The problem with social

Social media can be better.

The problems that plague social experiences online are common to all social apps. It’s the same challenges over and over:

• Eliminating bots, spammers, and bad actors
• Promoting authentic engagement
• Retaining and rewarding community leaders
• Onboarding users, friction-free
• Scaling to self-sufficiency, and profitability

Bitcoin and Lightning offer ways to tackle these problems by adding transactions to the social experience. The Lightning Network offers scalable micro-payments that are instantly settled and require no KYC (know your customer).

Verify via orange tick

How do you separate authentic users from bad actors, bots, and spammers? – Signup or subscription fees? Added KYC? More trust and safety mods?

An alternate path is to verify authenticity with an “orange tick” – a social mark demonstrating skin in the game. How it works is a user deposits a small amount of bitcoin via Lightning to the social platform, and in return their account profile showcases an orange . It’s a way of asserting authenticity and commitment, without having to disclose personal information. This minimal bitcoin collateral requirement can price-out bots or spammers, while also disincentivizing bad actors who risk forfeiting their funds if they break site rules.

There are unique benefits of using bitcoin via Lightning as the method to transact:

• Users can remain anonymous (avoid entering their name or credit card info)
• Amounts can range from less than $0.01 to $1,000+
• Funds settle immediately, without chargeback risk
• Fees on Lightning can be much cheaper than credit or debit card processors
• Refunds can be sent just as easily as deposits
• Bitcoin is global and scalable

Orange ticks can also allow users to sort and filter their social experience according to orange tick status. It lets them see or prioritize only users who have demonstrated a basic level of authenticity.

Value for value

Bitcoin can help promote authentic social engagement by adding transactions as a native part of the social experience.

Bitcoin and Lightning create a new product-space, where global micro-transactions are now a financially viable way for users and platforms to transact real value, and have it settled instantly.

• Zaps: “Likes” and “hearts” are trivial ways to engage with social posts (and can be abused by bots and spammers). Instead of “likes”, why not “zaps” – Lightning micro-payments as a way of rewarding valuable content. Zaps are instantly settled and can be made in increments of 1 satoshi (a fraction of a penny). This kind of engagement offers an extra dimension of meaning, expressing what users find truly valuable, while pricing-out bad actors.

• Enhanced streaming: Scalable micro-transactions can enrich audience participation, particularly for audio/video streaming. Community leaders can charge for audience participation, set pay-by-the-second viewing/listening, revenue-split between co-hosts, sponsor chat rooms, or paywall their direct messages.

• Commercial activity: Social apps can embed native, global payments directly in-app for users to buy and sell subscriptions, access tiered premium content, or even shop real life goods and services.

• Content creator pay-outs: Attracting and retaining content creators or community leaders is key for growth. Lightning payments offer a way to deploy revenue sharing-models and reward the most creative and productive community members. Bitcoin is also the easiest way to pay creators globally, offering borderless, scalable, instant payouts that are readily convertible to any major global currency, 24/7.

The advent of global, scalable, instant, micro-payments offers new design space for making social media better. Bitcoin and Lightning changes everything.

Transactions are the new interactions.