Sapien Network, the decentralized social news platform, has made significant progress in their bid to combat fake news and distribute revenue back to content creators.
June has been a milestone month for the project. Several developments have occurred ranging from the unlocking of the Sapien (SPN) token and its availability on several exchanges to a partnership with digital identity project Civic.
We’ll cover the full list of developments that the project has made in the past week or so.
The SPN Token Has Been Unlocked and is Available for Trading
By and large the biggest move forward by the team, the SPN token, which lets users perform social actions and purchase goods and premium content, was made available on June 14. This means that users who have purchased the SPN tokens can access them from ERC-20 compliant wallets such as MyEtherWallet.
To complement this, Sapien is also available on the two popular decentralized exchanges IDEX and Radar Relay, where it is ready for trading at this very moment.
Additionally, SPN token has been listed on the LAToken platform, where it is paired with Ethereum and the exchange’s own LA token. Trading for SPN on the LAtoken platform will be available from June 22, Friday.
The token release will please Sapien Network’s investors. Although the unlocking was delayed to comply with ongoing market regulations, the team has made an effort to ensure that beta contributors have had access to the tokens, the details of which follow.
Sapien Releases Details on Staking
The SPN token, a critical part of the platform that encourages the idea of measuring content based on value, is a means of proving that users are willing to risk something in using the network. This helps to deters the dissemination of fake news and abusive content.
Sapien’s staking economy features “eight pillars”:
- Access
- Rewards Engine
- Premium Communities
- Marketplace
- Advertisement Platform
- Platform Capacity
- Proof Of Stake Validators
- Top Secret!
The fact that users will have to stake coins in order to perform social actions will prevent them from committing to malicious actions. This applies not just to users, but also advertisers, businesses, media outlets and validators.
Each of the pillars demands a varying level of participation. For example, the first level called “Access” is the simplest form, where staking 100 SPN tokens gives users the ability to upvote, like and comment on the platform. However, “read only” actions will be possible without staked tokens.
The “Rewards Engine” pillar lets users receive tokens for participation by staking more than just 100 tokens. Similarly, staking even more will result in a user receiving more ad revenue, as described by the fifth pillar, “Advertisement Platform.” With Proof-of-Stake a possibility in the future, users can also stake a large amount of tokens to become a validator.
We don’t have too much information on the final pillar named “Top Secret!” but the Sapien team is teasing an unprecedented staking mechanism that will revolutionize the market, and support the social experience of the new web. This is expected to be released in Q4.
The full details of SPN’s 8 pillars of staking can be found here.
The Beta Program Showcases Community’s Enthusiasm
Sapien launched their Beta program on April 30, which let their enthusiastic followers test the platform and publish their very first content. The team released an extra 60,000 Sapien tokens for beta contributors to use and the statistics indicate a positive reception.
In just over a month, the platform has seen the publishing of roughly 7,000 posts, 10,000 comments, with 1,800 users, 1,000 branches (micro-communities that focus on a specific theme) and 145 groups.
Given that the launch only occurred very recently, this is great encouragement for the team as a social platform thrives on user participation.
Partnership with Digital Identity Provider Civic
Another hot development is their partnership with Civic, a project which lets users securely tie their digital identity through the blockchain, which will allow Sapien users to better control and protect their identity.
Civic Co-Founder and CEO, Vinny Lingham, believes this partnership will serve enhance both projects:
“We are pleased to welcome Sapien to Civic’s Partner Network. This collaboration marks another milestone for Civic’s ecosystem and on-demand, secure, and low-cost access to identity verification services.”
This will help Sapien Network process the credentials of its users without ever requiring personally identifiable information to be stored on centralized servers. The partnership allows users to choose what data is shared, and gives them the option to participate on the network anonymously or share their data to earn from ad revenue.
Sapien’s CEO and Co-Founder Ankit Bhatia notes the value of identities in combating misinformation:
“Excited to have Civic join the exclusive list of partners helping Sapien build the Web 3.0 social network of the future. Identities on the Blockchain is a fundamental facet of Sapien’s Proof-of-Value protocol that will fight fake news and create a superior social experience.”
A New Mobile App is Available for Android and iPhone
Social platforms is the kind of service that is most successful when available on any platform and at any time. With that in mind, the team has been worked hard to release a mobile version of their platform.
It is now available on the both the Google Play Store and the Apple App Store, and lets users carry out of all its social features on the go.
Sapien Beta Marketplace
The team also pays close attention to the community and, respecting their calls for merchandise on the marketplace, have listed new items for sale.
The first of its kind to accept the native tokens for the purchase of exclusive goods, the Sapien Beta Marketplace and Merchandise Store was launched at the beginning of June. The marketplace will let users purchase both virtual and physical goods, as well as premium content. Multiple goods are already available, including clothing and accessories.
The team expects the community to add much more in the coming months. The marketplace makes use of Metamask to process payments. The integration of cryptocurrency with ecommerce services is a fantastic achievement for the crypto market on the whole.
Sapien to Undergo Rebranding
With the help of Sydney-based Iconika, Sapien will be undergoing an all-inclusive rebranding. The partnership with the renowned branding icon, winner of the 6x Rebrands Global Awards competition, will involve aligning the branding with Sapien’s business strategy. Also on the cards is a revamp of Sapien’s vision and personality, and a clearer depiction of the project’s history.
The rebranding is in tune with the team’s agenda of making Sapien an attractive platform for social media users, with a personality that positions it as the future of social media communication.
The Sapien Team Expands
Changes are happening internally as well, with Sapien adding Lynn Connolly to the team, who will serve as the project’s Chief Compliance Officer.
Connolly has experience in advisory roles, having worked as an advisor for Lykke Corporation, and as Chief Compliance Officer and Director of Research for Fossil Free Indexes. She also possesses knowledge of distributed ledger technologies, having co-authored a whitepaper titled “The Missing Link: How a Distributed Ledger System Can Support Global Climate Action.”
Michael Henman, co-founder of Invest in Blockchain Media, is the second addition to the team, and will share his expertise in business growth and marketing as a marketing advisor.
Final Remarks
With misinformation and hate-fuelled sentiment rampant on social media, the idea of how to curtail its spread has become a prominent debate. Along with the ability to easily spread blatant falsehoods with no accountability, the internet’s concentration of power in a few companies that control popular publishing platforms makes it a forum that is not at all in favour of the end user.
Blockchain is often touted as a prerequisite for “Internet 3.0”, a more equitable place where users and content creators are paid their due. The demand for this new internet exists, with Sapien raising 11 million in 2 hours and comprehensive solutions like the one it offers is a step in the right direction to achieve this utopia, where information is gauged based on its value, and not from who says it or how many people it reaches.
For more information about the Sapien Network, read our guide to the Sapien project. You can also follow them on Twitter and join their Telegram channel.
