DeSo Offers $1M Bounty for Decentralized Reddit Competitor Amid API Changes

(PRESS RELEASE – Los Angeles, CA, July 6, 2023)

DeSo, the leading layer 1 blockchain for social media decentralization, has issued a game-changing challenge: a $1 million bounty for visionary founders able to build a decentralized competitor to Reddit using its infinite-state blockchain. This unprecedented opportunity comes amid growing dissatisfaction with centralized social media platforms, which monopolize content and data.

Reddit recently sparked controversy within its community over a decision to limit access to the API. The move sparked a series of 48-hour subreddit outages in protest. This price hike for their API has forced existing third-party developers to shut down as maintaining their apps becomes impossible.

As Reddit prepares to go public, it paves the way for new products and its internal development platform. Reddit CEO Steve Huffman revealed an interest in capitalizing on the platform’s wealth of data: “Reddit’s body of data is really valuable,” he commented. “But we don’t need to give away all that value to some of the biggest companies in the world.”

This controversy and others highlight the continuing problems with centralized social media platforms. It’s not just Reddit; the web2 social media landscape is changing. Over the past weekend, Elon Musk temporarily limited the number of messages Twitter users can read per day, causing significant backlash:

“To address extreme levels of data harvesting and system manipulation, we have enforced the following temporary limits: verified accounts are limited to reading 6,000 posts/day, unverified accounts are limited to 600 posts/day, and new unverified accounts at 300/day”.

In this context, DeSo is emerging as a viable challenger.

Positioned at the forefront of social media disruption, DeSo is offering up to $1 million to support builders willing to engineer an on-chain alternative to Reddit. This opportunity facilitates the creation of a user-driven, creator-owned decentralized platform, a platform where you own your content as securely as you own your Bitcoin.

DeSo founder Nader Al-Naji spoke of the recent discontent with Reddit: “These protests represent a broader societal shift. They are indicative of a new paradigm in how creators and users interact with social media. As trust in mainstream media and business wanes, people are turning to platforms that give them autonomy over their content and social graph, much like owning Bitcoin with cash.

The DeSo method

Imagine a Reddit on-chain where users are in complete control of their content and cannot be censored or banned at the protocol level. This concept introduces the idea of ​​“community as an asset,” where users and moderators can directly own and monetize their content, moving from simple respect and influence to tangible rewards.

This is only possible on the DeSo blockchain, which offers new monetization features including creator coins, NFTs, tokens, tips, and more. With DeSo, your identity, profiles, content, and social graph are 100% on-chain, promoting censorship. – resilient layer where the community can moderate at scale instead of a centralized gatekeeper.

This is a call to arms for founders and ambitious builders who want to make lasting change in social media the DeSo way.

Investment and Application Criteria

DeSo is willing to invest up to $1 million to fund a Reddit competitor built on its platform. Ideal candidates are seasoned founders with strong technical expertise and a proven track record of building consumer products from the ground up.

Applicants should have a strong understanding of DeSo’s vision for a decentralized Reddit and have strategies for acquiring and engaging users in a crypto-native manner.

An engaging pitch showing early signs of positive user feedback and usage is also expected. All requests must be submitted to Openfund.com to allow for a detailed assessment.

For full instructions on how to apply and more information on how to apply, please read our original proposal and official announcement.

Once you fully understand the opportunity, please submit your proposal with all relevant links here.

About Deso

Raise $200 million from main investors such as Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Coinbase Ventures, and more, DeSo is a pioneering layer 1 blockchain whose mission is to decentralize social media, much like Bitcoin and Ethereum decentralized finance.

Recently, DeSo unveiled a series of groundbreaking innovations. Among these is Revolutiontheir revolutionary Proof-of-Stake mechanism, intended to increase energy efficiency by 99% and position DeSo as one of the most deflationary Layer 1s in all of crypto.

Additionally, Deso has released four new application proposals, including Openfund 2.0, a DEX that works as seamlessly as centralized exchanges like Binance, enabling near-instantaneous and anonymous trading while allowing users to retain custody of their pieces.