digital content on Steem posts (Youtube, Soundcloud, Vimeo, Twitter, Facebook video, Twitch, Periscope, etc.)
- SteemJs: Javascript Library API to easily interact with Steem blockchain
- SteemAPI: API to the Steem blockchain
- SteemScript: Open JSON Standard for Trusted Workflows (JSON metadata)
HOW TO HELP OR CONTRIBUTE TO BUSY?
Our Donors:
We're looking for more support (investors/donors) to be able to develop the whole project. Contact @ekitcho for more information
Vote for @busy.witness
We've been running a witness for one month now (0 Missed Blocks)
Please consider voting for @busy.witness (Now #49 on the list)
https://steemit.com/~witnesses
All our extra witness income will be used to fund the project and support our platform.
Contribute to the project
Our Projects are open source.
For more information, please check https://github.com/adcpm/busy
We're hiring Experienced and talented Designer (Branding), UI/UX Designers, Marketers, Writers, as well as new businesses or apps that want to integrate the Busy Platform. If you feel like you can contribute to the project, feel free to contact us.
Resteem / Share this post, and http://busy.org
Spread the word
Additionnal Links :
- Busy.org (Landing presentation)
- Github Repo
- SteemJs
- SteemAPI
- SteemScript Ann / GitHub
- SteemConnect (still in Alpha)
- Busy video presentation from @picokernel at Steemfest