Peepeth is a social network for those who value mindful, responsible engagement:
> Features encourage thoughtful content while discouraging reactive and hateful posts.
> No ads. Peepeth is accountable to users, not advertisers.
> Peepeth gives you control of your online legacy because data is saved to the Ethereum blockchain. Blockchain data is open, decentralized, and immutable.
Hey all,
Peepeth creator here. Peepeth is a user-friendly microblogging app powered by the blockchain.
Peepeth is uncensorable & unstoppable. No company controls your data (which is saved to the blockchain) and anybody can build a front-end that reads from and writes to the smart contract.
But Peepeth is more than freedom of speech. Freedom of speech is a prerequisite for a better world, but what we do with that freedom is equally as important. I hope Peepeth helps people consider their digital legacies and how their speech and actions affect the world.
What you post on Peepeth cannot be removed. So be your best self. Add something thoughtful (or funny) as your "message to the world". Buy a charity badge. Showcase values you'd like to spread in your posts.
Your words truly have an impact. So share what matters, and reward the truth!
Thanks to everyone for their advice and suggestions, and to everyone who helped and otherwise made it possible! Thanks @daviswbaer for the hunt!
Bevan (Peepeth creator)
*Don't like it? Peepeth.com is an opinionated front-end for the smart contract. You are free to build your own reader/writer, and brand it however you want.
Wanted to quickly touch on monetization. Peepeth was bootstrapped, and did not have an ICO. Nor are there ads.
Currently, the revenue model is taking 10% of tips sent on the site. Also, Peepeth charges for social media verification. Finally, you can support Peepeth through donations (see peepeth.com/support)
If you want to support Peepeth, the best way is to join the small but friendly community, post good content, and tell your friends about it!
@bevanbarton Love your work with feeding Peepeth with positive people. It feels like an online forum from back in the 90s where the internet was full of positive conversations with user names you had no idea who were.
The product works smoothly too! Happy to follow this one as active Peeper (?)!
@nikolay Done! For anyone else, feel free to sign up on the site, and then DM me on Twitter with the email address you used and I'll bump you up in the queue.
@bevanbarton This looks awesome! We'd love to team up with you - would you consider adding Portis (https://portis.io) to reach a larger audience, especially less tech-savvy people? It's a JavaScript SDK that lets people run your Ethereum DApp in the browser (no client installation required), using the same account on all their devices.
@bevanbarton do you have any concerns about the fact that no one can censor you while you remain anonymous? Plus they can send you money.
What would prevent this from becoming a radical nightmare where hate is spewed and directly sponsored with tips? To take the most extreme example. What if ISIS joins your network? There's no way to kick them of? Censor their posts? Block incoming tips?
@bevanbarton@max_de_vos This is an important question that would need to be answered. The model is decentralized but that does not mean accountability is absolved.
@max_de_vos I think its criminal appeal is limited compared to alternatives. Use of a known and traceable payment+communications channel reveals more info about the perpetrators and their networks than non-crypto communication channels + crypto payments. Pairing communication and money removes a level of anonymity because of the traceable nature of blockchain transactions.
To be clear: front-ends are censorable. Illegal content will be removed from the peepeth.com front-end.
@max_de_vos@bevanbarton Can you clarify censorable? Will you actively police the site for content that goes against the TOS? If there is a TOS, will you disclose it? I couldn't find one on your site.
I love the innovation and site design, but I start to wonder how all these dApps end up differing from their mainstream counterparts if there's still a central body that ultimately controls the content on the platform.
@frantzlight Thanks for the feedback and question.
No central body controls the content. The data-store is open, so anybody can write to and read from the contract without my permission. If a front-end deviates from its censorship policy, users will quickly find out and move to another front-end.
The peepeth.com front-end is a regular web app with a TOS under development that will be public; currently, illegal content will be removed and NSFW content is marked as such (users need to click "reveal").
The description here leads me to believe this will absolutely become the favored platform of Nazis, doxxers, abusers, and so on. Not only that, I fail to see how anything about this design prevents certain unnamed blockchain based apps recent troubles with child pornography and other illegal content.
You said, "front ends are censorable" but the content is "uncensorable," and that makes me think this network is absolutely ripe for abuse. As you said "If a front-end deviates from its censorship policy, users will quickly find out and move to another front-end." So I have to wonder what's to stop enterprising bigots from using your invention with their own front ends.
I'm totally down to hear how you'd negate this but it sounds kinda like you're building a haven for the worst people, even if that's not your intent.
@trulyadamant Hey Adam, good points. You've raised the question du jour: how to attract good users and repel the bad on an open platform?
Existing "free speech platforms" have managed to brand themselves in certain ways to attract certain people; am hoping I and the existing community can manage to do similarly for the thoughtful, non-murderous crowd.
Also, not expecting to see as much of that on Peepeth, because the cat's out of the bag now, so anybody can roll their own. Would Dr Evil join Peepeth, or start his own?
Would appreciate your ideas on how to attract the good- what do you think?
@bevanbarton I.. would not build the thing you've built. Perhaps we have a fundamental disagreement concerning the importance of free speech. Removing all the rules and structural enforcements of decency just gives the intellectual weeds room to grow. Any decentralized system behaves like an organism or ecosystem, right? You've built an organism that has nothing that looks like an immune system to repel unwanted invaders. Your system needs a structural way to handle itself, and from what I'm reading from your own comments and marketing materials, no such thing exists.
@bevanbarton@trulyadamant Wow we got quite the Negative Nancy here. Keep up the good work Bevan, I am sure you will figure out how to deal with all Nazi invasions :)
@daviswbaer The last 10-15 years have done a lot to demonstrate the effects of unhindered networks on society, and it's perfectly reasonable to look at a technological creation and say, "how might a malicious actor attempt to abuse this creation?" I'm not trying to rain on a parade, I'm drawing a line to the direct and highly predictable negative outcomes of the marketing behind this product and asking how the inventor hopes to mitigate that.
@bevanbarton@trulyadamant This makes me cringe a little, not because it's a shocking view... but because "intellectual weeds" are *entirely* subjective. Even what is illegal can, and does, change with time and geography. Bevan did not "invent" an uncensorable platform for free speech, Satoshi did. Thousand of developers since have been iterating on his invention... because there is isn't (yet?) any other way to design a trust-less system. Such systems are valuable, as evidenced not just by the market prices of these ideas - but by the growing number of people devoting their lives and minds to such ideas. You must have much more faith in gatekeepers than a large part of the world - consider yourself lucky, if anything.
You're worried about people you don't agree with saying things you find repulsive - and your arguments and concerns could apply to the invention of other tools that help people express themselves - for instance, a pen. After all, not just anyone should be allowed to write in *ink* - that's not easily erased! They might drop anonymous pamphlets in the streets. Those pamphlets might lead to joining online chat rooms and discussion you don't approve of... they might send each other amazon gift cards as tokens of support... the horror. Should we ban the pens and the internet to protect the "immune system" of a society as *you* imagine it should be?
I think you mean well, truly... and that is exactly why the world needs uncensorable platforms.
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