Hive offers a lot of opportunity in terms of the database features. This is something we discussed over the past few years.
Many ask what is Hive?
At its essence, it is, like all blockchains, a distributed ledger. This means the information is immutable, transparent, and decentralized. Hive takes this one step further by not only housing financial transactions (and balances) but also can store any text.
Thus, we have an immutable, text database that is decentralized.
There is another factor in this. We are dealing with bringing trust to a world where that is difficult. For now, most of that stems from the institutions we deal with. The flow of money through the system is only possible because we trust the ledgers of the banks. They are the ones responsible for that.
When it comes to others areas of life, especially in the digital realm, we have to trust the platforms or companies behind them. We know how this can be a risky proposition, until now.
People had not choice. With Hive, we are starting the process of providing alternatives.
Many ask what problem does cryptocurrency solve? To me, this is the wrong question because it is looking at the wrong layer.
The value of cryptocurrency lies in the network it is tied to. Hence, what is built on there and, more importantly, the problems solved, are crucial.
For this reason, it is vital to look for something where people question the validity of the information being presented. How do we know the results are true?
When it comes to review aggregation, what do we know about the content? Is what we are being presented factual?
In the past, this was often taken for granted. That said, we know better these days. There is nothing that says bots are not used to change the results (or post the comments). This is commonplace.
When it comes to the film industry, we are presented with a problem. How trustworthy are the two companies behind the main sites?
As we can see, Rotten Tomatoes is owned by Fandango. This might not be the worst offense in the world but there could be a conflict of interest.
But wait, it gets worse.
Have you ever used IMDB? Of course, if you are a film or television fan, you have been to this sites quite often.
Do you know who owns it?
At the time of the purchase, it was not a big deal. Amazon was an online bookstore. Today, however, is a completely different story. We now are dealing with a company that is spending many dollars to get into the broadcast and video game.
It also has become a production studio. Does this mean it is possible the company might give its own films and shows higher marks?
The fact the possibility exists is telling.
Fortunately, there is a solution for this. It is something we discussed in the past but now we are going to build it.
The problem with review aggregate sites is that, when it comes to voting, how do you trust the results? Like most forms of voting, we simply have to trust the system. In the world of Web 3.0, this isn't going to work.
For that reason, the solution lies in decentralized polling. This is a crucial feature in the process. We need transparency when voting. When it comes to the movie/film review industry, this is nowhere to be seen.
On Hive, we can build this. Here is what is already in place.
This is a poll that is in threads. Many communities are using it to vote for their author of the week. All votes cast are posted to the blockchain like all other data. It is open for anyone to see.
Here we see trust being added back in by letting the blockchain be the driver of it. There is no entity to depend upon. The data is immutable since it is on-chain.
For review aggregation, this is huge.
Decentralized polling is the key element. At this moment, we are constrained with the technology requiring the addition to long form content. A request was put in to get that done. Also, the number of options has to go from 4 to 5.
However, this are minor fixes.
Once we have the pieces, we go about simply database building.
We started to do some of this already. This phase of construction is just getting going so the numbers are small.
Here is the essence.
Each film or television series will have its own page. There is a basic write up of what it is about, the cast, and other information such as box office gross and release date. The genres are also posted on there.
The polling will be embedded directing into the page itself. This means it is always visible to the person reading the page.
What about leaving a review?
Here is where it gets interesting. This is Hive 101.
The comment section is where individual's post their reviews. Here we are dealing with a feature that was around since the first day Hive went live. It is also an ideal use case for the long form content.
At this point, it is worthy to mention the shift in focus.
Most content appears on Hive in an effort to garner rewards. This is an important part of the ecosystem. However, with this project, we see something a bit different.
The goal is to use Hive, the decentralized database, as the foundation for this project. We are after trust, not rewards. For that reason, when you look at the account in Peakd, you see the rewards are declined.
In other words, this is being built with the long term focus. Our goal is to have something that is heavily utilized a number of years down the road.
To me, this is a point overlooked with Hive, It is a permissionless database that houses text. Why not utilize it in that fashion?
We have a shift in focus away from rewards based upon a week's voting to a longer term project that can bring value to all of Hive. Remember, this data is on the blockhcain, meaning it is accessible to anyone. Front ends could be developed to incorporate it as they see fit.
Once again, that means all reviews are resident on the blockchain. Any UI can pull the data and see it, regardless of what was used to submit it.
Review aggregation is not even limited to one website or application. It immediately becomes available on a number of them.
Since there is a big opportunity in the film and television segment, we decided to tackle that first. We are a team of 3, so far, and looking to expand over time.
More updates will be provided over the next month. For now, the focus is getting some basic pages built.
The final piece I want to mention is Hive content that already has movie reviews. We will be linking those articles in the main section of the appropriate page. Hence, if someone wrote a detailed review of a particular film, once the page is created, we will look to have that link as part of the main body. This was people can click on it to find out more information.
Of course, this helps to create more links to content that is already on Hive.
Find a problem and solve it. We aim to show how Hive can be a centerpiece for decentralized polling and review aggregation. Since it appears lacking in the film and television industry, it is an ideal place to start.
Plus we are dealing with an industry that generates hundreds of billions of dollars per year in revenue.
Time to swim in a much bigger lake.
