Another day, another blockchain ‘innovation’

Vice.org (not to be confused with Vice.com) has announced its intention to ‘disrupt’ the porn industry with the creation Vice tokens. Vice.org intends to create Vice tokens as a SMT (Smart Media Token) on the Steem blockchain. SMTs have yet to be developed and where only announced a couple of weeks ago, however already people are coming out the woodwork with designs on utilising the technology.

Let’s talk Porn… in details

From the look of the website Vice.org (don’t worry there is no porn on there yet, I’ve checked… purely for research purposes) is pitched primarily to Porn content producers, as a means for them to monetise their content better than they do now. It will also have the bonus of rewarding viewers for watching porn on their platform and aims to be ad free. Vice.org sees itself as the evolution of porn. From VHS to digital description to ad-ridden ‘Tube’ sites, now consumer-rewarding ‘Tokenised’ platforms.

Vice.org aims to be literally every teenage fappers wet dream!

Beneath the brochure

Okay. So I may not know as much about porn as I should however I do have a number of questions about any potential Vice token.

Who’s hosting these Porn videos?

So I’m aware there is a plethora of Porn ‘Tube’ sites. They host Porn content, serve up ads (alongside Porn) to viewers and I presume split the ad revenue with content providers based on hits. Unless I’m mistaken Vice.org will also need to host Porn content. I’m not sure if they plan to use a decentralised service, however even if they go the decentralised route, someone will need to pay node providers.

There is no free lunch when it comes to video hosting! I know EOS is planning a new model for storage hosting however that’s not here yet. As of writing, hosting video costs. It would be good to understand how Vice.org plans to overcome this.

Porn payout windows?

The payout window on Steem is 7 days. Votes/ Likes after the first 7 day payout do not receive monetary rewards. I’m not sure whether the payout window (and more importantly the number of payout windows) is a parameter that can be changed by an SMT.

Will the Vice token also have a one-time payout window? Porn is a lot more long tail than Steem content. I’d be interested in Vice.org’s plans for payout windows.

Cutting out Porn middlemen or new Porn middlemen?

The information on the Vice.org website is scant. Let’s be honest a headline like ‘Get paid to watch Porn’ is going to grab the interest of anyone; whether they are porn addicts or Mary Whitehouse converts. Also reading the blog posts there is a lot of talk about paying everyone; content providers, distributors, viewers. There is no talk of what Vice.org gets out of it.

Quick fire questions

According to the Vice.org website,

why would content producers give away their content in exchange for just a share of possible ad revenue, when they can get paid simply based on viewership, with no conditions?

• Does this mean Vice tokens will be non-stake weighted?
• Does it mean rewards will not be allocated on votes at all but on views only?
• How will rewards for views be allocated? On click? On length watched?

I'm intrigued to see how this SMT will be set-up.

Who is buying?

This is the biggest question for me however is this. So far - Content providers get rewarded Vice tokens, Distributors get rewarded Vice tokens. Viewers get rewarded Vice tokens. There will be no advertising on the Vice.org website. This sounds like Porntopia… However the billion dollar question is; who is buying Vice tokens to give it a value of anything other than zero? A token is worth nothing unless someone is willing to pony up and buy it each and every time someone wants to cash out and sell it.

Look, I can feel myself gearing up towards a rant!...

Let’s talk game

There is a lot of talk of SMTs and “incentives.” I've said this already but I'll say it again,

The number one incentive needed for any token is an incentive for someone to buy it.

Otherwise it’s just a worthless token.

There is an assumption (false in my opinion) that SMTs can simply ape the Steem model. However as of right now (October 2017), people are buying Steem for one of two reasons; (1) speculation of how big Steem could become (2) for STEEM Power and more influence on the platform.

In the future should STEEM/ one of it’s platform gain critical mass, the main reason I see for people/ companies buying Steem in the future is for presence and prominence on Steem’s frontends. I..e. As a means of getting their message, product or service to their userbase.

Presence

When it comes to the attention economy, most organisations have a ‘follow-the-herd” mentality. They go where their consumers are. We’ve seen it playout with the current suite of social media site. Name a company and it will have either a Facebook, Twitter or Instagram page or all three.

Let's take Busy.org (I’m tired of using the Steemit example, and it is often misconstrued). If Busy.org gained critical mass, a large demographic of people not on Busy.org will feel compelled to have a presence on the platform. This is what has happened to Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Hell, even I created a Snapchat account even though everything from the concept to that child-like yellow logo yelled ‘You’re too old for this shit!’ Yet I signed up anyone. Once the masses begin to flock to a platform, the major organisations follow.

Prominence

Presence isn't enough though. The fact that every man and his dog has a presence on say Busy.org will only create a limited demand for STEEM, the currency in my opinion. What will drive genuine buy demand is the need for prominence on Busy.org. Once organisations realise they can use STEEM Power to increase their influence and prominence on the platform, they will buy it. We can scream until we're blue in the face about the ills of advertising. However the ability of business to get their offering in front of a relevant audience will drive demand for currencies like STEEM.

The key word being relevant audience and that's where the community consensus on what constitutes valued contributions will help weed out the kind of ad spam that is experienced elsewhere. If you're paying for prominence the last thing you want is for the community to vote down your content. Businesses will be forced to be more savvy and relevant with their approach to getting your attention. Communities will become more savvy in how they weed out business that attempt to advertise to them without providing value.

The beauty of the Steem model is that anyone can gain influence. Either through the value they provide to the wider community or to by buying STEEM and locking it up in STEEM Power. Your reputation score will also become a thermometer for your value to your community.

Speaking of communities. Once (or if) Steem introduces communities, this will help people make sense of the Steem eco-system. 'Like' will be competing with 'like' for influence in a given area of interest. Be it Sport or Photography or News. However unlike the current paradigm, businesses will need to compete on a decentralised, censorship resistant blockchain. Everyone will have the opportunity to earn rewards based on the value they provide to a given community.

So what’s my point?

The reason why I’ve taken the time to explain (what I see) as some of the nuances and future economics of Steem is that Vice token as it currently stands has no such incentive for people to buy it.

It almost falls at the first hurdle; why would I (or any other investor) buy Vice token simply so that people who have idled away their time watching porn (and people that provided it to them) can cash out?

As an investor, what the fuck am I supposed to do with all these Vice tokens I’ve accumulated. Fuck! At least the fappers managed to 'knocked one out' in return for their tokens, I don't even get that satisfaction!

Do I even get influence over which Porn flicks get rewarded more on Vice.org? It is not clear.

If I do get influence and if I am able to push my wares to greater prominence, I’d need to be flogging a particular kind of product that would appear appeal the kind of demographic that likely spend a little too much time wanking than doing something construction that can pull in money to spend on my product (sorry to be crass, but you get my point).

Whitepaper please!

The bottom line is this; I like that people are getting amped by SMT and are thinking of new ways to monetise. However the is a reason why the release of Steem was accompanied with a whitepaper that majored on economic incentives. I think that SMT's will also need a similar type mindset. Describing how token rewards will work is the easy part. Explaining how you avoid people gaming the system and how you entice people to buy the token (and give it value) is a completely different ball game.

As for Vice token, I would really need to see a whitepaper (and I don’t mean Kleenex) before I’d even consider investing.