As we previously mentioned in the whitepaper and blog posts, Dust will be the first application to undergo Mercury Protocol integrations. Dust is a messaging platform that utilizes an all-in-memory storage solution for messages and posts, never storing them on a hard drive, leaving them unrecoverable once deleted. In building Dust, our goal was to mimic the ephemerality of an in-person conversation, and provide users with a platform where they felt comfortable speaking freely. Dust has two primary methods of communication, private encrypted 1-to-1 messaging, and public “Blasts” which are similar to social media posts. You can download dust here http://usedust.com/.

We chose Dust as the first application to integrate the Mercury Protocol because its active user-base provides us with a great environment to dogfood the protocol. By working through our own integration into an existing centralized application, we will gain invaluable first-hand integration experience and public feedback. This feedback will paint a more complete picture of what users look for in an app, and how decentralization can help achieve that, and the integration will help us craft a better experience for developers looking to follow suit.

GMT Tokenization

The first step is to tokenize the application with GMT (Global Messaging Tokens). Users will initially have two ways to use GMT, both aimed at helping grow their networks.

Premium Exposure — users can use GMT to be listed on the front page of the Discover (new content) section for 24-hours. Premium Distribution — users can use GMT to send out a “Blast” to a number of users that don’t follow them.

Additionally, there will be various ways for users to earn GMT throughout Dust. Users will be rewarded for things like signing up for the platform, inviting a friend that resultantly signs up, or logging on multiple days in a row.

User Growth Pool

We are structuring this reward system around what we call the User Growth Pool. GMT used for protocol services will feed the pool, and user rewards will be drawn from it. The flexible nature of a tokenized ecosystem that utilizes a Growth Pool as its reward hub makes it a practical solution for other applications to implement as well, and can be easily calibrated to incentivize participation as it relates to any platform.

We selected these particular reward-worthy actions based on our analysis of Dust. In our case these actions are vital in sustaining a healthy ecosystem. We encourage application developers looking to tokenize with GMT to similarly analyze their platforms, and decide which actions are most important to sustaining a healthy environment for their users.

In Summary

GMT tokenization will be one of the first aspects of the Mercury Protocol to be open-sourced and ready for integration. We see GMT as a generally applicable component of the Mercury Protocol with use-cases across all types of communication platforms that when integrated properly offers benefits to users and application developers alike. We are excited for other applications to follow suit and tokenize their platforms, building toward the future of sustainable social networking.

TL;DR

Dust messenger will be the first application to receive Mercury Protocol integrations, specifically GMT tokenization. By dogfooding the protocol in Dust, we will gain valuable user feedback and integration experience so that we may better calibrate the protocol and build toward the future of sustainable social networking.

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Learn more about the Mercury Protocol

Read the Mercury Protocol whitepaper