While Mark Zuckerberg had to justify himself in front of the US Congress in Washington for the data scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytica, an Austrian on the other side of the world was busy working on a startup that Facebook might one day compete with. Marcel Füssinger from Vorarlberg has set up a startup in Singapore to bring social media to the blockchain. It is called SocialX and has, after an Initial Coin Offering (ICO), sufficient capital to lay the foundations for a Facebook alternative this year.

“We think that this is probably the best time to establish SocialX on the market. One of the reasons is all the news about Cambridge Analytica, that companies create a social profile of you to be able to manipulate you day by day, and the momentum which it can bring along.” says Füssinger in a conversation with Trending Topics. Unlike Facebook, SocialX is supposed to reward users with cryptocurrency for posting photos or videos.

ICO generates more than 2 million dollars

The ICO was held earlier this the year and SocialX raised a total of 1,830 ETH and 3,200 ZEN — at that time worth the equivalent of more than two million dollars, currently still more than one million dollars after the collapse in value of cryptocurrencies. In return, the investors of the ICO received so-called SOCX tokens, which can be traded on some smaller exchanges.

Later on, when SocialX goes online with its web service, these tokens will be earned by the users. Anyone who receives a “superlike” for their content earns a token at that moment. Once you have collected enough, you would be able to exchange SOCX tokens for Bitcoin or Ethereum or even use them to fund your credit card, according to the startup’s vision.

“We are currently working at full pace to combine the topic of blockchain and social network as simply as possible,” says Füssinger. “Through decentralization and social governance, we can continue to interact with our friends on a daily basis, without being exploited by one or more companies.” Millennials in particular would be very interested in cryptocurrencies — and there’s a great chance that they could be inspired to switch to SocialX.

Soon, all people who bought SOCX tokens can test a closed beta version of SocialX. According to the roadmap, new functions will be added as the year continues, and: The contents of the users should not be stored centrally on the company’s servers, but in a decentralized network. The work on the project began the end of 2016.

Singapore as a location

Füssinger and his two co-founders Christian Josephs and Philip Hendry have chosen Singapore as the location for setting up their company — the Asian metropolis that also attracted the crypto startup TenX by Julian Hosp (Trending Topics reported about). “Neither Liechtenstein, Austria, nor any other location in Europe can compete with the advantages of Singapore,” says Füssinger.

From left to right: Philip Hendry, Marcel Füssinger and Christian Josephs (founders of SocialX)

The founder, who previously had a company in Liechtenstein, considers the small principality to be “the best country” to carry out an ICO, “simply because you are not looked at crookedly if you want to apply for a bank account”. However, Singapore is much better in terms of team building, says Füssinger. Because: “Is Liechtenstein the best country to build up talents?” The answer seems to be no.