Great blog post explaining the inherent value of Synereo AMPs:
http://imgur.com/a/daLRn
https://blog.synereo.com/2016/09/14/amp-a-cryptocurrency-with-inherent-value/
The AMP – A Coin With (Even More) Inherent Value
Since the advent of Bitcoin, there has been a cambrian explosion of crypto assets. From Litecoins to Dogecoins, an incredible variety of tokens populates the exchanges, all competing for investor attention. However, it is not always clear where these coins derive their value from, and if there‘s something to them besides speculative hype and the Brownian motion of chaotic markets.
Synereo’s AMP, however, belongs to a special sub-group of crypto assets which derive their value from their inherent property, rendering their behaviour closer to that of real-life commodities than to that of mere speculative instruments.
AMPs are intrinsically valuable since they’re essential for anyone interested in accessing some of the services that will be provided by the Synereo network. As long as there exists a demand for these services, AMPs will carry value.
Let’s take a look at these services.
Sources of AMP Value
Demand for AMPs originates from 3 main sources:
AMPs will be the fuel for Synereo’s Virtual Machine, and as such are provided as a fee every time someone accesses your node to perform a computational operation, store information, or retrieve that information.
AMPs will be the staking currency of Synereo’s Proof-of-Stake consensus protocol, fronted by validators participating in the Blockchain assembly process.
AMPs lay at the foundation of Synereo’s Attention Economy and can be used to Amplify promoted content — to compensate other users for their attention.
AMPs as the Fuel for Synereo’s Virtual Machine
The Synereo platform is, in essence, a giant, global computer, composed of a multitude of personal devices, working together to maintain the network, execute decentralized applications, and host data. All these operations are services provided by Synereo nodes operating in synchronization. A “Node” is server software that combines into the decentralized virtual machine, installed by Synereo users just like you, who lend part of their computerized resources to the network while using it. These node operators are compensated with AMPs for each useful operation they perform.
Accordingly, every user interested in deploying a decentralized application on the network, or in using its resources, has to compensate the nodes involved with AMPs to do so. This is not very different from the way the old-fashioned, centralized Internet functions: If you want to own a website, you have to pay for its hosting. The main difference to what happens on Synereo, however, is that in the centralized paradigm these payments flow to giant hosting corporations like Amazon, Google, eHost and the like. On Synereo, in contrast, these funds are distributed among Synereo node operators.
So far so good. But at this point you might say that Internet users who access these hosted websites and applications normally do so for free, which seems to be the case, but is in fact quite far from the whole truth. When accessing ‘free’ web services like Google, Twitter, Facebook and many other web applications, you either pay by being exposed to commercial material or by being snooped upon and used as a Big-Data asset. In other words: If you don’t pay for the product, you are the product.
On Synereo, user exploitation of this kind is technically impossible due to its decentralized, private, Peer-to-Peer foundation. In order to economically maintain online-services deployed on Synereo, users are requested to pay AMP micropayments to access them, given that they’re not subsidized by the original deployer. These micropayments are virtually unfelt by users, since they always have the option to function as a Synereo node operator themselves, and as such collect micropayments as well.
AMPs as the Staking Currency of Synereo’s Proof-of-Stake Consensus Protocol
Every Blockchain has a consensus protocol which ensures that the nodes maintaining it don’t have the opportunity to corrupt or manipulate it. All nodes compare their results, so to speak, and make sure that only validated entries most nodes agree on are recorded on the Blockchain. These validating nodes are what transform the Blockchain into a truth source, objectively verifiable by anyone on the network.
RChain’s consensus protocol is based on the ‘Casper’ Proof of Stake design, developed by Synereo’s CTO, in cooperation with many of the key players in the blockchain space. On Casper, nodes are incentivized to participate in the validation process, but in order to do so, each validator first has to deposit a stake. If a validator produces anything the protocol considers “invalid”, which would happen if their response strategies allude to their attempt at manipulation, their deposits are forfeited along with the privilege of further participating in the consensus process. This constant need to for a participation stake creates a steady demand of AMPs.
AMPs as the Foundation of Synereo’s Attention Economy
On Synereo’s social network, AMPs can be used to promote and Amplify content. When invested in any type of post, AMPs increase the amount of views that post can receive, compared to what it could get without Amplification. In essence, AMPs AMPlify the power of a message, drawing more user attention to it. This allows anyone on the network to “purchase” user attention and to increase the spread of content.
If someone wants to pay for your attention, and you allow it – the AMPs they invest in the content you see come to you directly and automatically. And since people’s attention is a scarce commodity that is always in demand, AMPs have a base monetary value that represents the attention they can obtain on the network. You can, of course always opt-out from seeing Amplified, promoted content, granting you full control over your attention. But if you don’t, you’ll be rewarded directly.
Since AMPs are limited in number, and as a result of our attention economy model, AMPs also increase in effectiveness as the Synereo network grows – with each AMP invested allowing a post to receive more attention from more users as time goes by.
And if you don’t run your own node or want to worry about microtransactions, you can simply pay node hosts a small fee from all AMPs coming to you from Amplified content. Simple, no?
If you want to learn more about the Attention Economy model and the way information flows from user to user on Synereo’s social network, you can read this post, check out our simple slides about the model, or read our whitepaper which goes into the fine details.
If you want to purchase AMPs, you can participate in our upcoming fundraising campaign (https://bnktothefuture.com/pitches/synereo), which will start September 19th and run for 30 days. Join us in shaping the decentralized economy of the future!
Thank you for your attention,
— The Synereo Team