This time, I interviewed Tina, one of the cofounder of the Solcial project. Tina talked about the Web3 Social Network and Solcial itself.
In my view, 2022 can be a social + crypto year because of the recent NFTs boom and DeFi sophistication. And also crypto has many features that can solve today's social media challenges.
This is translated into Japanese and posted in my weekly newsletter Bspeak!. Enjoy the interview☕
*This is not investment advice and informational purposes only.
CoffeeTimes: Hello, Tina! Can you tell us about yourself and what Solcial is?
Tina: Solcial is a decentralised social network allowing users to interact without fearing censorship, and allowing content creators to be rewarded fairly at market value and without middlemen.
Solcial is a mobile app (iOS and Android), as well as a desktop app, and a website. On Solcial each user has their own token, allowing you to invest directly in people. You get minted 1 millions coins when you signup, that supply is fixed and the same for everyone. These coins are yours, you can keep them or sell them (or send them to friends).
Then to follow people we have 3 subscription levels: you can follow someone for free (Tier 1) to access their public content (similar to Twitter or Instagram), and to access their private content (what we call Tier 2 and 3 subscriptions) you need to own their token, to be an investor in them. That’s what we called the “invest-for-subscription” model.
We also display your NFTs on a user profile, either just to show-off, or to buy & sell your NFTs with your friends.
All user content is stored on IPFS and accessed through a P2P layer that we developed. So it doesn’t rely on censorable servers or gateways. And the token related operations (minting, trading etc) are all on the Solana blockchain.
So what we’re building is like a BitTorrent but for social networking, something very censorship-resistant.
CoffeeTimes: What is the biggest difference between other competitors such as BitClout(DeSo)?
Tina: We have 3 main differences with BitClout, the first one is that we’re not rebuilding a new blockchain, we’re building on top of Solana. And we’re building everything as a fully integrated app (like a new Twitter or Facebook), whereas BitClout is more of a protocol for other startups to build social networks on top of.
The second main difference with BitClout is the utility of the user token. When you buy the “CLOUT” of someone on BitClout it’s pure speculation, there is nothing behind. But on Solcial when you buy a user token, you get access to some content, you subscribe to the person and get something in return. So we reduce the speculative aspect and add utility for each user token.
The third big difference with BitClout is the way we’re launching. BitClout created the accounts of tens of thousands influencers, using their names and selling tokens on their behalf, without their content (and it was poorly received). Instead at Solcial we’re launching in a very organic way, through the crypto community and in a very organic manner. It’s a very different approach.
But our user experience is what will set us apart from others. We are offering features that are only possible on Web3 but we will have an experience that is as easy as current Web2 platforms. By focusing on giving the power to the community, they will also have the control in making Solcial a major platform compared to others.
CoffeeTimes: It seems to me that Solcial prioritizes censorship resistant aspects over creator economy. Is this the correct observation about the project priority?
Tina: We try and balance the two aspects. One thing we are finding when we connect with current influencers and creators is that they are scared of censorship and this affects what they create and how they can monetize. By building a base that gives users the freedom to interact without fear of censorship then we will see a truly open creator economy emerge.
CoffeeTimes: Is there any demo or teaser that you can show here?
Tina: Not right now but we’ll make announcements within the coming weeks. Stay tuned!
CoffeeTimes: What can people do with the token? And does the project have its own token?
Tina: The Solcial token will be used for 3 things:
- as a governance token for voting on the DAO
- for having discounts on trading fees
- and to buy the token of anyone on Solcial, you will need SLC as the base currency. Each user token is traded versus SLC (the Solcial token), and you need SLC to buy the token of anyone. (a bit like Chilliz for the Fan tokens, to buy the football clubs coins like Arsenal or PSG, you trade them versus CHZ)
CoffeeTimes: Okay, how would the token be distributed? Tokenomics are already fixed?
Tina: Tokenomics will be announced also in a few weeks with the launch. We can’t wait to share with everyone how things will work :) **
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CoffeeTimes: Please tell us briefly about your future plans in the coming few months!
Tina: All of our attention is focused on finishing the platform and putting out our first version. We know the community is excited and can hardly wait for the launch. On top of that, we are in discussions with various groups about token-related activity. We know that we have not been able to release a lot of details, but we’re very excited and once the time is right, there will be a lot to share.
CoffeeTimes: By the way, why is the name Solcial?
Tina: The name sounds like “Social”, like a social network, but also includes SOL, the name of the blockchain we’re building on (Solana).
“Sol” also means “Sunshine” in Spanish, highlighting the renaissance of the social movement we are launching. ☀️
CoffeeTimes: How did you form the current team? Like met online or old friends?
Tina: Some were old friends from previous startups, others have been recruited. We actually spent a lot of time on recruiting the right people, but we’ve been very lucky. It’s difficult to find really talented people, but more importantly to find talented people that care about our mission.
One thing really important to us is the excitement and vibes you feel when people realise what we’re building and how it’s going to work and especially when we show them the prototype. We truly appreciate their interest, people are much more motivated to work on something exciting.
CoffeeTimes: Can you give any words to the Japanese audience? Do you have any impressions on the Japanese crypto scene?
Tina: We are not too familiar with the Japanese crypto scene actually, but we can’t wait to grow our community in Japan. We are actually just starting the translation of our blog in Japanese and we’re looking for Japanese-speaking community managers! xxx
CoffeeTimes: Thank you for taking your time! Where can we learn more about Solcial?
Tina: You can join our Discord, follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our blog
- Telegram: https://t.me/solcial
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/solcialofficial
- Discord: https://discord.com/invite/3EpaAbcRPp
- Blog: https://blog.solcial.io
- Web: https://solcial.io
- Email: hello@solcial.io
- More links: https://linktr.ee/solcial