Voice will take social media back out of the hands of tech giants, says CEO
Voice, the social media platform backed by block.one, is to be launched on July 4, slightly ahead of schedule — CEO Salah Zalatimo announced on Twitter yesterday. Voice is a decentralized blockchain-based media network aimed at improving transparency and bringing integrity to social media. The project is set to launch on a restricted basis on the United States’ Independence Day, with only registered users from the US allowed to publish content or engage online.
“We simply can’t wait any longer. We need to take social back from big tech NOW,” said Zalamito adding that users who are looking for a “social media platform that doesn’t play politics, empower communities, and respect your data” must join Voice.
Voice was introduced by EOS publisher Block.one on June 1, 2019, where the platform was described as a “truly self-sustaining economy of ideas, users will directly benefit from their ideas and engagement on the platform.” The blockchain-based social media platform brought CEO, Salah Zalatimo, onboard in January this year. The beta version of the platform was launched on February 14, 2020, calling it an attempt by Block.one to “bring alignment to social media.” The platform was scheduled to launch in the fall of 2020, but yesterday’s announcement has brought its launch forward.
The blockchain-based platform will be open for registered users in the US from July 4. “Registration will remain by request until August 15, when users can begin to invite their friends,” Zalatimo said.
Voice is built on the top of EOS Public Blockchain, running on the EOSIO protocol. All interactions on the platform are intended to be public to ensure transparency. It also offers a “human sign up” feature that can supposedly verify identity without the need of governmental id. This is expected to help avoid spam, fake users and misleading content on the platform. It will also feature its own utility token that can be earned as rewards for creating posts and then spent to boost the visibility of posts users want to be seen more widely.
Block.one has invested heavily in Voice, devoting $100 million USD in cash and more than $50 million USD in intellectual property for the platform. It also put up the money for the purchase of the domain name ‘voice.com’ for $30 million USD.
The past couple of years have seen social media take the centre stage for mainstream crypto-related controversies. Crypto YouTubers have complained of increased censorship over the cryptocurrency field. This has led to immense support for a decentralized solution where no single authority will have the capacity to censor content.
Block.one’s Voice looks to fill this role some content creators are seeking. However, social media giant Twitter has also launched its own new project – BlueSky to develop a ‘decentralized standard for social media.’