Early Stage Crypto Opportunities: Deso Decentralized Social Media

By Shawn

November 6, 2021

bitclout, decentralized, deso, social media

$DESO Price on publication of this article: $80.23

What is Deso?

DeSo is a social network based on blockchain technology with no company behind it, only coins and code.

It is a custom blockchain built from the ground up for social applications to decentralize social media in the same way that Bitcoin and Ethereum are decentralizing finance. DeSo is a hybrid P2P network where data is distributed across a wide network of peers instead of being stored in a central database. There is no centralized server to hack as there is no centralized server.

The core features are on-chain social profiles, on-chain posts, social NFTs, Social tokens, and social tipping.

Who is the founder or CEO?

Nader Al-Naji, aka”Diamondhands”.

Resume/CV

- Basis / Stablecoin, Founder
- Google, Software Engineer
- Quantitative Software Engineering, D.E. Shaw Hedge fund
- Computer Science/Applied Math, Princeton University

What is it DESO built on?

It is built with IPFS (Interplanetary File System), a distributed file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files. IPFS connection makes the platform resilient against attacks. Data is not stored in a single location, allowing all users to access and contribute to decentralized social networks.

How to buy $DESO?

At current, the DESO token is available on the Blockchain.com or AscendEX Exchange. You can also send BTC or ETH to your wallet within the application and convert to $DESO.

What does this solve?

It solves the problem of centralized social media and unfair monetization of creators content. This also allows creators to act directly with their fans and vice versa with no intermediary, with the exception of $DESO.

Other problems solved are the decentralized nature, meaning there are no servers for a hacker to access or DDoS. There is no single trusted third party for the data.

Lastly, centralized social media platforms are unable to provide money native features such as social tokens (each user has their own coin), NFTS, and social tipping that scale.

What do I like most about DESO?

With decentralization aside, which we all like, my favorite concept is Creator Coins which you can read more about in the details below. Essentially, “Everyone Has Their Own Coin.” There are other projects out there like Rally and the like, but they are not ready for mainstream and seem difficult to enter. Deso has already hit the ground running and I have my own coin in a couple clicks.

I feel Deso is breaking some ground here in what I believe will be a future state in crypto, NFTs, and social tokens. This allows “fans” to interact directly with creators in a new way. While I am unsure if Deso will be “the one” – it is certainly a fun project and one to watch how the public and regulators react.

Tokenomics

The $DESO token utilizes a token-based system on the Ethereum blockchain

It has favorable tokenomics with a maximum supply of 10.8 million tokens, making it naturally scarce.
Total Supply: 10.8 million

What is the token used for?

Every action taken by each user has a cost that must be paid for in DeSo tokens. This applies to actions such as voting, posting content, and receiving notifications. The more times you take action on the network, the higher the token fee required will become due to inflation. In order to incentivize users to continue using the network and further the development of the DeSo community, 25% of all token fees paid will be distributed to holders of DeSo tokens through a smart contract.

Creator Coins

Creator coins are a new type of asset class that is tied to the reputation of an individual, rather than to a company or commodity. They are truly the first tool we have as a society to trade “social clout” as an asset. In theory, the value of someone’s coin should be correlated to that person’s popularity, the quality of their content, and so on. In contrast, if they make a social mistake or slur, the coin price should theoretically go down. Thus, people who believe in someone’s potential can buy their coin and succeed with them financially when that person realizes their potential. And traders can make money buying and selling the ups and downs.

What else do Creator Coins allow?

The creator coins provide a range of features and options listed below

Premium Messages

Most creators get a torrent of spam in their social media message inboxes. With DeSo they could make it so that only people who own a certain amount of their coin can message them. Alternatively, they can make it so that a certain amount of their coin must be paid to them directly in order for the message to actually enter their inbox. All of this would increase demand for their coin while helping to minimize spam for the creator.

Premium Content

People who own a certain amount of a creator’s coin get access to special content. Or, alternatively, people must pay a monthly subscription in the form of the creator’s coin in order to get premium content.

Distributions and Engagement

Creators can also use their coins to distribute scarce resources to the largest holders of their coins. For example, imagine if a famous celebrity offered to have lunch with whoever held the most of their coin at a particular date. Or imagine if they were going to offer 1,000 signed posters to their 1,000 largest holders. This is just the beginning of how creators can engage with their fans using their coins, and all such ideas could increase demand for their coin significantly.

Money Likes

Likes can be re-imagined as purchases of the creator’s coin. So it costs money to like something, but you get that person’s coin when you do so (effectively as a shortcut to buying their coin that’s associated directly with their content). Such a feature could serve as a stronger signal on what content is high quality as well.

To buy someone’s coin, you navigate to their profile on any DeSo app, and hit “Buy.”

Incentives

Every profile allows you, the creator, to keep a certain percentage of YOUR coins that are purchased as a “founder reward.” As a default, it is set at 10%. For example, if someone sets their founder reward percentage to 10% and then someone buys 100 DeSo of their coin, then 10 DeSo would go to the creator’s wallet rather than the purchaser’s. A good strategy, however, is to buy YOUR coin up-front , and then set your founder reward percentage to zero. This works because the coins are cheapest at the beginning of the curve, and it has the upshot of reducing friction on subsequent purchases of their coin.

Investors

Andreesen Horowitz
Sequoia
SC
Coinbase

$DESO Holders

TQ Ventures
Polychain
Pantera
Variant Fund
ParaFi
Sybil Capital
a16z
Coinbase Ventures
Winklevoss Capital

What next?

It is still early for this project and time will tell. It is a fun project and solves some major problems for social media and the current monetization options. Check us out if you try out the project at https://diamondapp.com/u/shift4 or https://bitclout.com/u/shift4

Sources
Deso website
Deso Twitter
Deso Documentation
Deso Coinmarket Cap

All information contained in this documents is not to be considered financial advice of any kind, and you should obtain independent legal, financial, taxation and/or other professional advice in respect of any decision. You acknowledge that any information provided is generic in nature and does not take into account your specific circumstances.