What do Steemit, Alis, and Belacam have in common? All three are attempting to challenge established mediums for social media and content production utilizing cryptocurrencies. Everyone is wondering about what might take the place of Facebook or Instagram in the near future. We recognize that today, every site you visit, share, and like, relies on quantifying and neatly packaging our desires, fears, and needs, for the consumption of advertisers in order to generate revenue. Let’s think about this deeper, as if we haven’t grown accustomed to this practice, as if we haven’t been normalized into complacency.

When I write a post or upload a pic, I am sharing something of mine, something that I have created. It is my original content that drives traffic to the site, increases activity, and provides the advertisers with their desperately needed statistics. Without my input, their platform becomes just another home for spam, clickbait, and slimy characters hoping to scam someone for a couple bucks. We have been sold the idea that with the right content any one of us can become a star on social media. All we need to do is copy, post, follow, and like, night and day, every minute, nonstop. While many stars have been made online, and some have transformed that stardom into a steady source of income, the overwhelming majority are merely being milked to generate revenue. Imagine if every like of a post or pic amounted to a direct monetary contribution to the creator of that content. Imagine, that you could gain 1,000,000 likes and 100,000 followers, and transform that activity directly into income without having to resort to converting your feed into a shameless hotbed of advertisements for random companies that want to capitalize on your original content.

Steemit, Belacam, and Alis are all attempting to solve these problems with the current social media establishment. These platforms operate under the same basic structure of likes equal a certain number of tokens, and each utilizes a different blockchain. However, based on my personal experiences using their products, Steemit and Belacam are missing something (I am not sure what Alis will be like, since they still do not have a fully functional product; however, I am assuming they will be similar to Steemit, since they have marketed themselves as the Japanese version of that platform). They feel more like mechanisms for charity and donations, instead of platforms that monetize the original content individuals produce on social media. If payment is optional, if I can read the content and see the photos without paying, why would I pay? Why not just add a donation feature to Instagram or Facebook and call it good?

Cryptocurrencies have the capacity to revolutionize the micropayment industry. They have the capacity to allow us to monetize the data we produce with our daily interactions online, whether on social media or elsewhere. Corporations are tracking, monitoring, analyzing, and selling our information every day. Why should we continue to allow them to make profits off of our thoughts, behaviors, and actions, without requiring them to pay for what they so desperately need? Monetizing social media interactions is one of the first steps we can take toward owning our online presence.

So who will finally come forward with the most intuitive, efficient, and convenient platform to initialize the social media evolution?

…stay tuned for updates from Shokone, we have something in the works that will revolutionize the space…

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