The need for the next iteration of social media and e-commerce is growing.
The world has seen many iterations of social media. Myspace to Facebook, Twitter to TikTok. During the last 10 years, companies have largely tried and failed (mostly) to connect creators with buyers and have shifted to a business plan that sees advertisers focusing their budgets on acquiring users’ data and merchants paying for promotion. In many ways, the economic model of online content has been warped beyond recognition. The current internet content ecosystem feels broken outdated.
So one of the original goals of the internet (to efficiently connect buyers and creators) stubbornly persists. Many open-minded and innovative businesspeople have increasingly turned to blockchain technology to realize this goal.
A lot of crypto startups are aiming to cater to this need, which is encouraging. However, applying technology as novel as blockchain to the problems in the social media/content ecosystem presents a deeper and more fundamental issue: data.
Blockchain’s promise of a fully-decentralized and free internet hinges on its ability to process large amounts of data efficiently and dynamically. So while it's encouraging to see a multitude of creators and founders exploring the potential of blockchain for social media and content distribution, we won't get very far without technology that makes it all possible.
Data: the Internet’s Bottleneck
Up until now, blockchain technology has repeatedly tried and failed to solve the problem of large amounts of data. When trying to store an image on chains like Ethereum, you will quickly be stuck with a fee of over 100 dollars.
Recently, there has been a lot of chatter about the successor to existing decentralized file storage platforms. Whereas with older platforms, you could only post, view, and delete data, Cherry Network integration will allow users to do all of the above and also alter or update data. This means that a blog typo or a missed caption could finally be resolved without having to overwrite the data on a new block.
Cherish uses Cherry Network for all of its logic and storage requirements. Its code is implemented in the ink! programming language, a framework that compiles Rust into WebAssembly that can be run natively in the Cherry Virtual Machine.
The access hierarchy is based on the Cherry Storage system common to all Cherry Networks nodes, infusing IPFS with new features.
Disclaimer*: The author works at CherryLabs - Growth and advancement incubator for Cherry Network*
On top of that decentralized storage, the chain will have a global redundancy mechanism that ensures files are never lost. This is useful for social media and content applications, dApps, and other decentralized platforms.
The Cherry Network recently conducted a round of IDO/IEOs and is running its testnet ahead of mainnet release in a few weeks.
Cherish - The Creators Network
Cherish is a decentralized social network built on the Cherry Network. The project aims to give artists and content creators an outlet that is both resistant to censorship and fair.
They take the essential missing technology that the Cherry Chain gives them and build an intuitive platform around it.
This way they are able to solve some of the key issues other platforms on other blockchains had to cope with and could not get over. Having successfully filled their presales Cherish is geared up and ready to take on existing social media giants.
Key Features
Cherish takes the payment model from platforms like Patreon and OnlyFans and builds on it, hoping to provide a more sustainable and free platform for creators who need a trustworthy place where they can build a business.
With their native token, Cherish Coin ($CHC), users will be able to support their favorite creator in a number of ways. Initially, the platform will support subscribing to creators’ feeds and tipping, and an upcoming feature will allow artists to be able to accept custom commissions.
After launch comes the ability to mint and trade NFTs in integration with other functions. The most notable feature on their roadmap will most likely be e-commerce. With this function, creators will be able to sell other digital or physical assets on the platform. The roadmap also targets the hosting of music, videos, and 3D assets on the platform.
If you are an artist and are getting excited over all of this, be sure to keep an eye on the upcoming Cherish launch. Cherish has begun vetting and onboarding a select group of artists already. As Cherish expands, this verification criterion will be eased to allow for a greater range of viewpoints and a fully open platform in the spirit of web3.
Like to know more about Cherish? Be sure to check out the links below.
Website | Telegram | Announcements | Twitter
Disclaimer*: The author works at CherryLabs - Growth and advancement incubator for Cherry Network*