GM. This is the Milk Road, the crypto newsletter tha-
***Milk Man abruptly enters scene***
Sorry folks, no time for an intro today.
We’ve got a problem. A big one.
Social media is under attack.
Just look at the Twitter fiasco over the last 2 weeks:
- Journalists are getting kicked off the platform
- Files are being released that confirm certain users were shadowbanned & content was filtered
- Users can't post links & promote other competing sites (you get banned if you do)
No one is safe.
Just ask Paul Graham. He’s a Silicon Valley legend & tech celebrity (and was one of the latest victims of the Twitter Ban hammer.)
It’s not just Twitter with problems either.
Facebook. Instagram. Tik Tok. Snapchat. You name it.
They all have a history of censoring content, monetizing our data, and monopolizing the industry.
It’s happened in the past. It happens now. And it will continue to happen unless the problem is fixed.
What exactly is that problem? It boils down to one thing…
Centralization. All these social media platforms are run by billion-dollar companies & power-hungry CEOs.
Just like we wouldn't want a single billionaire like Warren Buffett controlling our money, we don't want billionaires like Zuck, Elon, or whoever the TikTok guy is controlling our voices.
Social media platforms are becoming the banks of the modern era. They control our content the exact same way banks used to control our money before Bitcoin. Only they're even more centralized and more powerful!
The lesson we're learning with social media is the same one Bitcoin already taught us...
Not your keys, not your content. As long as a centralized company is in charge, you’ll never truly be in control of your voice (and you sure as hell can’t make any money.)
The true answer is to have nobody in control of social media, the same way nobody controls Bitcoin.
But how do we get there….?
THE SOLUTION: DECENTRALIZED SOCIAL MEDIA
We need decentralization. Social media can’t be controlled by any company, individual, or government.
Hell, even Jack Dorsey agrees. He even went as far to say that Twitter should have never become a centralized company. And he’s the guy that built the damn thing!
So what would Jack do differently? Make it an open-source protocol. One that’s transparent & verifiable.
Basically, Jack would put Twitter on the blockchain.
Great. But which one? There are more blockchains than SBF-backed politicians in Congress right now.
Well to figure that part out, you need to understand one crucial thing... today's blockchains are not designed to store and index social content.
Take Bitcoin for example. Bitcoin was built as an alternative financial asset to fiat currencies.
It's great for sending and receiving money but sucks at storing & indexing social content. If you try and store that 3 am selfie on it, it'll likely cost you an arm & a leg in transaction fees.
And it's not just a Bitcoin problem either. Nearly every other blockchain today has the same issue: they can't power storage-heavy applications like social media.
Here, we'll prove it. This is how much storing a single Tweet on-chain would cost on popular blockchains like Solana, Polygon, and Ethereum.
Which is where DeSo comes in (short for the Decentralized Social blockchain.)
On DeSo, it costs 1/10,000th of a cent to store that same data. That’s right, that banger tweet is gonna cost less than a penny.
Not only can crypto take down banks but it can now take down an even more centralized part of our society: The Social Media Giants.
That's why today’s edition is brought to you by DeSo - the only layer 1 blockchain built to power social media applications.
INTRO TO DESO AND HOW IT WORKS
Before DeSo, there was a technical breakthrough standing in the way of decentralizing social media...
The ability to store content cheaply on a decentralized blockchain.
Nobody is going to use a social app that charges you $0.25+ for every like, follow, and Retweet.
Well, DeSo was the first to bring the raw cost of decentralized social media down to a competitive level, which was table stakes for moving off of the centralized social media platforms.
So what exactly is DeSo? It's a layer 1 blockchain that’s optimized specifically for social media apps.
- 100% open-source. All data is on-chain & easily verifiable - profiles, posts, comments, likes, etc.
- You own your data. And you can take all your data with you across any app on the blockchain.
- Easy to use. Creating an account is just as easy as signing up for Instagram (plus you get free $DESO coins when you do.)
- Easy for devs to build on. You don’t need to know anything about smart contracts, just a basic knowledge of Javascript.
- Listed on Coinbase. Going in and out of DeSo and fiat is easy thanks to a recent listing on Coinbase.
And DeSo is growing like crazy. It has over 2m wallets created and 100k+ monthly active users.
Yup, the movement has already begun. People are transitioning over to a truly open & free town square - where you can own your content like you own your Bitcoin.
But the best part about DeSo is all of the amazing applications already being built on it.
For example, Diamond is a Decentralized Twitter. And the cool thing about it is how users can monetize content. Right now, there are 3 main ways:
1/ Creator Coins. It just so happens that Shaan (our Founding Father) was an early user & supporter of DeSo. In fact, he talked all about DeSo on this episode of My First Million over a year ago.
The thing that got his attention is Creator Coins. The idea is that you can create a coin that lets your followers invest in you.
Ever wanted to invest in the next Mr. Beast? The next Milk Man? This could be your chance.
The more popular you get, the more money you & your followers make. So you can earn instead of just follow.
This is the power of mixing crypto & social media.
2/ NFTs. Users of Diamond can turn their posts directly into NFTs to sell. And NFTs are social, meaning they show up in feeds and allow users to engage via comments, likes, and tips as well.
Just check out this CyberPunkApe NFT - it got over 1,500 comments in just the last 4 hours.
DeSo also lets you send royalties directly to yourself by putting the auction mechanics fully on-chain. This is something that can’t be done on any other blockchain because it requires on-chain storage and indexing.
3/ Micro-tipping. Users can tip their favorite creators with $DESO or stablecoin directly on the app. So instead of getting likes, claps, or chuckles - you can actually get some money for your fire memes.
And since everything is on-chain, you can actually see how much creators on DeSo have made. (OpenProsper is an app that shows revenue over the last 30 days.)
OpenProsper is also the world's first social block explorer. By clicking into a block you can see how many likes, follows, posts, etc... are happening on the network.
And you can even click into each transaction and see the profiles of the people who were involved (unless they decided to encrypt their content or stay anonymous.)
In addition to checking out Diamond and O penProsper, we recommend checking out the Desofy mobile app and Openfund, which is like a cross between Kickstarter, Reddit, and Coinbase. But there are hundreds of other apps on DeSo, with plenty more coming soon (you can see even more apps here.)
And the best part is that creating a DeSo social wallet on any app gives you access to all of them. Posting on one app automatically distributes your content to all the others too.
Lastly, the Milk Man got some inside info that Q1 of 2023 will be big.
Decentralized Signal. Decentralized Patreon. Decentralized Substack. They're all coming soon to the DeSo blockchain.
Soon we'll be able to say our sweet goodbyes not just to Elon and Zuck, but to every CEO of every power-hungry megacorp that we willingly give our data today.
And it's all possible thanks to DeSo and the breakthroughs it enables. Remember: Not your keys, not your content.
Interested in joining the decentralized social media movement?
MILKY MEME
That's a wrap for today. Stay thirsty & see ya tomorrow! If you want more, be sure to follow our Twitter (@MilkRoadDaily)
INTERESTED IN ADVERTISING ON THE MILK ROAD?
Fill out this survey and we'll get back to you soon!
What'd you think of today's edition?
Login or Subscribe to participate in polls.
A ROADERS REVIEW
VITALIK PIC OF THE DAY
Vitalik’s a dog, woof
— Milk Road (@MilkRoadDaily)3:25 PM • Dec 28, 2022
DISCLAIMER: None of this is financial advice. This newsletter is strictly educational and is not investment advice or a solicitation to buy or sell any assets or to make any financial decisions. Please be careful and do your own research.
