There is significant demand for a social media website that is beyond web2 and does not fall into the same pitfalls as other sites run from Silicon Valley. This makes the sector ripe for disruption – allowing people to own and monetise their content, says Dr Maximillian Sinan Korkmaz, founder of my2cents.

Presenting at the recent Blockchain Developers Conference in Istanbul, Korkmaz detailed my2cents and explained how the social platform allows users to earn money with their actions by posting status updates, videos, and podcasts on the blockchain.

The platform differentiates itself from traditional social media websites such as Twitter, Reddit and YouTube in that it does not have a follow function. Instead, it aims to give every user an equal voice. No content is shadowbanned on my2cents and it aims to promote the ideas, feelings and worldviews of people from diverse cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, thus eliminating confirmation bias.

The platform does not have an algorithm that determines what is displayed to each user, unlike other social platforms and search engines. Every user sees the same content on my2cents if their ‘recent/top’ settings are the same.

Web3 social media: An opportunity to make money

Korkmaz noted that the platform has proven to be particularly popular in parts of Africa, and Nigeria in particular, as users, have taken to the idea of being able to earn money through the platform.

‘We would like to give the opportunity to financially disadvantaged people from all countries to earn money by creating content. On my2cents people don’t only monetise their content, but can also monetise their used goods as it is also an e-commerce platform.’

Kormaz noted that these payments are peer-to-peer thanks to the micropayment capabilities of the BSV blockchain. Users on the platform are rewarded with peer-to-peer payments when others ‘plus’ their content or purchase their goods, and they can also earn a share of the platform’s advertising revenue if they choose to opt-in to advertisements.

Legacy social media is a broken system

Korkmaz said that the decision to found my2cents was in direct response to the problems with other social media platforms. ‘In the silicon-valley-based system, the proprietary rights of internet users are not respected, which disincentivises users from creating online content or engaging in P2P commerce,’ he said. ‘Through micropayments, my2cents incentivises users to create better and more on-chain content, along with providing a platform for commerce among individuals.’

How my2Cents works

Korkmaz noted that my2cents effectively works in three steps:

• Step 1: Users register for the platform and then begin uploading content. They are then able to vote on other users’ content and share links to my2cents on other platforms.
• Step 2: If a user decides to see advertisements, they can receive a share of the ad revenue proportional to their user score. They can also receive P2P payments from other users.
• Step 3: Users can buy/sell goods and services, and can get paid directly by others using my2cents. This helps contribute to the circular economy.

After a user has posted something if somebody ‘plusses’ their content they will receive money for it directly from that user. Plussing is similar to ‘liking’ on other platforms.

Korkmaz said the goal is to create a ‘super-app’ which includes a closed system of many apps that people would use every day. Combined they offer a seamless, integrated, contextualised and efficient experience, he said.

He added that my2cents offers an alternative platform to several popular websites including Wikipedia, Twitter, Reddit, Craigslist, YouTube,eBay and Uber Eats.

One of the most popular blockchain apps in the world

‘my2cents is the most used application that runs on any blockchain – not only on Bitcoin,’ said Korkmaz. ‘It is 100% self-funded and built with a budget that is 1/20th of a venture-capital startup and it is the largest app on Bitcoin, combining nine apps through its sophisticated incentive system.’

This incentive system can only work through the BSV blockchain which acts as a single source of truth for the content published on the platform. It also promotes honesty – as the content is there for everyone to see and cannot be changed – and there is significantly less chance of fraud compared to other platforms.

In addition to its obvious scaling capabilities to accommodate a platform as large as my2cents, the BSV blockchain is also legally compliant which means that users do not have to be concerned about how their information or the platform is being used.