NFT’s and Social Media – Coming to Polygon
Social media is something that all of us have used, at least at some point in our lives. It started out as a platform where people were able to connect with friends and family all across the globe for virtually no cost, and has since turned into a digital revolution where people are able to share anything they like with the entire world. Whether that be content, pictures, advertisements, or even running your very own business or online store from your social media page. It has become a technology that a lot of businesses essentially can’t live without. Businesses are able to advertise their products for free or can promote their page for a very low cost. A lot of businesses now days are online stores that were built from a social media page. The point is, we are able to use social media for essentially anything, but my question is, could social media be better running on a blockchain?
The Social Media Problem
Although social media has become part of most people’s everyday lives, it doesn’t come without its problems. Now this problem doesn’t necessarily affect the average social media user, but it does affect content creators, public figures, businesses, and a lot of people who are trying to grow their social media presence for various reasons. The most common problem with social media right now is the media company itself, whether that be Facebook, Instagram or even Twitter. These centralised companies are very easily able to “shadow ban” or “censor” anyone they like, and in some cases, they can even just straight up ban your account altogether.
Now this issue is becoming increasingly clear of late, with various public figures, businesses or content creators starting to take alternative avenues by either making their own website and trying to operate their business from there, or just simply moving to a less censored platform for the time being. But that rarely lasts, as the cycle normally just repeats itself.
So, this brings me back to my original question, could social media be better built on a public blockchain? Quite frankly, I think it can. I think that this is an inevitable future, and it will change the way we see social media platforms today. But make no mistake, this is no easy task, that’s exactly why it hasn’t been done properly yet. Aave, the borrowing and lending protocol that we all know and love today is working to build a “Twitter like” social media platform that is completely decentralised, as well as being built on the Ethereum blockchain. Little is known about this venture so far as these things take a lot of time, but what we do know is that if successful these platforms will be fully censorship resistant. In other words, your posts won’t be able to be taken down by a central entity, or anyone for that matter. This is Ethereum, yet again having the ability to bring the power back to the people, we just have to build it!
Social Media for NFT’s on Polygon – The Beginning of an Era
Just recently, the team at Polygon Studios put out an update that they were working on getting a new social media platform called ‘Showtime’ onto the Polygon network. What this new media platform enables is a way to share your NFT collection to the world in the same fashion that you would normally share any other content on any other mainstream social platform. The protocol takes a similar approach to Instagram where users are able to post their digital artwork for the world, and other users are able to interact with your post via a like or a comment. Users are also able to follow each other in a similar fashion.
Showtime is still currently in a closed launch, however Polygon users are able to sign up to the projects official waitlist in the meantime. Although we are still in the very early stages of integrating social media with the Polygon and Ethereum networks, this is a good start and a big step in the right direction for our industry. We are showcasing what’s possible with this technology, and we are barely scratching the surface of what this industry will become. I hope you are all just as excited as I am, we are heading west and we’re not turning back!
Thanks for reading everyone
Liam Donald
This newsletter is for educational purposes only and should never be considered as financial or investment advice