We’re All Content Creators — Let’s Be Paid Fairly For Our Time

As a content creator, I like to be compensated for the work I do. After all, people often forget that it takes a large amount of time to create something like a video. 

 

If the 10 minute video you watched took me 10 hours to create, then there’s a 1:60 ratio between viewer and creator in terms of time.

 

This is not meant to be a complaint. I love what I do. Even with such a lopsided ratio, it doesn’t really matter to me because what I do is about more than the time or money involved as it’s about the connection to the audience how they feel after watching my video.

 

But again, it’s nice to be able to eat and do what you love. 

 

It’s a natural ebb and flow of providing things people like and being able to make a living doing so.

 

This brings me to something that I’ve seen discussed a lot in the blockchain space: paying content creators fairly. 

 

Or, more accurately, giving the viewer more access to the creator. From decentralized content networks, to more fair creator compensation models, to partial ownership of a brand with tokenization — it’s all really interesting and paints a model of the future where middlemen distribution platforms and record labels aren’t taking a majority of the compensation meant for the creators. 

 

But, I think that we need to extrapolate this. 

 

Why? 

 

Because we’re all creators. It’s not just Youtubers and Musicians and Artists who need to be compensated fairly for the content they create. 

 

Think about the content you’ve created, shared, and discussed on the many social media platforms out there. 

 

Whether that content takes the form of photos, statuses, comments, or videos, any mainstream social network would be a blank page without the content creators that give it life. We are “social” on these networks only to the degree that we are consuming, liking, commenting on, and sharing the content of others.

 

This highlights the fact that social networks aren’t really social networks — they’re content networks.

 

Given that social networks are actually just content networks, it’s odd that Facebook is valued at half a trillion dollars while nearly all users of the platform make $0 for producing its content.

 

Do you know how much the average American user is worth to Facebook? 

 

$200. 

 

Partially that’s due to the content they create, but it’s also a discussion about their personal data and what they buy based on what they are served on the platform. 

 

But, let’s hold off on that latter discussion until tomorrow’s newsletter when we go into the implications of data ownership. 

 

Back to content ownership, the question regarding Facebook is in the value it’s providing, or being provided, to justify its massive worth. Especially as we discussed the merits of its Libra coin, so too do we need to think about what the value of a content network is when all of the creative value comes from those post their content on it?

 

So, without making this pedantic, I’ve been dismissive of “decentralized” social networks that try and fail to make a better Facebook that stems from trying to pay creators fairly. 

 

Steemit is a great example. 

 

In concept, upvotes mean real dollar value for creators. More upvotes, more recognition, more compensation, repeat. Cool, right? 

 

The problem is, and this is a recurring theme throughout all social networks today, that computers are really good at simple, repetitive tasks like upvoting. 

 

If the value of your network is derived from small demonstrations of recognition, you better believe that bot networks will be setting their upvote guns to full-auto. 

 

So, let’s think about this differently. And, of course, let’s use a blockchain. 

 

In the simplest terms, a blockchain is a communally shared database that uses advanced math to make sure that no one can lie to each other.

 

Importantly, blockchains are pretty good at incentive structures, e.g., mining Bitcoin gives Bitcoin, but it also gives network security and sturuece. Everybody wins. 

 

It allows us to focus on the incentivize structure of content on the Internet itself. 

 

Projects like BAT and the Brave Browser try to better align the incentive structure and give creators a greater piece of compensation based on traffic. 

 

Combining the BAT cryptocurrency with the Brave browser, users can be rewarded for viewing optional adverts. Compare this to intrusive adverts which interrupt you whilst you’re watching or video or trying to browse a website.

 

Now instead of being pestered by obnoxious adverts you can choose to view a small advert and get paid for your time, which is a good step in the right direction in my opinion.

 

Watching adverts is not the only way you can earn Basic Attention Though, content creators can receive tips in BAT. This will be very useful for YouTube creators in particular who have had to deal with YouTube demonetizing their videos for seemingly arbitrary reasons.

 

How you can earn Basic Attention Token (BAT):

 

Download Brave Browser, enable Brave Rewards and use it the way you would normally use your browser. To enable Brave Rewards, click on the BAT symbol on end of the URL bar, then click on Reward settings.

 

Once you reach the settings page, simply toggle “Brave Rewards” to on and you can start earning BAT.

Occasionally a little notification will show up in the bottom right corner of the screen. These are adverts and you will be paid in Basic Attention Token for clicking on the notification and viewing the advertisers website.

 

Download Brave and get started here.

 

Pretty cool. You should be paid for your time and your content. 

 

Blockchain helps us with incentive structures in other ways. Crucially, this architecture also allows for the creation of scarce digital assets that enable us to use decentralized digital currencies to align incentives in far more intricate ways than fiat currencies ever could. Incentives are what make us get out of bed in the morning. 

 

Economic incentives give us a reason to care about a particular thing, and do so in a way that is logical, rather than emotional.

 

Digital incentive structures allow programs to crystallize new social patterns for humans to live within, creating new types of interpersonal interaction and possibility. Cent derives its name from the fact that it runs on these two core principles — in(cent)ivization and de(cent)ralization.

 

So, in the most basic sense (cents, hah), Cent is a content aggregator that lets you curate a stream of content you care about, and lets you “invest” in that content. The better the content does, in terms of clicks, views, and other people “investing” in it, the better your returns become. 

Check it out here: https://beta.cent.co/

See a potentially viral piece of content before it’s hit the mainstream? 

 

How about a particular meme? 

 

Bet on how it’s going to do and see what happens.

 

And, yes, in this future you can invest in memes. 

 

Admittedly, both BAT and Cent are in their early stages and it’s a clunky, niche experience. 

 

But, it’s a nice view into a potential internet future where platforms aren’t the only ones receiving the benefits. 

 

We’re all content creators and deserve to be compensated as such.