The main problem with many crypto blogging platforms is the low payment which does not attract seasoned writers who want a pay rate commensurate to their skill level.
Legacy blogging platforms that pay typically offer a share of ad revenue, and writers can earn additional income through affiliate links in their articles.
This payment structure depends heavily on page views, and with insufficient views, despite their talent, writers do not earn a meaningful amount of money for writing great articles. Also, what counts as a view can differ from one platform to another, making it difficult to calculate exact earnings. The cost per thousand (CPM) payment model has served a few very well, but most, not so well.
The prerequisite of a thousand views or impressions as a condition for payment will eventually face the stampeding crypto world's penchant for rapid innovation that loves to put more money in people's pockets.
Less poetically expressed, if Titano can pay a fixed APY of 102,483%, maybe it's possible to pay each writer $240 for every 500-word article. If the Titano team can execute this, they will change the lives of thousands of writers who dream of earning a full-time income without the worry of page views or subscribers. Readership is a problem for new bloggers. No readership. No views. No income.
The proof of content model is a direct payment for content. The Bitcoin blockchain provides mining rewards. Similarly, proof of content protocols will reward creators for producing content without the condition of views or subscribers; people create content, and they get paid.
How It Works
To access the full features of the platform, writers must hold 500 Titano tokens in their wallets; upon selling their Titano, they will not have access to full features.
The aim is to design a content economy that features professionals and amateurs compensated for writing original work and ensuring quality control by writing a critique of articles they disagree with to combat misinformation.
Writers with full access will be limited to two posts, encompassing two original articles or two reviews, or one article and one review every 24 hours, to control spamming.
A review is an article expressing criticism, praise, or clarification of another article or review. An article, however, is an original piece based on a topic—not a review.
An original piece is a poem, short stories, lyrics, recipes, consumer reports, research papers, movie reviews, etc. Writers who do not hold Titano will be limited to one article or review every 24 hours and will not be eligible for the active writer reward, which is a $200 bonus for writing 12 articles in 30 days, including reviews. The active writer reward pool will be partly funded by a 12% sell tax of the utility token.
12% Sell tax=6%(Liquidity)+6% (Active Writer Reward)
If the Titano team would like to keep a treasury for marketing and other expenses, capping the tax rate at 16% would be beneficial in allowing writers to keep more of their income, and liquidity would be locked forever, ideally.
The objective is to hold a minimum of 500 Titano tokens to earn the high APY creating upward pressure on the price and using existing Titano holders as an example that would remove 35.6 million Titano tokens off the market.
500×71,297=35,648,500
Writers will be paid in the utility token, not Titano, and it is unlikely they will sell their Titano if they can earn up to $480 a day simply writing articles. As the blog economy grows, additional rewards for those holding more than 500 Titano tokens would be beneficial.
Writers will bank substantially, creating content about topics they love. The order of operations is informal; parentheses make the arithmetic easier to read.
480×5days=(2,400×52weeks)=124,800
With a capped tax rate of 16% as a worst-case scenario, writers with full access will still realize strong earnings selling the utility token every five days.
480×5days=(2,400×.16sell tax)=(2,400-384)=(2,016×52weeks)=104,832
These calculations do not include the active writer reward bonus or the APY earnings from holding Titano. The income potential, along with quality control, will attract top writers. Articles will be converted into an NFT that will mint $240 worth of the utility token, withdrawable at any time. Writers can earn additional Titano by staking the utility token or their articles as a $240 NFT which functions as a receipt or an invoice, not as an item for sale.
Article staking allows writers to earn residual income, but without purchasing the 500 Titano tokens on the open market, they will be ineligible for the $200 writer reward. They can still earn a lucrative income by writing one article or one review per day.
240×5days=(1,200×52weeks)=62,400
The utility token will be for income; trading the markets all day is not for everyone, especially those who only want to write. The income potential will be a lifeline for many, not just aspiring writers.
Imagine losing your job, and you discover a platform that pays $240 to write an article about any topic you want. What a relief that would be! The essence of proof of content protocols is decentralized labor; people who wish to be without a boss can do so and still earn a substantial income and be free.
Why $240? This is a sensible price considering that one article a day is enough to earn a lucrative income with plenty of time remaining for people to live their lives. The protocol will also be meaningful to business owners, especially those who possess extensive knowledge about their industry, which they can share for additional cash flow.
While $240 is fair, what's the actual market value of a well-written article that is impactful? Informative articles can change the course of a person's life, and even save a person's life regarding medical research.
On July 17, 2010, the price of Bitcoin was $.09. Suppose you read an article that day informing you Bitcoin had the potential to change the world of finance. You decided to take a chance and bought some Bitcoin with your meaningless beer money, so you set it and forget it.
1000Bitcoin×.09=$90
This was an article that you read online for free, but what's the actual value of that article, and what did the author earn for making you aware of Bitcoin? The writer who informed you of this magic internet money that prompted you to invest your beer money has changed your life, considering the current price of Bitcoin as of the writing of this article.
1000Bitcoin×42,574.54=$42,574,540
Definitive article valuation is difficult to execute. Many people benefit from the articles they read, and in many instances, they remember the content but not the author. If an article creates lots of value for its readers, tangible or intangible, how can that value be converted into compensation for the author?
An article may not benefit readers financially, but it may provide a perspective that potentially improves their love lives, which is valuable, but again, how can that value be converted into compensation?
In this case, converting value into compensation is more intuitive than exact, but imagine the income potential of staking a $240 article with an APY of 102,483%. Now, imagine staking 5, 10, or 20 articles.
From tutorials to cheap lazy vegan recipes, content creators have generated immeasurable value for those seeking to broaden their knowledge about any given topic. Proof of content protocols will help capture some of that value and convert it into compensation for creators. After all, a content creator named Jesse Eckel introduced me to Titano.
Cryptocurrency markets are synonymous with volatility perceived as high risk with low dependability. Mass adoption will likely accelerate when the general public's risk aversion is abated by cryptocurrency projects that provide income comparably dependable to the income earned from their jobs.Dependability is the reason why the Anchor Protocol is so successful.
The current APY is 19.55%, with over 17 billion dollars locked in the protocol representing investor confidence propped up by the stability of the UST stable coin. The same applies to paying writers a fixed $240 for their work, signaling dependability.
Hopefully, the public will be less risk-averse—opening their minds to the innovations blockchain technology offers as the cryptocurrency market develops more projects with a high degree of dependability.
Tokenomics
The utility token must be stable but not necessarily a stable coin, which would be ideal, but it would have to be based on sound mathematics rather than pegged to an underlying asset.
Considering that writers will depend on the platform for income, the utility token cannot be volatile. The Ample Forth token is a perfect example of stability without being a stable coin.
Unless purchased on the open market, writers will be earning the utility token because it will be minted once an article is converted into an NFT. The selling pressure will be immense when the tokens are swapped. To contain the selling pressure the protocol would burn an equal amount automatically.
SP240-BP240=0
In theory, selling 240 utility tokens would add nothing to the total supply by automatically burning an equal amount. A suggested annual inflation rate of 6% with no max supply will have to be tested to cover payments. The inflation required might be much higher to sustain the content economy, but the inflation will be kept in check with an equal counter token burn.
Burning at a rapid rate may require inflating at a rapid rate for price stability, but if the overall effect of the token burn equals a steady price increase over time, writers or investors can probably live with that, but the math has to work out. Let's use current Titano holders as a rough starting point for the total supply.
71,297×$240=(17,111,280×365)=(6,245,617,200ts×.06)=(374,737,032÷365d)=1,026,676.8
A total supply of 6,245,617,200 is a starting point; with a 6% inflation rate, over 1 million utility tokens will be minted daily to meet demands, but conducting tests are prudent for best functionality. Theoretically, if the protocol averages 5 million sell orders daily, an equal amount will be burned, requiring a sizable token supply to support the blog or content economy's token burn and regular payments to writers.
The utility token will have an unlimited supply, not designed as a store of value but more like a currency compared to Titano, which is inflationary with weekly token burns, but the returns from the high APY incentivize investors to HODL and earn, treating it as a store of value.
Website Layout Recommendations
The homepage will feature side panels on the left and three columns: newly published, trending, and most read. Article snippets in each column will show a picture with the title of the article and the first three lines with the number of comments and a reblog button. This layout provides plenty of content for users to browse.
The navigation bar will house the search function, the signup button, and the about link. Make the elements of the homepage easy to recognize so it is intuitive in preventing users from having to look around for features that should be obvious.
A minimalist, clean aesthetic would be ideal, enabling the website to display content without looking cluttered. The first sidebar will feature the profile of the top 25 writers determined by the number of articles they have written. The second sidebar will feature a wide range of topics from cooking, science, home improvement, technology, and politics.
The profile page should feature a writer's name, picture, the number of articles and reviews written, a writer's ranking, profession, education, followers, and the number of reviews written about a writer's articles. The Titano philosophy of simplicity of use has currently garnered over 71,000 holders.
The team understands what works. There is no shortage of confidence in their ability to build a user interface that is functional, simple to use, and direct; when users check their Titano account, they do not have to go through obstacles to see their earnings. It is there in plain sight.
The proof of content protocol will benefit creators greatly if it adheres to the Titano philosophy of simplicity. Buy, hold and earn translates to write and get paid, very simple and straightforward.
Quality Control
Copyright issues will be a concern brought on by scammers who will try to abuse the platform by copying and pasting the original work of other writers. Hopefully, an army of reviewers will emerge to fight the army of scammers by informing everyone on the platform of their thievery.
Converting each article into an NFT will help, but perhaps the best way to fight copyright infringement is to write a code into the smart contract to recognize duplicate works across the platform. Oracles may be necessary to prevent copyright infringement from outside the protocol.
Misinformation comes with uncensored expression. Passionate debate fueled by bias will lead to miscalculations in delivering pure facts about a specific topic. Censorship-free does not translate to expression without qualification.
Attracting top professionals to the platform will be difficult if it develops a reputation for being empirically unsound; experts are not perfect, but it does help with credibility if it has writers with extensive knowledge to neutralize misinformation.
Poor writing quality will likely be practiced by those who want income without providing value, but optimism anticipates the majority of the writers using the platform will care about their craft to effect a meaningful change in people's lives.
Adult content will have a warning informing people they will be witnessing erotic pictures and literature. NO CHILD PORNOGRAPHY.
Trolling and offensive material is inevitable. Human beings have disagreements often articulated in a less than urbane manner. There may be no remedy for the annunciation of inelegant ideas but a well-written critique informed by objectivity will combat trolling.
Multiple wallets will be created by those aiming to game the platform to overcome the daily article restrictions. This may not be too much of a concern considering that the income generated from the protocol is significant and straightforward; greed is an issue, but most writers will likely be satisfied with earning up to over $100,000 annually.
Digital Books
Direct payment for articles would also apply to digital books. Self-publishing platforms provide an excellent service to writers who dream of publishing their books, but most books do not generate enough sales for authors to earn a comfortable living.
Proof of content protocols can change that. Writing a book takes hard work and lots of time. A self-published book is rendered anonymous in a vast collection of books fighting to be purchased by readers who want to pay the lowest price possible.
Meanwhile, the author has received little reward because most books do not sell in high volumes. To remedy this problem, each book that meats a minimum of 40,000 words will receive $24,000 worth of the utility token. The minimum word count may seem unreachable, but please consider the math—wpp represents words per page, and ten pages equal a chapter.
400wpp×10pgs.=(4,000w ×10chap.)=40,000w
The above includes variables such as font size and page break insertion.
Photography and art books must contain a minimum of 100 original high-quality pictures.
Digital magazines must contain a minimum of 50 pages and 20,000 words.
400wpp×50=20,000w
Children's books must have a minimum of 1200 words.
The work must be original, well written, and grammatically proper—all the attributes of a professional writer or content creator. The compensation is about a year's salary at a full-time low-wage job, assuming it takes a year to write a book.
24,000÷52weeks=(461.53÷40hours)=11.53hourly
The earnings are not great, but the income potential will be fully realized by converting books or magazines into a $24,000 NFT and staking them for an APY of 102,483%, allowing authors to earn a lucrative residual income.
A skeptical criticism might deem such an income as excessive or unjustifiable. On October 26, 2021, Bored Ape Yacht Club #8817 sold for $3.4 million at Sotherby's Natively Digital Online Auction.
A platform allowing writers or content creators to earn over $100,000 annually is tamed in comparison. Proof of content protocols will vanquish the notion that writers must settle for getting paid $5 per article.
Proof of content protocols will evolve in unpredictable ways in which the protocol will reward people with a very lucrative income for providing music, NFTs, films, housing development, healthcare, etc. Instead of proof of content, it will be proof of housing or proof of healthcare—real-world applications.
Hopefully, the Titano team likes this project, but they may not have time considering they are currently working on V2 of the Titano protocol. If they decide to work on this project and launch it successfully, once again there will be forks and more forks.
This is a rudimentary theoretical framework with room for improvement. The first evolutionary step must touch soil. I'm unleashing this dream into the blockchain universe for writers, content creators, and developers; if they share my vision and wish to create perhaps the first Proof of Content Protocol, build a community, and let's try it out.
Contact: dariansharpelorde@protonmail.com