Sphere – Be the Owner of Your Personal Data Once Again
Steemit’s brother is emerging
I don’t know how about you, but I’m pretty sure that Social Medias are nowhere near the level where they should be by now. People spend their time on platforms that not only don’t financially compensate the users for their effort, but the platforms are also gathering and then SELLING data, YOUR precious data, that should belong to you and ONLY to you (if YOU do not want to sell it), since its data about YOU (if I didn’t stress it enough already you know…). Steemit has come to rescue, but in such a complex world, one social platform is simply not enough. I decided to support decentralized social platforms, as they in return support me. Let me introduce to you, Sphere!
Critical review and (maybe some kind of feedback)
Aim of this article will not be blind praising, nor vilification of the Sphere. I’ll try to critically measure the whitepaper, because I too want to decide whether Sphere would be a good candidate for space in my portfolio and whether its purpose would be of good use to me, or other possible users. Truth is that I’m going to apply for reward trough Sphere’s bounty program (will be further explained later), but as you will see, this article can by no means be considered a sponsored one. If, and ONLY IF I will feel like my subjective opinion could benefit the creators, it will be shared. The feedback therefore may, or may not be part of the article.
The personal data and how they are being “voluntarily” stolen
Not long ago, in my presentation of Brave project I described how we have no choice, but to forfeit our personal data, when we want to search the internet. Since vast majority of the domains we search through are centralized, they have the control over all the data that has to be submitted in order to use the services. All those platforms have to do is to embody something like “the data gathered while you use our platform are ours” into the Terms of use and they are good to go. While Brave uses encrypted shield that prevents such an immoral behaviour and blocks all spying and advertising attempts (which is all good and I am actively using it), Sphere kinda wants to bring the matter to a whole new level and tokenize our personal data. Protecting the data is a good start, but being able to trade the data as we will would give us a whole range of new options.
As I love to say every now and then – Blockchain to the rescue
Removing the middleman is helpful in 100% of all the possible situations. Not only people do not need to trust another corruptible person, also the cost off the whole process is significantly lowered. That is why the decentralized systems are undergoing a huge boom on all fronts. Using Blockchain enables us to send precisely whichever data we choose to, through a decentralized system, to whoever we choose to. This effectively disrupts the monopoly that currently exists when regarding personal data. The domains that have assembled the data are selling it in HUGE bundles for a price that they have chosen – which can be way overvalued or undervalued (we will never know until the value will be decided through a fully free market). As of now the price is enormous, therefore only wealthy big corporations can afford to buy them and hope for possible profit. The “not so wealthy” corporations are, as of now, completely cut off the market, because they simply can’t afford the data through the middleman. Sphere could create an ecosystem, where big and small corporations alike could be buying the data from the owners directly, while the owners could trust the encryption to store their valuable data. With the data acquired, the corporations could then effectively distribute their adverts to those that truly are interested.
Bounty program
Bounty program is the main method through which the knowledge about Sphere is being shared to the masses. The principle is rather easy. As Sphere is going to be a social platform, it rewards users that decide to spread the world across other social platforms. It is only logical, because people that are already using social platforms are much more likely to transition to a new better one. It is the very same program why I will receive my humble share of the tokens. The point is though that everyone is eligible for that. Go and visit the site that I have linked above. Find how much tokens will be transferred to you for the amount of followers/friends you have and go and spread the message if you believe in the cause that Sphere has set for their platform.
The only thing I don’t like about the bounty program is that it incentivizes spamming. One is eligible for the reward for up to ten posts per week. That is 2 posts per day. It is HIGHLY UNLIKELY that the post wouldn’t reach all the active members that follow you after 10th re-post. The ICO will end in about 3 months and that is about 120 posts that are eligible for reward that are going to be shared with the very same users. This could lead to unnecessary multiplication of the token with no real value created. That finally leads me to…
SAT (Social Activity Token)
SAT is the token, which will be used in the Sphere’s ecosystem. It will be the means of transferring the data from the owner to the corporation. It has a VERY INTERESTING means of determining the total supply. The total supply of SAT will be equal to the amount of coins that will be distributed through the bounty system and bought in the pre-sale and the ICO. What that means though? That means that the initial interest in the token and the platform will set an “average value”. If, and that is HIGHLY LIKELY, new people want to join the platform and use its advantages, they will need to buy the tokens, for there will be no mining method through which it could be acquired. And that means that every new user of the platform will increase its value! I hereby proclaim that I will too acquire some tokens in the pre-sale. The Sphere looks more awesome! Optionally if you want to join and found my review useful feel free to use my referral link https://sphere.social/?ref_code=2ze9inl9o47t (that would be 50 free tokens for both of us) :).
Great article. I'm pro any decentralized social media. I went to site and I wish they had more information about their long term goals and plans. Maybe they just want to clone facebook/twitter but allow us to keep our information private, which is still a good thing. It's difficult for me to not just devote 100% of my time to steemit since it pays to do so. I would think a short-form twitter clone that finds a way to reward content creators would a viable project that people would be interested in, but I couldn't find anything on their website to indicate that are planning anything like that. Still, keep us updated on this project. It has my interest.
Yes I totally agree. The site and even the whitepaper needed more details in it. It definitely is not a good candidate for big investment right from the bat, but it might a good token to have. Buying a bit while its cheap or getting is through the bounty is worth it (it think).
Steemit can very well work like twitter. There are even Twitter like windows into the Blockchain (don’t remember the name...I don’t use it).
It's a nice project.
indeed
I joined Sphere a few days ago and I would say it is another alternative to the social media like Facebook, twitter etc who don't pay for the users' time. The Sphere will act as the brother of steemit.com. Another informative point is the decentralization concept, which does not store your personal data and personally I would highly favor it instead of Facebook and other social media sites.
Well it does store your personal data but they are encrypted and only entities you ratify can see them.