Klaytn: How did the collaboration with Klaytn first come about?

Fred Bae: I’d say Klaytn and Piction Network shared a fairly similar vision for blockchain technology. We both believe in the popularization of blockchain rather than merely doing blockchain just for the sake of doing blockchain. Especially in times like these, we need real use cases for the industry to grow out. When we talk about blockchain, we need to talk about decentralization for sure, but that’s not everything. What needs more attention is user experience. The key is providing a user-friendly blockchain environment.

Piction Network is a peer to peer digital contents platform, and it is almost impossible to decentralize all of our servers. We wouldn’t be able to operate the platform. If we were to advise our users to only use PIXEL — Piction Network’s token — under the pretext of pursuing decentralization, we wouldn’t be able to create a market to even begin with.

The critical issue here is that we need to provide an environment that market and users can accommodate to so that more practical use cases to be produced. That’s when the entire blockchain industry can start to expand. We saw that Klaytn shared this same philosophy. We are delighted and excited to be working together.

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Klaytn: Yes, we also agree that Piction Network and Klaytn share the same perspective towards blockchain. We hope to create more real use cases by working with Piction Network.

Fred Bae: I understand that there are many other service providers besides us joining Klaytn with a goal to produce practical use cases. It’s amazing how fast partnerships are being made. What’s more amazing is that all service partners, including us are already successful business players with a considerable number of active users on their platforms. I very much look forward to witnessing plenty of user interaction and user acquisition among different services and protocols on Klaytn the mother platform, which will ultimately contribute to the growth of ecosystem that connects users, services, and platform altogether.

Klaytn: Can you tell us more about your project?

Fred Bae: Put simply, Piction Network is a blockchain-based peer to peer digital contents ecosystem. As many point out, the structure of content platforms in the current market is such that even if creators and users are producing great contents, no sufficient compensation is reimbursed. At the same time, the platforms are burdened with too much roles and responsibilities, which in return require too much human resources and costs. This altogether also puts a great burden on corporations that run platform businesses. We recognized this issue, or rather I’d call an irony, and decided to do something about it. That’s how Piction Network first came about. We seek to disperse the excessive roles and responsibilities that are currently put on platforms by using blockchain technology.

Klaytn: We are curious to know why and how you are utilizing blockchain technology.

Fred Bae: The current content industry is too money-centered. Monopolistic platforms like Netflix and YouTube are equipped with the most amount of capital and power. And in consequence, the creators and users are being naturally marginalized, conscious and unconscious. We as a small venture can’t change the entire scene, but we need to continue casting doubts and asking questions to constantly see if we are on the right path.

The core value of content industry is supposed to be fun, not money. Fun. Entertainment. Amusement, you see. We’d like to preserve this value by giving incentive to users who consume these fun contents. And we’ve built a token economy in order to realize this scheme.

Klaytn: Rewarding creators in Piction Network’s token economy seems pretty easy to analogize. How about rewarding users then? Do you just need to read or follow more contents?

Fred Bae: There are many ways for users to earn rewards. Simply reading or watching contents will not give rewards. You need to actively perform roles or complete tasks in regards to consuming contents. For example, you can donate or contribute to creators so that they can continue producing contents, and when a specific content that you ‘invested’ becomes popular, you can receive rewards accordingly. Here’s another possible option. Let’s say there’s a user named Alice who happens to be fluent in Chinese language. If she translates some Korean content into Chinese, she can receive incentive. Same goes for marketing too. If you share our web comics or web novels on other communities, you can receive rewards. What Piction Network is doing in essence is, we are assigning roles and activities to users, which were originally completed by platforms and creators.