Is decentralization getting closer?
After almost a full year of delays and a $150M cash injection from Block.one. EOS based social media platform Voice is now in open BETA stage and is allowing users to sign up and take a look around.
Content creators looking to reap the rewards for generating quality content on the other hand are being advised that they will be able to get full functionality in August 2020. One of Voice’s main pulls will be that it will reward users for quality content and aims to create a truly “transparent” social media platform.
In the wake of the recent Twitter hacks exposing the frailty of centralized social media giants – the setbacks and delays will play right into the hands of Voice – who launched 2 weeks ago.
The timing looks perfect as the world reels from yet another centralized hack that exposed personal and sensitive information. But are users ready for decentralized social media?
EOS making moves
In a welcome email titled “Hello World.” Voice announced that the public launch was intended to happen after BETA testing finished on August 15, 2020, but “We opened up early. We couldn’t wait,” wrote Voice.
The decentralized social media platform conceived by Block.one basically offers users a decentralized version of popular social media platforms such as Facebook. The main difference is that the platform rewards users with Voice tokens for posting quality content and is hoping to lure people in by incentivizing contributions.
Voice was originally destined for the EOS public blockchain but now runs on a private version of the protocol. Whilst it is great to see the product finally available, the launch has been anything but smooth sailing for Block.one. In fact – we remember hearing a lot of hype around the project back at the November 2019 Blockshow event in Singapore.
Setbacks
After initially announcing the Voice platform in June 2019 the team communicated a full release in Autumn of that same year. It wasn’t meant to be. After almost 6 months of quiet Block.one then announced they would be adding an extra $150 million into Voice in March 2020.
Block.one CEO Brendan Blumer then announced that he was “handing the reins” to Voice CEO Zalatimo, and that Voice had now ultimately broken off from Block.one to become its own stand-alone company.
Voice joins a long list of applications that have sought to decentralize social media. The most successful social dapps to date have existed on the Steem and now hard forked HIVE blockchain.
As discussed, the timing of Voice’s launch seems very timely after the recent hacking incidents occurring on Twitter. Furthermore, as multinational companies that had previously put healthy ad budgets to platforms such as Facebook look to boycott the platform – is it time for a new social media platform to lead the way toward a more decentralized future?
As always we will continue to monitor developments as they unfold. For now, make sure to bookmark DappRadar. Sign up to our newsletter to receive regular updates directly to your inbox.
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