When we consider the improvements brought about by Web 3.0 for regular Internet users, one of the most important changes would be the creation of new communication and social platforms that let users retain control over their personal data instead of signing it away to be resold to advertisers and other companies.
Sovereignty over personal data and the creation of an Internet of value is exactly what Dr Maximillian Sinan Korkmaz aims to achieve through the launch of his new social media ‘super app’, my2cents, which runs on the BSV blockchain.
As the BSV blockchain enables fast and cheap microtransactions through its scalable and reliable protocol, it is the ideal platform on which to build this type of application, where users can also write information and data directly to the BSV blockchain and exchange nanopayments directly with one another without the need for an intermediary.
Leveraging the powerful functionality of its underlying infrastructure, my2cents bundles various social media and marketplace platforms into a single application where users can earn and spend BSV through payments from as small as two cents on everything from liking or ‘plussing’ text posts and videos to buying second-hand goods and recruiting employees for their business.
Users on my2cents are rewarded with peer-to-peer payments when others ‘plus’ their content or purchase their goods, and they can also earn a share of the platform’s advertising revenue if they choose to opt into advertisements.
my2cents has launched on the BSV blockchain and is available to sign up for right now. To find out more about the revolutionary social super app, we spoke to Founder Dr Maximillian Sinan Korkmaz about the platform.
What is my2cents?
my2cents comprises many different platforms, all of which are accessible using the same account and the BSV wallet created when you sign up on the website. These platforms are:
- my2cents Home: Text posts shared under different topics and written to chain.
- myVid: Video posts shared under different topics.
- myBook: Book publishing platform where writers can self-publish and earn BSV directly.
- myIdea: Platform for entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas and court investors.
- myJob: Job application and employee recruitment platform.
- myPodcast: Uncensored platform for podcasts.
- myReuse: Second-hand goods exchange and marketplace.
- myCM: Championship Manager game that uses NFTs and lets players earn BSV by playing.
- mySlowFood: Platform that allows users to buy and sell homemade pot meals in their area.
As is apparent from the extensive array of platforms on the application, my2cents offers a complete alternative to regular social media platforms that provides many ways for its users to exchange value and be rewarded in BSV for the quality of their content or goods.
Signing up for my2cents is easy – you simply need to visit the website, choose a username and password, and then you will receive an automatically generated BSV wallet which is non-custodial, meaning you retain complete control over your own money. You can begin posting immediately without topping up with BSV, although your posts will be kept off-chain and will only be written to the BSV blockchain when you have funds to pay the small miner fees required.
‘If you don’t add money to your wallet, your first post will be off-chain and then once you get plusses from other users – a ‘plus’ is similar to ‘likes’ on other platforms – that means you get money from other users. So, with this money, you can pay the miner fees and start posting on-chain. The miners need an extremely small amount of money to transact your money and data; it’s a very small portion of a cent, almost close to zero,’ Dr Korkmaz explains.
When asked why he chose the BSV blockchain as the infrastructure for his social super app, Dr Korkmaz says it was the only platform capable of supporting his micropayment-based use case.
‘It was a no-brainer, actually. The BSV blockchain enables micropayments; I mean, we have “two cents” in our name – that’s for a reason because every “plus” is two cents, so we need microtransaction capability.’
‘The original Bitcoin protocol is stable. That’s also very important for us so that we don’t have much downtime,’ he adds.
A new social media paradigm
Like most people in the world, Dr Korkmaz is well acquainted with current mainstream social media platforms, but he disagreed with many aspects of its design, calling it exploitative.
‘Obviously, I have been a social media user, and then I realised it was exploitation and I stopped it. I thought I would be able to build a better [social media platform] than other big companies did, so I made this utilising the blockchain technology.’
‘There are a lot of differences. If you go on my2cents, you will see it’s not familiar for especially English-speaking audiences – it’s not like the Web 2.0 platforms,’ he notes.
‘We don’t determine how much a post is seen on my2cents. Everybody sees the same posts if they have the same top or recent selection. This is also very important because on other social media platforms, the platform actually determines what a user should see, which is wrong on so many levels. For example, they have the power to manipulate ideas and the perception of their users, be it political subjects or just about their shopping behaviour.’
‘We are not interested in selling our users stuff they don’t need. So, I think that’s also an important point that differentiates us from other social media platforms.’
This philosophy is reflected in the way my2cents creates value for its users. While there is advertising available on an opt-in basis, choosing to be shown adverts will result in you receiving a portion of the company’s advertising revenue, 60% of which is split among users according to their user score.
‘We have a user score that increases if the user gets plusses. The more your user score is, the more money you receive from ad revenue. This is another feature on my2cents: users can earn money peer-to-peer through plusses, but we also distribute 60% of our advertisement revenue among users. The higher your user score, the more money you receive from the ad revenue,’ Dr Korkmaz says.
‘It’s also incentivised to plus content on my two cents – if you plus content, you will also get more user score. If you post more, and good quality, you will get more user score.’
You need not only send two cents at a time, however. You can choose to send any number of plusses you wish if you have the BSV available.
‘The users get money for their actions on my2cents. If another user plusses your content, the person who plusses pays two cents and you receive 60% of it and the rest of the 40% goes to my2cents. Users can give more than one plus at one time, so you can give 20, 50, 100 pluses and then the money will be transacted peer to peer, from that user to you – that has nothing to do with us.’
Lastly, there is yet another way to earn BSV by simply using the my2cents platform: create a topic that will attract the interest of others.
‘We have no follow function. my2cents is not people-based, its topic-based and you do not even follow the topics, there’s a topic list. You go through the topic list, if you’re interested in a topic, you click on the topic and you will see the posts that have been written on that topic,’ Dr Korkmaz says.
‘If you would like to open a topic, you will first select the category of the topic you would like to open, you will write the first post on that topic, and then you own that topic. That means when other users write under that topic, you will get as much user score as the other users get.’
Through this vast array of features and its focus on creating value for its users, my2cents offers a unique and revolutionary perspective on how social media should work, demonstrating how users can take back control over their data and build value together on a Web 3.0 social platform powered by the BSV blockchain.
You can sign up for my2cents for free on the application’s official website.
