No More Tech Giants as Corporate Monarchy
A handful of tech giants control the digital economy like kings and queens. From high on their corporate thrones, they select the choicest yields in the kingdom and leave the scraps to the people below. This disproportionate influence increases their economic reward while marginalizing all other ecosystem participants — from creators to users to advertisers. In this system, centralized platforms dictate terms to exploit users/creators, etc. A more equitable realm is possible, however. Decentralizing, democratizing tech in conjunction with the immutable ledger aspect of blockchain can be leveraged to support all ecosystem participants rather than a few massive corporations.
Contentos is a blockchain protocol that will form the spine of a new digital content ecosystem. Its vertebrae, so to speak, will be the platforms that graft to its immutable foundation. In the Contentos ecosystem, all players will benefit proportionally to the value they add. Creators, users/fans, advertisers/brands, dApp developers, and others, will earn rewards based upon their positive contributions.
Creators deserve a place of honor with fair compensation for their work. This begins with creators truly owning their content. Contentos provides a permanent, immutable copyright stamp on each creation that verifies a creator’s ownership. Creators then have the ability to offer access to their content through smart contracts to users, advertisers, etc. for payment in COS (Contentos tokens). Furthermore, if creators choose, copyrights can then be sold for larger, lump sum payments.
In the current system, creative work often dies when platforms disappear. In contrast, work lives forever in the Contentos ecosystem. This permanence allows creators to find new homes for their content as platforms and tech evolves. Legacy ought not exist for only kings and queens. Creators are the heart of the content ecosystem, and legacy is instrumental for creative growth, allowing both creators and their audience to situate where a creator’s content has been and dream where it might go.
Within current social media models, the myth that all creators are earning vast amounts of revenue is perpetuated. Though it is true that a percentage of creators are generating big returns, it is also true that most content creators are not high earners. Additionally, these social media platforms take the majority of the revenue earned through advertisers. This is incredibly exploitive. These platforms would not have the ability to earn revenue, save the creative content. There are innumerable tools for measuring the ROI driven by advertising and marketing, but how do you qualify the value of content created by influencers? Creativity, originality, and ingenuity are more intangible and, therefore, difficult to measure. Indeed, most people do not engage with a platform in order to view the ads. Instead they tolerate the ads because of rich and interesting content. But because corporations control the platforms, they are able to justify exploitation of creators.
With Contentos, there is no third party mediating the interaction between creators and viewers or advertisers. Creators set their price directly for their content with the user or advertiser as governed by smart contracts and micro payments with COS tokens. This direct and transparent relationship allows more equitable agreements and places content creators in a position of power.
Freedom of expression is imperative in fostering creativity. Corporations encourage limited types of content in traditional social media models that benefit their own interests; rather, the interests of their advertisers. Often, this sort of content plays to the largest audience, or, in the least, attempts to do so. Playing to the masses is not always synonymous with creating great content. In the Contentos ecosystem, there is no third party guarding the gates to an audience. Instead, there is a direct relationship established between creators and fans. Creators can play directly to their specific users — the people that understand their work. Fans can directly pay the creators they hope will flourish. It’s worth noting that according to a 2016 Sprout Social Study, consumers prefer an authentic and honest brand personality on social networks. Ultimately, communication between creators and their audience will allow for more authentic connections between all players in the digital content ecosystem.
