Let’s say you want to send someone a letter. You write it, stamp it, and hand it off to the mailman for delivery. Easy peasy!

Normally, every time the mailman delivers a letter for you, you have to pay him via stamps. But what if the post office wanted to provide this service for free? Who would pay the mailmen delivering the letter? This was a problem facing communication companies, who didn’t want to charge people to send messages, but still had to pay their employees. Their solution? Sell your personal information to the highest bidder.

The “No Privacy” Problem

Today, communications platforms sell your interests, habits, and personal info to advertisers.

That’s like the mailman peeking into your mail, making notes about the contents of your mail, and then selling those notes about your interests to big magazine and flier companies so they can send you junk mail. That’s not right. Even though the mailman isn’t charging you money, you’re still paying for the service with your personal information and privacy.

The “Utility Token” Solution

The problem with mailmen offering a “free” service is that there is no incentive for them to provide it. Currently, they can sell your personal information to make a profit, but if we want that to stop how do we incentivize them to make that change?



We propose tokens.

Think of an arcade token. You can buy tokens to play games. When people play games, the tokens return to the arcade for resale. Even though games can have different token costs and wildly varying experiences, they all accept tokens. If a particular game isn’t being played, it can be replaced with one people would get more use out of. This strongly encourages the arcade to provide games people want to play, because people will end up buying more tokens to play those games.

In the case of a communication app, tokens can be used to gain access to services like deleting a message from someone else’s phone, extra swipes on a dating app, or exposure to grow your social media following.



And not all services have to cost tokens. Consider an open bar. The well liquor is free, but the Grey Goose and Patron might cost a few dollars extra.

Depending on the app, some services like sending a text message could be free, while other services like sending a large encrypted document might cost a few tokens. This way, applications can offer free services for all, while still reselling tokens obtained through premium services.

The “No Other Choice” Problem

Looking again at the mailman metaphor, most people don’t know that their “mailmen” (A.K.A. social media apps) are selling their personal information. And even if they did, what’s the alternative?

Currently, apps don’t share messages or content with each other. That’s like having a mailman that only delivers mail to you if your house is on his route. If your friend uses Ahmed as his mailman, and you prefer Jim, you would never be able to send letters to each other.

So even if you found a mailman you like (maybe one who doesn’t sell your information), you’d also have to convince your friends to switch to that mailman, otherwise you’d have no one to talk to. This gives your mailman power because he knows you won’t switch to someone else as long as your friends stay with him. That sucks. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have one mail network that serves everyone?

The “One Network” Solution

If the mailmen worked together, they could improve their efficiency and let everyone send letters to each other instead of only focusing on their individual routes. This would let people choose whichever “mailman” they like the most, instead of forcing them to use the same one as their friends because they don’t want to isolate themselves.

If apps shared messages and content with one another, people could still message their friends regardless of what their app of choice was. This allows new applications to gain traction by experimenting with new features and services people might enjoy, instead of spending time and energy on trying to attract new people AND convincing their entire friend network to join.

Conclusion

Your “mailmen” are snooping on your interests and habits. Even if you don’t like it, you can’t switch to a new one without abandoning your friends. It’s the same with communications apps… until now.

Apps can build a new, inclusive network that lets you choose the mailman (app) you want to use, without leaving your friends behind. And by using tokens, app developers can get paid without selling your personal info.

TL;DR

Take control over your personal information by using apps built on Mercury Protocol.

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