While working on Native Ads decentralization, it became apparent to me that implementing Native Ads as a sidechain would offer a much more robust foundation, with more tailor-made support for the features I have in mind.
Going down the rabbit hole even further, I learned that I could develop a sidechain specifically made for attention tokens, for which Native Ads can be a subprotocol.
Since December, I've been working on the sidechain's design and I started coding this month. I also suspended the current Native Ads implementation, because it will be re-born on the new sidechain.
Hive Attention Tokens
So what is Hive Attention Tokens (HAT)? I figured I'd take a crack at solving the token issue we've had for so long here. I don't even know how long I've been waiting for SMTs, and even they wouldn't support the kind of features I have thought of over the years/months.
The HAT sidechain is specifically designed for attention tokens. Tokens designed to aid in the monetization of communities on Hive, creating isolated economies that are bootstrapped by the attention value of the community's content and members. So, together with the Native Ads subprotocol, the tokens will be closely tied to attention (time and space).
Here's the whitepaper. It's brief for now, because I've omitted a lot of technical details as the whole implementation is in flux and changing a lot:
Wait. Another token protocol??
Yes. I know we have Hive Engine and another system being designed by @blocktrades, but I think it is of greater benefit to have an attention token protocol that's tightly integrated with a native ad protocol, than it is to have a detached ad protocol that's trying to keep track of what's going on, on multiple chains. This role can easily be filled by another third party that can create a system to bridge the HAT chain with other token systems, if needed. Or do an IBC kind of implementation, with external tokens wrapped on HAT for use with Native Ads.
Freedom to innovate. With the ideas I have, it would have required my asking the other protocols to make changes to their systems to make them a reality, which can't be guaranteed.
Lastly, I think the more protocols we have that cater to different use-cases, the better.
HAT is specifically designed for attention tokens, and with its close integration with Native Ads, it will offer inherent features that cater to niche, attention-economy-related use-cases.
When HAT?
The roadmap can be seen here: HAT Roadmap
I have pretty much coded the basics of block production; the witness node can receive transactions from the network, validate them, add them to a block, sign the block and then add it to the chain. A lot is still WIP, like the DB system, individual transaction types, witness peer system and consensus algorithm.
I'm wary of setting hard deadlines for this, but I would like to have a testnet up in February. At which point, the focus will be on stability of the core code, improvements and the development of more advanced features, for both the core protocol and the Native Ads subprotocol.
It will probably be in testnet for a while.
Let's talk about it
As I continue working on this, I will be making frequent posts on various aspects of the sidechain so we can talk about it. It won't all be technical. All questions and ideas are welcome. Let's talk about everything. Tokenomics, security, features for frontends, etc.
What are your thoughts?
P.S.: I will publish the current source code in a few days, after some cleanup :)