Is HIVE the Sleeping Giant of SoFi?
Can you get paid to browse your favorite social media app? The Sofi movement aims to do just that!
In August or 2023 Friend.Tech a new dapp that allows people to sell their key arrived on the blockchain. The key is basically an NFT that gives the holder access to a private chat room with that key creator. The UI does not offer a section for a bio but usernames are the same as Twitter usernames and once you own the key there is a Twitter link to their profile. As more keys are sold the price goes up.
Yesterday 10/13 Friend Tech added a Bio section
In order to join you must buy your own key so you have to deposit some ETH on the Base network. Base is Coinbase coin which is an ETH layer 2. So you have to bridge ETH to the Base network then send it to the Friend Tech wallet. The app is then like an exchange were you search for and buy keys. Once you own the key you are able to join their private chat
In the chat your holders can see everything you say but not what others are saying to you unless you reply to them attaching the comment. So sometimes as a key holder you will see half of a conversation. This feature does not seem very social. As the creator of the key you can add images to the chat but your holders cannot.
Friend Tech aims to grow with use of a referral reward program that is not clearly defined. Users are speculating how to farm the points from week to week after seeing their allocation when airdropped on Friday. There are rewards for giving out referrals that last a lifetime! You get a small % from every trade they make. Early adopters have seen big returns giving out these codes.
Here are some codes if you want to try the app and a link to my key.
https://friend.tech/dropgenius
ft-aakdmnst, ft-xc5gm8g5, ft-5qegkm63, ft-nl0xyy47, ft-crf0fas9, ft-7y3f4ulo, ft-lqm2tsl9
Friend.Tech is the first to sell social profiles in this format but as the value of peoples keys rise we begin to ask ourselves why. What is being offered in that chat that is valued. In my use of the app I did make a unique connection which led to an introduction to a new world of decentralized social media (more on that later) but overall the application became boring. Most of the keys I held struggled to offer utility in the form of alpha but ultimately didn’t participate. A global place for users to interact or at minimum a landing page for key creators to intro themselves and what they have to offer to holders is necessary for the app to stand on its own. Creators are also going to have to get real creative to maintain key prices.
The success of Friend Tech quickly spawned a competitor named Post.tech. Post tech is on the Arbitrum network which is also an ETH layer 2. The app uses sign in with Twitter and combines the key trading features of Friend Tech with a full Twitter clone built on chain. This allows for you to post posts and engage with the community even if they do not own your key. You have a bio page that mimics your Twitter but is customizable once imported. Post tech is very unstable but has its moments where you see the potential of speedy interactions. The rewards are more clearly defined. There is 100k prize pool for the launch week one Epoch, with 5 total Epochs, culminating in the launch of a token to reward users activity and act as a governance token with more utility to follow. They are allocating over 2 Million to users for their activities. Users are rewarded points for posting and responding at a 5:1 ratio promoting being a community member as much as a creator. It also rewards users for making post on Twitter about Post Tech and replying to others on Twitter. Rewarding people for promoting the platform is another positive over Friend Tech. There is a leaderboard and a few pages were you track all the different points you are earning and if you completed all your tasks. This gamification is super fun but is not working that great at the moment. It seems they saw the flaws in Friend tech and rushed to put out a more visionary project. If they are able to figure it out and fix the bugs it has a strong chance at rising to the top and overtaking Friend Tech. If you were only able to add ad revenue to this equation users could really be making some money to browse the time line. I have been verified on the platform and have an unlimited invite code it is dropgenius
https://post.tech/user/dropgenius
Enter HIVE Blog & LEO
One of the first keys I purchased on Friend Tech is a respected HIVE user @sponge-bob he quickly introduced me to the this platform. I was amazed that it existed. When first learning of Web3 I imagined turning Face Book or Twitter into a Web3 project, sharing the profits with the creators and users and eliminating censorship. I visioned a platform where you can get paid to browse and interact with content in exchange for being marketed to. We learned how valuable our search data is so why should we not benefit from it. I started searching then for an app like this over 2 years ago. I found some poor attempts so I started writing my own versions of a token systems and app structure. I tried to get others that had the ability to build these programs to share in the vision but eventually gave up.
Now I was sitting in a private chat room of a half built social network where someone is telling me that the system I envisioned is up and running. Hive blog and Now LeoFinance or Inleo to me have the best infrastructure in place to make decentralized social media lucrative for everyone involved. I am still new and I have so much to learn from all of you on this platform. I look forward to creating and consuming here.
Most Degens are fading the new world of SoFi pushing it to the side but I think we are getting somewhere. If early adopters of these technologies are rewarded the word would spread fast. In 2024 we could see decentralized social media become a catalyst for the elusive Bull Run. If people realize they can earn money for their social media habit we can see a massive onboarding of new user into Web3, filling their wallets with ETH to spend on NFT’s !! I mean Digital collectibles !!
Unless otherwise noted; All Words written by me not Chat GPT, All images are created by me not Midjourney, All digital assets are owned by me not right click and saved.