[Podcast] A conversation w/ @ned. Can STEEM end the attention economy?
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I first felt the broken incentives of the attention economy when I was working as a product designer in Silicon Valley.
Why did I have to place an ad right where a user was trying to read? Why did it seem impossible to design a social application with a business model that wasn't ad-supported?
These incentives force the hand of product designers to create products that distract. I explored this topic in a conversation with Hooked author Nir Eyal. Sam Harris also recently had a conversation with the "Time Well Spent" movement founder Tristan Harris.
Nir's antidote to addictive technology is using technology (such as an ad blocker) to circumvent such technology. Tristan is calling for a product designer "code of ethics." Just where the economic will to follow such a code will come from is unclear.
Yes, you can question the ethics of the attention economy, and you can use powers of persuasion to change behavior for the good (such as the Pavlok shock wristband. The creator, Maneesh Sethi, has also been on my podcast).
But what about the question of who is getting rich off of who's work? Social networks have no value without the people who create the content. Facebook would be far less valuable if it weren't for those who create content to be shared on the platform.
Traditional economic exchanges aren't effective in supporting the creation of such work. The threshold for a user to feel justified in compensating a creator directly is too high (see the work of Dan Ariely, also on my podcast).
So, "tipping" platforms have failed, and it remains to be seen whether subscription platforms work. Advertising is what's left, and the economics of that model are the problem.
STEEM compensates according to work done within the network, and it appears to [reduce cognitive friction] in distributing rewards.
Will it work? We explore that and more. It was great to have @ned on the show.
This is great! Thanks for putting it together!
Have you not heard of the Brave movement? I think Steemit should seek to integrate the BAT token.
Check out the Brave browser: https://brave.com/
and basic attention token:
BAT is going to eat steemit's lunch because they understand money doesn't grow on trees.
Advertisement capabilities is so important that it should be built right into the steem code but it's not even mentionned in the roadmap...
I wrote a post about this a few months ago https://steemit.com/steem/@snowflake/a-twitter-like-revenue-model-could-be-applied-to-steemit-busy
There is this general idea on steemit that advertisement is bad, it's NOT. Targeted and unwanted ad that tracks your every move, slow down your device,etc..is bad BUT advertisement where the user is in full control,can opt in or out, decides exactly what ad is being published and on top of that is being paid for it, then there is no problem with ads.
It doesn't have to be a competition. All Steemit has to do is ONE CHANGE on their internal exchange.
Accept BAT in exchange for STEEM POWER.
This would require gateways and all sorts of points of centralization but it would be very much worth it. The other thing Steemit can do is integrate BAT directly onto the Steemit platform so people can use the features of BAT combined with their Steem Power and Steem Dollars.
Advertisers are not going to buy bitcoin -> steem -> BAT Why would they when they can buy bitcoin -> BAT directly ?
The demand for steem won't increase as a result
If advertisers have BAT (which they'll have to buy because it's built into the Brave browser), and if Steemit accepts BAT, then Steemit is now open to advertisers. If BAT value can be converted to Steem Power than advertisers can pay Steem Power holders to serve ads.
Otherwise once enough people use the Brave browser the BAT token will be integrated at the browser level and Steemit will be left to lose.
If steemit accepts BAT then the price of BAT will increase not the price of STEEM.
I'm not sure I understand what you mean? Steem power holders need an infrastructure to serve ads which is missing.
There is only 2 ways to increase the price of steem through advertisement
BAT is also a browser thing so I don't think steemit is going to build their own browser, so we are left with option 2.
BAT is built into the Brave browser. The Brave browser blocks ads. That gives BAT a monopoly. Steemit has to work with the BAT people and deal with the BAT token on some level or people using the Brave browser will not get maximum benefit from Steemit.
Steemit should somehow integrate into Brave or work with the BAT team.
Steem investors don't care about the BAT token, they care about the STEEM token and the demand for it.
There is no point to work with the BAT people because they won't use STEEM instead of BAT, it's not gonna happen. But if they open source their code ( which I doubt) then we could use their ad model on a different browser with steem. But we will have to convince people to use this browser which won't necessarily be easy.
Both BAT and STEEM offers a completely different product so its hard to compare them however their goal is somewhat the same, which is to reward attention and content on the internet. The difference is that BAT has a clear revenue model and steem doesn't have one.
An investor's perspective on steem. I'm sure many other have the same conclusion. Starts at 11:30 min
meep
Interesting, thanks I had never heard of that. But, IMO it doesn't appear to solve the cognitive friction problem, as users will use the browser knowing they're being charged for each site they visit (if I'm understanding correctly).
But, I guess I have to try it and see what it feels like.
It does, you gotta read the whitepaper. Users earn tokens by viewing ads. Users spend tokens but without the cognitive friction because the process is automated.
That is interesting
Great thank you for the update @kadavy much appreciated.
Looking forward to listening to this!
https://twitter.com/Soul_Eater_43/status/857610828358586368
Disclaimer: I am just a bot trying to be helpful.
Hello @kadavy
This post has been featured in STEEMINT: The STEEM Intelligence Journal Issue 001
Just signed up because of the podcast
I'm listening at this very moment :)
Welcome, and thanks for listening!
Thanks for sharing! A link to your post was included in the Steem.center wiki page In the News/2017 . Thanks and good luck again!
What a powerful write up! Thanks a bunch for all this information, very interesting . Namaste :)
Great interview @kadavy I have added this post to the @Steemit social channels.
Thank you!
Excellent post! I like your work My friend