RTB Token & NetworkRTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network Free speech is a fascinating topic in political philosophy. It is of paramount importance for a functioning society. Nowadays, our society constitutes two important realms: the physical, and the digital. It’s useful to think from first principles when discussing these issues.
So, what is speech? It’s just the expression of ideas, and ideas can be expressed in two ways: in real-time, and in written form*. Real-time speech being the action of your mouth creating certain sound waves, and written ‘speech’ being any kind of information represented by visible things. Interestingly, only the latter exists in the digital world. Everything in the digital world is ultimately represented in binary form, 1s and 0s. All digital manifestations of information are just text. Nothing more.
Securing real-time, public free speech in the physical world is relatively simple, as it only really constitutes two stages: thinking and verbally transmitting. Thoughts are extremely difficult to regulate, so enabling someone to think freely is an easy and important part of securing free speech. To facilitate the free transfer of ideas, you need to permit people to speak what they want. Or, in extreme-first-principles thinking, permit them to create an infinite range of sound waves. In London, Speakers’ corner is the epitome of securing real-time, public free speech in the physical world. Anyone can think and say anything.
Written, public speech is slightly more complicated. It involves thinking of the idea, transferring it, and storing it. In the physical world, you have two options when it comes to transferring written information: distribute many copies of your written speech, or gather people to one physical place to learn about it. Transferring written information in a free, decentralised and public way is very difficult in the physical world. To pursue the former option of transfer (distribution), you are at the whim of the printing press or, before them, the literate person of the community. To pursue the latter (gathering), you’re also at the whim of whoever has access to display such information publicly (maybe whoever owns the billboard) . Your ability to transfer written speech freely in the physical world is limited, due to the difficulty of everyone being able to spread information equally. Once information is spread, however, it’s fairly easy to store it in a public and decentralised way. You write down your idea and distribute it. No one person "stores" the bible – it’s stored in a distributed, decentralised way, and that’s why it’s survived 4000 years. No one can delete the bible. In short: you can’t transfer written information in a decentralised way in the physical world, but you can store it as such.
The internet completely changed this. In the digital world, you don’t need to ask for anyone’s permission to transfer your idea via the internet – there is no printing press, literate minority, etc. Everyone is a publisher, at least since the internet’s second iteration (a.k.a. Web2). But this came with a trade-off: information was no longer stored in a decentralised way. So, the digital world swapped realms of the strength of written free speech in the physical world:
You could not store information in a decentralised way in the digital world, so free speech was limited**. Until January 3rd, 2009. On that day, things completely changed. Bitcoin was implemented and, for the first time, humans could process, transfer, and store written ideas in an open, public, censorship resistant, decentralised manner. Free speech had been achieved in the digital world. As Nakamoto put it: information became “easy to spread but hard to stifle”.
BBS uses the same technology to bring the free speech of linguistically-expressed ideas, posts, into the digital world. And that is why it is censorship-resistant. No one controls what you use to create your writing (your PC). No one controls what you use to transfer your writing (the internet). No one controls where your writing is stored (the blockchain). For the first time. Ever.
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Sorry for taking so long to get to the point. I hope some of the information was informative.
*I use “written” as a broad term to mean anything visual. It could include art, etc.
**because speech necessitates storage in the digital world Jan 24, 2023 RTB Token & Network As I've mentioned in the past, there are social media projects other than BBS that aim at censorship-resistance and decentralisation. An important one that I haven't yet discussed is nostr. Since Twitter banned promoting nostr, it's received quite a bit of attention. Twitter founder Jack Dorsey has also expressed support for nostr. So, I thought I'd briefly explain what it is, how it differs from BBS.
What is nostr?
nostr is an extremely simple protocol aiming to create a censorship-resistant social network. Unlike most other projects which aim at this, however, there is no use of blockchain technology. In the nostr protocol, everyone runs a client. When you post, you send the post to relays. Relays are servers that store the posts. Each user is identified with a public key. The private key associated with this is used to digitally sign posts.
My feeling is that this is too simple. In fact, all it sounds like is the basic internet with a bit of cryptography. I'm not sure why the nostr protocol is any less vulnerable than the internet to centralisation. Just like the internet was monopolised, nostr could easily be too: one party could control most of the relays.
I think nostr is looking at the social media censorship problem the wrong way. We already have a decentralised way to transfer information: the internet. What we need to use is a decentralised way to store information.
nostr is a protocol. It doesn't create any database. There's no immutable record of all the posts. In my opinion, any successful attempt to demonopolise social media must address this issue.
A network like BBS is simply far harder to monopolise than nostr. The game theory securing it is extremely strong -- you'd need majority staking power over the EOS network to control BBS centrally. This would cost you millions of dollars.
It excites me that projects like nostr and Mastodon -- which are quasi-demonopolised -- are getting so much attention. I think BBS has far greater potential for change. People do seem to be increasingly concerned about monopoly around social media.
We'll see what the future holds.
Let me know what you think,
Yoav Dec 24, 2022 RTB Token & Network The BBS Token ($BBS) is a crucial element of the BBS Network. I think its importance and inseparability from the network infrastructure is sometimes overlooked. Some, myself included, have thought of it like a share of a company. But $BBS is more than that — it is integral to the network’s functionality as a digital ecosystem. Let’s explain what the BBS token actually is, and why it operates more like a currency than most digital assets.
What is $BBS?
$BBS is a digital token, that can currently operate on three blockchains: Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain and EOS. There is a limited supply of 1 billion BBS tokens. Now, it’s important to note that $BBS is not just a digital token extrinsically associated with the BBS network. Rather $BBS is integral to the network. It’s inherently connected to it. $BBS is what enables for economic activity on the BBS Network. You can buy ad space in $BBS, your posts are rewarded in $BBS. It is absolutely inherent everything that goes on here.
One could say that $BBS is to the BBS Network what the US Dollar is to the US Economy. It’s not just a token associated with the system’s economic performance, but inherently and necessarily part of its functionality.
Why create a new token in the first place?
You might be thinking — and you would be making a wise observation — why do you need a special BBS token for economic activity on the network? Why not use Bitcoin, EOS, or just the USD?
Here are a few reasons.
1. You need a currency that is native to the public database of posts
All BBS data is recorded on the EOS blockchain. If you used bitcoin or the USD to purchase BBS posts, then any transaction that would occur outside the ecosystem could not be recorded on the EOS chain, as EOS nodes wouldn’t be aware of it. Imagine I was rewarded Bitcoin for this post, and then bought a coffee with it. On the EOS chain, it would still seem that I have the money. So you need something native to EOS, or least something that communicates with the EOS blockchain. Bitcoin or the USD does not.
2. Game Theory
Technically, therefore, you could use $EOS or $ETH. But it’s important to have a token unique to the BBS Network. First, having a unique token provides a strong game theory incentive structure. Simply put: BBS users generally want the BBS network to do well, because by virtue of their holding of BBS tokens, they are stakeholders. If the USD was used, there is little at stake for users, monetarily.
3. Governance
Additionally, a unique token is necessary for the DAO. Those who stake the token participate in governance.
4. Funding
The deWeb company need an asset to sell in order to raise funds to develop the project.
Security asset, or a decentralised token?
There’s a lot of talk around whether crypto-tokens other than Bitcoin are actually unregistered security assets. The last point I mentioned — funding — may make you think that BBS is more like a security asset. My personal opinion is that it is, and there’s nothing wrong with that. Ultimately, investors and founding members were rewarded with BBS tokens, like shares in a company. But $BBS is not quite a share.
BBS as a currency
What makes $BBS more than just an asset you “hodl” forever is that it must be used in order to participate in economic activity on the BBS Network. In other words, it is a medium of exchange — money. $BBS is the currency of the BBS Network.
This doesn’t mean it’s not a security asset. We just don’t have a good legal term for it yet.
Price Action
The above makes clear that the market value of $BBS is positively correlated with the growth of the BBS network because $BBS is an innate part of the Network.
As the BBS Network grows, the token’s market value will increase. By how much? Who knows.
Let me know what you think,
YoavNov 18, 2022 RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network Note: everything written here is my opinion alone, not that of the deWeb Team or anyone else.
In light of Elon Musk’s twitter takeover, many users are switching to an alternative platform: Mastodon. This is quite fascinating to see — it looks like people are slowly building up distaste towards the monopoly. Distaste with Web2 platforms always makes me more bullish on BBS.
What is Mastodon?
Mastodon is a distributed social network. Imagine every subreddit was hosted independently on a server. All the servers together are called the fediversre. That’s basically what it is, except the UI is more similar to the twitter model than reddit. Mastodon claims to be decentralised. I don’t buy it. Sure, all the communities are controlled by different servers. But users are still at the whim of whoever controls those servers.
Also — there’s nothing that prevents the majority of servers to be controlled by one party. BBS is very different in this sense — and far more decentralised.
BBS
The core difference between BBS and Mastodon is that BBS uses a public database. This is crucial. BBS uses blockchain technology to create an immutable public database that no one controls. Mastodon makes no use of blockchain technology. It's just a lot of different servers -- but you are at a specific server's whim.
Why can't BBS be centralised?
Mastodon's ideal model is decentralised, but there isn't any incentive structure that prohibits the majority of Mastodon servers to be controlled by one party. This would centralise the Network, as discussed.
BBS is very different. By design, it cannot be controlled by one party. The EOS blockchain records all BBS posts. The only way someone could attack the EOS network in order to centralise BBS content would be to own a majority stake. That would cost over $374,000,000. And even then, the incentive structure works so that if the attacker would simply be honest, they would be rewarded with tokens. It is extremely difficult for someone to centralise the EOS blockchain. And that's the only way you could centralise BBS's public database.
Conclusion
Decentralisation is becoming a buzzword. With respect, the way I see it, Mastodon is yet another project that claims to be decentralised but isn't. Like most social media alternatives, it's also a bit of a political echo chamber -- you could call it the Rumble of the Left (Rumble is a YouTube alternative with many right-wingers).
At the end of the day, whilst it's an improvement on the twitter model, someone else still controls your posts, and can delete them forever. Someone could pretty easily centralise the system by having control over the majority of servers, which might even be the case now. I'd need to look at the data.
Any form of truly de-monopolised social media will have to use blockchains, in my opinion. Indeed, BBS does. You'd have to behave completely irrationally to try and centralise the BBS Network, by attacking the EOS blockchain. And even then, your chances of success are slim.
I think people are looking for alternatives to proprietary social media. The monopoly will not last for ever.
Web3 is coming. And BBS is coming back to the future with it.
Let me know what you think,
Yoav Nov 7, 2022 RTB Token & Network We have seen a very interesting past few weeks in the Web2 social media space. Elon Musk has officially taken over twitter, looking to improve the platform. Meta have announced that Instagram will be integrating NFTs into their product. And the Kanye West saga continues. On the free speech front, it looks like both the Left and Right are increasingly unhappy, with some 20,000 users leaving twitter (likely from the Left), and some right-wingers critisising the censorship of West. Technologically, Meta are trying to integrate elements of blockchain technology into their product -- but for the wrong reasons, in my opinion.
All of this makes clear that people are increasingly unhappy with the social media. This of course goes back to the root problem: the market monopolised, so there is no choice. This is a separate topic altogether. What I would like to focus on is a simple question: why might this general discontent cause user migration from Web2 social media platforms, to network like BBS?
1. Censorship Policy
This is quite a simple reason, and is not technological in nature. It could well be that sooner or later, people will look for platforms that simply have a more liberal free speech policy (by liberal, I mean more lenient, not left-wing). Regardless of the database technology, a large percentage of developers of Web3 UIs are controlled free speech absolutists. I say that in the most positive sense. Ukraineuncensored.com is a great case in point demonstrating that the BBS.market operators believe in free speech. Indeed, the "Web3" platform Minds (although a bit of a fake) attracted millions of users, simply because they had a free speech policy.
Thus, it is possible that in the short term BBS.market will be to Reddit what Rumble is to YouTube.
Note that I refer to BBS.market, not BBS. The censorship policy of BBS is the EOS consensus algorithm, and no more. It is very difficult to censor content from the EOS blockchain, where all BBS posts are stored. You can browse the blockchain here, or run an EOS node if that site is not good enough for you.
2. Choice
As BBS uses a public database, we may see many different UIs being developed in the next few years. The introduction of a software development kit will make it possible to build a UI without even writing a single line of code. For those looking for alternatives to proprietary social media platforms, they could even develop their own and propose it to any BBS operator. And if no one accepts, they can become an operator -- because everything is public.
Ultimately, most people would rather use a network where they can choose their censor, privacy policy, recommendation algorithm, payment model, and more. So, the expansion of different UIs on the BBS Network could attract users.
3. Security
A simple reason: there will always be a backup of your data on the blockchain. No one party controls your posts, which you worked hard to write. Which brings us to our next point.
4. Monetary Reward
This is one of the most important factors, particularly for online community leaders. Migrating to BBS from somewhere like Reddit can generate enormous revenue streams. Businesses could earn money every time their customers post a customer support question. Online community leaders could earn for just continuing what they are doing, but somewhere else.
BBS is the only social media platform that -- to my knowledge -- distributes ad revenue to Network users.
Because everyone is a Network user. There is not one party or central authority. By nature, BBS rewards Network users -- not by a voluntary charitable endeavor.
Let me know that you think,
Yoav Nov 4, 2022 RTB Token & Network Note: everything written here is my opinion alone, not that of the deWeb Team or anyone else. BBS is not the only social network that uses blockchain technology. There are many more. For the purpose of this post, I will compare two fairly successful projects to BBS: Minds and Steem. These networks’ UIs follow slightly different models (e.g. Minds is more of a Twitter model), but are still interesting to look at.
We will be using three criteria to asses these projects: Extent of decentralisation; Ability for users to earn, and the User-friendliness for a Web2-er.
Minds
The Minds whitepaper states that it is an "open source and decentralized social networking platform where users are rewarded with Minds tokens for contributions to the community". In May 2020, Minds had 2.5 million users. ¹
Criterion #1: Extent of Decentralisation
Whilst the Minds whitepaper claims it is a decentralised Network, I am not sure this is the case. A decentralised network is one that, by nature, no party can control. However, the majority of Minds' data is stored on traditional private web servers. This makes it no different from Web2 products like twitter. The only public database that Minds utilises is the Arweave blockchain. Users have the option to store content there permanently, and publicly. ²
Basically, the Minds architecture does not allow for demonopolisation. For that you need all data to be public. Most of Minds' data is stored privately. As such, the Minds company have control over the Network. It is not decentralised. I would give it a 2/10 as a decentralisation score.
Criterion #2: Ability of Users to Earn
The main blockchain-based part of the Minds Network is its token. $MINDS is an ERC-20 token. Users can earn it from posting on Minds. Ad revenue, as well as other revenue streams, are distributed to Minds users, in the form of the $MINDS token.
However, there is a huge catch to this: ironically, you need to pay for a membership in order to earn. This membership option is not available on the iOS app. Elsewhere, it costs around $5 per month. ³
Criterion #3: User-friendliness for a Web2-er
Minds is totally user-friendly for the average Web2 user. You don't need to connect any wallet.
Steem
Steem's whitepaper describes Steem as a “ a blockchain database that supports community building and social interaction with cryptocurrency rewards”. Let's analyse the system with our criteria.
Criterion #1: Extent of Decentralisation
All posts on Steem are stored on a public blockchain.⁴ In this regard, it is a fairly decentralised system. As everything is public, it allows for a demonopolised infrastructure where anyone could develop their own Steem app.
Having said that, it is important to note that Steem runs on its own blockchain. It does not run on a broader network like Etherem or EOS. As such, its consensus mechanism is not as decentralised like that of other blockchains. In fact, the whitepaper states that “the consensus algorithm adopted by Steem is similar to the consensus algorithm adopted by companies throughout the world”⁵. There is some kind of voting process. This means that censorship is far more likely than on blockchains with Proof of Work, or variations of Proof of Stake (e.g. DPOS).
So, we can conclude that Steem does indeed utilise a public database. However, this public database is not very decentralised. It is democratic. That is still a huge improvement from Web2, don't get me wrong.
It is far easier to censor data on the Steem blockchain than on the Bitcoin, Ethereum or EOS blockchains.
Steem is partially decentralised. I would give it a 5/10 decentralisation score.
Criterion #2: Ability of Users to Earn
Indeed, you can relatively easily earn Steem tokens from posting.
Criterion #3: User-friendliness for a Web2-er
Steem is fairly user friendly for the Web2 user. Having said that, the interface is generally quite poor. I had to receive a text to my phone number in order to verify my account. The text did not arrive, and I still have not managed to open an account there.
BBS
The BBS white paper⁶ states that the BBS Network is a public network of interconnected message boards. Each and every post is stored within a public database.
Criterion #1: Extent of Decentralisation
BBS is decentralised. All the data is stored on a public database. Specifically, the EOS blockchain. EOS uses the the Delegated Proof of Stake consensus algorithm. This renders the most decentralsation in comparison to the systems mentioned above. As such, it is very unlikely that BBS data will be removed from the EOS blockchain. Therefore, anyone can develop a BBS UI, rendering demonopolisaiton.
An important catch is that images are not stored on a decentralised public database, but on Google's central servers.
Moreover, BBS UIs are centralised, like any other website. This is described in detail here.
Overall, BBS is by far the most decentralised system. I would give it 8/10.
Criterion #2: Ability of Users to Earn
The current BBS UI makes it difficult for every user to earn from the Get-Go. However, on BBS.market, any board that meets the Engagement Mining Parameters can earn BBS Tokens. Users of these boards can earn tokens.
Criterion #3: User-friendliness for a Web2-er
The BBS platform is totally compatible with the Web2 experience. Many BBS users do not even know that they are interacting with a blockchain.
One can also withdraw their BBS Tokens to their own private wallets.
Conclusion
BBS and Steem are the most decentralised systems. I am not sure where it is easier to earn.
In my humble opinion, Minds sells itself as decentralised, when in fact it is not very different from Twitter. All they really did was make a token and put a few posts on their blockchain.
Despite this, Minds has over a million members. This makes one very bullish on BBS. The BBS team are immensely experienced, and the technology enables total demonopilsiation.
BBS can lead the way for the demonopilisation of social media.
Let me know what you think,
Yoav
References
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minds#:~:text=Minds%20is%20a%20blockchain%2Dbased,than%20mainstream%20social%20media%20networks.
2. https://www.bestbitcoinexchange.io/news/posts-on-mind-can-now-be-stored-forever-on-the-arweave-blockchain/
3. https://www.minds.com/plus
4. https://steem.com/steem-whitepaper.pdf
5. Ibid. p14
6. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1I2xYp0EKvVvNqtzngFy1k-l_B05g7wLJS5VSGL2dDcU/edit#Nov 1, 2022 RTB Token & Network Information. A broad word, yet a powerful and important one. It is defined by Oxford as "what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things". Information technology, therefore, is the study of how systems interact with information.
Broadly speaking, there are two things you can do with information: create it and move it. One ought to dive a bit deeper, though. General relativity aside, there are two ways through which you can move information: through space, and through time. In other words, we can (a) process information, (b) transfer information through space, and (c) store information through time.
Eyal Hertzog recently explained how these three information realms - processing, transferring, and storing -- have two important manifestations. First, they are chronological landmarks in our evolutionary history as a species. Second, they serve as areas in which the world of technology has gradually improved over the past 60 years or so.
On the biology front, our ape ancestors could process information. That is what the brain is for. But, they could not transfer it anywhere near as efficiently as we do today, through the use of language. That is what made our hunter gatherer ancestors different from apes. They could -- roughly speaking -- communicate in a somewhat precise manor. Finally, the ability to store information in the form of writing is something relatively new, around 5000 years old. Written texts from 4000 years ago like parts of the Bible are still very much read today.
So, keep in mind these three categories: process, transfer, store. Now, let us fast forward 4000 years to the world of computers, and see how these categories are connected.
In the world of IT, the act of processing information can be divided into two elements: hardware and software. In the beginning, around the 1970s, there was quite a big monopoly around hardware. But in 1974 came the PC, and hardware was somewhat demonopolised. The same thing happened with software. There was great monopoly around infrastructure software. However, in the late 1990s, open source came, and this monopoly was disintegrated.
Transferring information through space in relation to the world of data is related to networks. With networks, we also had monopolies such as AOL and Progidy. However -- you guessed it -- then came the internet, and the world of networks was largely demonopolised.
Lastly, we can store information through time. In the world of IT, this relates to databases. Only when databases were invented, back in the 1950s and 60s, could institutions like governments move their heaps of data into the digital world. Just like open-source was a public software solution, and the internet was a public network solution, blockchains are a public database solution. Thanks to Satoshi Nakamoto, we have this alternative. It is that simple.
The BBS Network is the first genuine application of blockchain technology to create a truly open and demonpolised social network.
My mind was blown when I heard Eyal say this. It was as if he was teaching a course on the history of IT, in 2050. Blockchains demonopolising social media is not a matter of "if" -- it is only a matter of when, and how.
As history has shown, monopolies fall. They do not benefit anyone other than the actual monopoly.
Will BBS be the innovation that leads the way in this process? Time will tell.
Let me know what you think,
- Yoav Oct 21, 2022 RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network For the keen readers here, I thought I’d put together a list of four papers and books that are important to read in order to understand the mechanics of the BBS Network. Here we go. 1. The Bitcoin Whitepaper
This is where it all started. In this 9 page paper, Satoshi Nakmoto explains Bitcoin, the first application of blockchain. It is a key document in understanding what blockchain is all about. And, blockchain is what makes BBS work. 2. Mastering Ethereum by Andreas Antonopoulos. Antonopoulos is one of the world’s experts on blockchain technology. In his book, Mastering Ethereum, he explains in great detail the mechanics of blockchains like Ethereum and EOS, which have smart contract functionality. Bitcoin was not made for other applications to be built on top of. As we know, BBS runs on the EOS blockchain and $BBS as a token is on the Ethereum blockchain. Mastering Ethereum is crucial for understanding the specific blockchain architecture that allows BBS to run. 3. The BBS Whitepaper This short but crucial document is necessary to understand how BBS works, on a specific level. It both looks at on on-chain functionalities and the systems of the BBS.market UI. It’s really the document that answers the question: what is BBS? 4. Introducing the BBS Network by Eyal HertzogI love this post. The above papers and books explain what and how BBS is. Eyal’s post answers a deeper question: why BBS? Let me know what you think,
YoavOct 15, 2022 RTB Token & Network Kanye West was censored from Twitter for tweeting anti-Semitic hate speech. This has again stirred up a very important debate in the 21st century: free speech on social media.
Whatever you think of the current situation, I think that many people view the debate in the wrong way. Twitter is a private company that can do what they want. If you are worried about free speech, the problem you should be addressing is that there is a monopoly over social media. The only non-monopoly online public communication service is email, as Eyal Hertzog has pointed out on several occasions.
If you don’t like Gmail’s Terms of Use, you can switch to Outlook. Or iCloud. Or something else.
If you don’t like Twitter’s ... there’s no where to go.
Why do we have this problem?
The root-cause of this problem is a computer science one. Until Satoshi Nakamoto created Bitcoin in 2009, we did not have a good way to store data on a public database, in a decentralised manner. De-monopolised private communication in the form of email could work -- but a decentralised public database was more tricky.
Nakamoto came up with the idea of a distributed ledger to create a decentralised public database. This is blockchain. He applied it to the communication of value -- money.
Thanks to Nakmoto, we have a good way to create decentralised public databases. BBS uses blockchain technology to facilitate the potential reality where we do not have a monopoly over our public communication services.
This way, people will have choice. And as long as Kanye isn't breaking the law, he can broadcast whatever he likes over the internet. He probably won’t have a large following -- but it will be left to the free market. Not to the monopoly.
BBS allows for de-monopolisation of social media!
Let me know what you think. Oct 10, 2022 RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network RTB Token & Network 
