MyDistrict

[Fkaram84]

Purpose This is a proposal for a decentralised social media website where people can interact while maintaining full ownership or control over their personal data – the sharing of which would bring them an income, rather than profiting a single centralised corporation.

Facebook users have little control over the information they are sharing and who is being provided with their information. Most importantly, those same users’ information is being sold to third parties without offering the original user anything in return. The majority of Facebook users agree to their terms and conditions blindly (in exchange for the service) because there is currently no ‘safe’ alternative. Those same users are exploited for their information – information that has earned Facebook 3.89 billion dollars 2nd quarter of 2017, with absolutely no benefits, besides the basic service, to the users who are in essence generating these profits.

I would like to create a district where people can enjoy the perks of being connected on a social media platform while, should they choose to do so, being compensated financially by marketing companies, businesses or governments, for the information they willingly share.

How It Will Work

• The founders: The founders are the ones who believe in the idea and are willing to invest in it, be it expertise or money. They will be involved in the decision making process, setting up the operations and teams necessary to run the District.
• Development of the district: Once the district has been developed, upon signing up to the district, users can choose to pay a founders’ fee or to sign up as basic users for free. The Founders’ fee can increase as the operations grows.
• Members of the district will be able to connect a wallet to their account.
• Members will have an option to enter into one of the below smart contracts:

1. “I don’t want to share any of my data.” - This person will receive no income but he/she will be happy to know that their information is secure and not shared with any 3rd parties.
2. “Share my information.” – This option mirrors the terms of agreement Facebook offers, only the user is guaranteed to be compensated the cost of their information.
3. “Share only the information I choose to share.” – The user will be paid for whatever information is shared with organisations willing to pay for it.

The project would be advertised and the user pool populated with the help of funds raised by the founders. The following target markets might prove to be most interested in joining the district from the very beginning:

• People who would like to interact and not worry about their data being sold off or tracked.
• People who are not so attached to their current social media platform and would like to switch to a platform where they would be financially rewarded as the community grows.
• Blockchain enthusiasts

Financial Structure Initial capital income – from the founders. Marketing income – This will be based on the same principles as current marketing income structures on established social media websites. The more profiles or engagement levels are reached the higher the charge would be. Distribution of income – 30 to 40 percent of marketing income should be set aside for the operation of the business (fuelling the contracts, maintaining servers and operational expenses), the rest of the income will be distributed to the members of the district. All transactions will be paid through the District Network Token, promoting the DNT as a functional and important currency.

Conclusion I believe the creation of the MyDistrict has the potential to revolutionise social media, offering a true decentralized safe online space for the masses where the wealth is not distributed to few individuals but to the whole community where users maintain full control over their own information. Perhaps it sounds naive, but I believe we can put our brains together to pull of this epic win-win and I look forward to any feedback and working towards further clarity on this concept with the help of more experienced users, programmers and thinkers like you!

[puttersworth]

I really like the overall concept here; obviously, there are a lot of details to still be worked out, but something like this - I can only imagine - would be highly valued and received by the Facebook/LinkedIn communities. Any thoughts on how to combat them (Facebook/LinkedIn) on simply offering this same service on top of their platform? Once you start taking their market share, surely you can expect they'll just replicate- and being decentralized, that can't just default to buying you out as is their SOP...

[Fkaram84]

Thank you Puttersworth for your feedback, The only thing that would combat them on simply offering this same service on top of their platform is the loss of profits, through Mydistrict there are no profits, all income will be divided between running the district and the end user. Does this answer your question?

[Bradymck]

I think concepts like this are going to be something Facebook would replicate long before they would do it themselves. Though like many blockchain projects started by traditional corporations, they are struggling.

It's a square peg round hole issue in my view. Open source can be monetized and I really don't see them open sourcing things and letting go of the cash cow that is selling personal data. If they do, they have to build the business from the ground up as an open source software project rather than a consumer based social media app.

However I feel like things like your idea will take off in a big way soon but there are things that need to be done with the decentralized development stack. This is a good progress report about where we are, mind you we are a bit further along than when the article was written. Powerful things will happen when the full stack is ready for prime time. Timing is everything.

Source The dApp Developer Stack: The Blockchain Industry Barometer

By the way I added the tag for other 'Social' based proposals. Take a look and see if there is an opportunity for collaboration.

[Fkaram84]

Thank you Brady for your feedback it is really insightful for me. I really hope if approved that the voters can see the potential of such a district on District0x. Even if it starts off as social website for District members we build on that for the general public in the future. As District0x grows so would its social media website. Thank you for adding the tag and good luck to you guys and the work you are doing.

[draganank84]

This is really interesting - following!

[Url-Grey]

Interesting stuff. I would like to have a social network like that.

[Bradymck]

Please provide a token address for the proposal reward.

[Fkaram84]

0x1fc726B74C3632eb4163521E92a2C69FB7EE32cC

Thank you

[Bradymck]

Hey @Fkaram84 ,

I'm not sure if you're aware but we recently launched a new bounty to migrate your proposals to the actual District Registry: https://registry.district0x.io/

We're replacing the old voting app with the registry. Let me know if you need help but I would love to see you migrate this over so you can claim your DNT.

It does take a 10,000 DNT submit to submit your proposal but this gives you an extra 2000 you can stake in the registry beyond the deposit amount.

Hit me up on Telegram or Discord if you need help or have questions.

Telegram: https://t.me/district0x/75217 Discord: https://discord.gg/P9RQejv

PS, please excuse the canned response. I am encouraging everyone here to start migrating so they can claim their 12000 DNT.