It would be wrong to say that blockchain is still a new term. The world knows quite a bit about cryptocurrencies and blockchain. Industry leaders have called it the new internet and its supporting communities believe it will change the way things work in the world. A layperson has always been confused as to how blockchain will affect his/her life. The concept of digital currency makes sense to them but they can’t fathom how blockchain will change their lives beyond cryptocurrencies. A blockchain social network might just be the thing that would change their perception of blockchain technology.
What’s Wrong with Conventional Social Networks
There is a lot wrong with conventional social networks like Facebook and YouTube. In fact, there is a lot wrong with most of the news websites on the internet today. What they bring forth for the users to see is highly influenced by the advertisers. If advertisers find some content worthy of advertising, they will place their ads within that content. The social network or news website will rank this particular piece of content higher because the more clicks the advertiser gets the more revenue is generated for the social networking website.
This issue has worsened in recent history. YouTube, a platform that people used to love for its content, has become a center of criticism by its own content creators. The content creators have been complaining for a long time about how their content does not get to their audience just because it is not advertisement-friendly. Just because a video is not advertisement-friendly, the social networking platform demonetizes it. The content creator does not receive any money and on the other hand, the viewers get to see advertisement-friendly content even if it is far from reality.
In short, if you were a content creator looking to expose some company that makes doughnuts, and the advertisers considered it unfriendly, your content will reach only a small number of people because the video hosting platform will not promote it. Why would they promote something that does not earn them money? However, the user is the loser here because he/she does not get authentic news or information.
Similarly, platforms like Facebook are not safe for users anymore either. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg had to present himself in front of the congress to answer questions about privacy policies and breaches of user data on his platform. One of the highlights of the discussions was Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The Cambridge Analytica scandal involves a firm that that used the data of Facebook users to promote content that changed their views about elections. It was not just an attack on the privacy of people but on their psychology as well.
Blockchain Social Network
Blockchain social networks will provide relief to users when it comes to their security, control of their privacy and data. First of all, these networks are decentralized so the option of storing all the user data on one centralized server that belongs to a company is out of question. Secondly, the decentralized nature of the platform will not allow any company to manipulate the data to its advantages or its advertisers’ benefits. Other benefits of blockchain social network are as follows:
Enhanced Meta Data Security
One of the issues with most conventional social networking platforms and instant messaging applications is that they only encrypt the end-to-end messages but the meta data of the messages remains exposed for third parties. Unauthorized parties can utilize this meta data to their advantage to know who the messages are coming from and to whom they are going. In a decentralized environment, no unauthorized parties have such information available to them.
Anonymity
The encryption of messages as well as meta data on blockchain social networks adds to the anonymity of the individuals as well. Your government might have banned you from using certain platforms, talking about certain topics or watching a specific piece of content. Accessing that content can get you in trouble on conventional social networks whereas you are fully safe when using a blockchain social network.
Access to Real News
If you are active on the internet, you must have seen people using the term “fake news” quite frequently these days. That’s because people have realized that social networking platform (like YouTube and Facebook) is highly influenced by their advertisers. They will only rank advertiser-friendly content high in their search results. They would demonetize any non-advertiser friendly content and won’t let their users access it too. With a decentralized network, users will be able to create content and share it across the platform using specific types of tokens that are official for that blockchain platform.
Conclusion
So
me people might be under the impression that blockchain social networks are just fads but what they don’t realize is that as people continue to realize their rights to privacy; decentralized social networks will become more popular. Furthermore, the coming of GDPR has put traditional social networking platforms in trouble whereas blockchain networks are intrinsically GDPR compliant or at least close to being that.
SocialX strives to become the blockchain-based social network that will take social media to the next level!
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Next Gen Social Media