The inherent nature of BSV blockchain (BSV) and the ability to tap into micropayments and verification from other users make it an ideal platform to develop self-learning tools, says Jack Pitts, Co-Founder of the self-learning dictionary SLictionary.
SLictionary uses BSV to create a monetary incentive for word definitions. The platform has focused exclusively on the English language until now, but in early 2022 announced that it would begin featuring the Arabic language.
While ordinary dictionaries have one definition; SLictionary’s words have unlimited definitions for each word. The community decides what the correct definitions are, while ‘wordsmiths’ make 70% of all revenues.
‘Every single person who puts a word is an expert in something. If you are making Applejack whiskey in your backyard then an English professor in Cambridge, Massachusetts is not the person to define what it is – you are.’
‘It’s the same thing with Bitcoin. Why should an English professor writing for Miriam Webster define it? Why not have Satoshi Nakamoto define it?’
Pitts added that the ultimate goal is to create an ‘expert marketplace’ where literally anyone can put their own definitions into the online dictionary and earn micropayments every time they do.
Why an incentivised self-learning dictionary is only possible on BSV blockchain
Pitts noted that SLictionary is only possible on BSV blockchain as it requires a system where people are given micropayments for their inputs.
The BSV network allows new, highly scalable workflows to replace subscription and ad-based revenue models, leveraging Bitcoin’s highly efficient blockchain as a real-time financial database.
The Bitcoin ledger allows service providers to focus on their customers, removing payment gateways, shopping carts and the slow, clunky steps of on and off-ramping clients to third-party processors to complete transactions.
Pitts said that he sees Bitcoin as the commodification of the cloud and the next step in eliminating inefficiencies in the existing payments chain.
“The ‘container’ itself is an empty Bitcoin. Inside you can put everything from a computer programme to data. So what we have done is put the definitions on chain. That container sits in your wallet and you own it, and it basically commands all the rights to the income from people using your word in the dictionary.”
Bounty system
Pitts noted that SLictionary also includes a bounty system allowing people or groups to set a reward for defining a word. But the person who puts up the bounty owns the word and all the associated definitions.
He compared this to being in the real estate industry where someone can contract out the building of something (in this case a word’s definition) and then effectively owns it once the definitions have been decided.
You can read more about and contribute to SLictionary here.