Frequently Asked Questions ========================== An outline of answers to common questions. The full answers aren't here yet - just an outline to be used to create a future FAQ with full answers. Why decentralized? ------------------ - Aligns incentives of company with interests of users - Users can properly own their content - not dependent on continued existence of company - Mainstream users will feel the improvement without understanding the technical details - Network can't go down - greater reliability - Censorship resistance - the company doesn't control what's on the network (though it does control what is on its own node) - Easier to scale - smaller hosting/bandwidth costs for company - architecture doesn't have to be "uniquely scaled" like most centralized web services - Increases probability of global success - doesn't arbitrarily exclude sets of people based on location, age, or other. - Core users care deeply - it's the primary reason why there is a core userbase Why open-source? ---------------- - Enables greater input from community - community can issue PRs - Builds core community - enables users to participate in more ways than just using the app - Security problems more likely to be found and fixed before they are exploited Why blockchain payments? ------------------------ - Permissionless - makes it easier for the company - Permissionless - makes it easier for the users - Largest software ecosystem - more software tools - Largest expert ecosystem - more developers - Largest payment ecosystem - more merchants, exchanges, etc. Why would I want to pay for content? ------------------------------------ - Believe in what author is saying - Want to increase visibility of author's posts - Repost to your page - you get paid repost from you - profitable - Investment - can profit Aren't micropayments are psychologically expensive? --------------------------------------------------- - Payments will be $0.25 or greater to account for this - Smaller payments, if necessary, can be handled by paying a monthly fee What if someone posts content that isn't theirs, or illegal, or immoral? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ - Flagging system - If noticed by chance, user is banned from Datt, Inc.'s node. - After initial launch, can add scanning system to look for copyrighted content, illegal content or immoral content. - Escrow for payments to ensure they're not going to the wrong person - Author puts their public key on linked page - http://blog.datt.co/articles/2016-03-13-solutions-to-the-copyright-problem/ What about bullies and spammers? -------------------------------- - Company and users can block bullies and spammers. - Can share list of blocked accounts. "Opt-in" censorship. - Costs $$ to "auth" account - cannot create free accounts after being banned; discourages creating new fake accounts after being banned. - Costs $$ to post to someone else's profile; cannot spam or troll the without also paying them. What if somebody gets their friends to upvote? ---------------------------------------------- - Yours: If your friends invest in your post, this discourages others from investing, because they will reap a smaller reward. It doesn't pay to cheat. Won't marketers just upvote their own votes to the front-page? -------------------------------------------------------------- - We will take a portion of payments of content on the front-page. The more popular the front-page is, the larger fee we can justify taking. Getting to the front-page has a cost of marketing. How will you get users? ----------------------- - Economic incentive: Users get a portion of payments made by users they refer - Economic incentive: Users get paid for producing great content, encourages them to refer more people - Economic incentive: Content is more compelling than elsewhere because users have an incentive to put more time and effort into content - Core users: Only How do you bootstrap bits? -------------------------- - Users who do not have bits can post content for free and can be paid bits - Will cater to members of blockchain community, who can fund the initial bits - Company will actually pay users directly to re-post content to front-page Why is Datt better than reddit (or some other media app)? --------------------------------------------------------- Compare to any other mainstream social media app: - Content is more professional - Content is higher density - less useless content - Can easily get paid for creating good content - Can easily pay content producers for creating good content - Censorship resistant - more likely to get desired content reddit: - Greater emphasis on content producers - less reliance on mods you may or may not agree with Facebook: - Do not have to give your personal information to a company Twitter: - Longer messages What if I don't want to manage my private keys? ----------------------------------------------- - Automatically back up private keys, so it is no harder to manage keys this way than managing an account on any other website. How will you earn money? ------------------------ - Take a portion of the payments. - Advertizing. Can go further by allowing advertizers pay to directly target some users who opt-in to revealing personal info.