Super interesting concept. Many have tried to layer micro-payments on top of the web and within communities but none (afaik) have really taken off (although I'm curious how well reddit Gold is working -- cc @heathwblack).
I believe there's an opportunity here but I'm not sure cash is the best motivator for building a community. The largest communities and social networks are fueled by other things, like status (e.g. followers on Twitter), access (e.g. ability to annotate lyrics on Genius), status (e.g. "Yelp Elite" badge), etc.
Thoughts, @mattprd?
@rrhoover What we've found is that most people aren't using ZapChain because they can earn a living, but because it feels so much darn better when an upvote is associated with money, even if only ten cents.
People are loving ZapChain because the interactions FEEL more meaningful. Most people don't cash out, they tip other users. It's karma, but it's money.
On the other hand we've seen multiple times where a blog post on ZapChain has received over $30 in tips from the community - we're also excited about this.
Hey Product Hunt!
I am the CEO / co-founder of ZapChain. Previously I was employee #5 at Ustream where I lead all social products, YC alum, and Forbes 30 under 30 for helping the music industry go viral online (most notably helping Lil Wayne).
At ZapChain we have found that by combining content, and social interactions, with tiny amounts of money, you can increase engagement and quality of interaction. Instead of likes, or upvotes, people on ZapChain "tip" or "reward" each other with money. We have tested our community product for almost a year now with great success, with some communities getting over 100,000 people a month, and some members earning enough to buy school books and phone plans.
Now we are enabling everyone to use it. We believe there are a tremendous amount of people out there who can grow even more interesting communities than we can and we can't wait to see that happen.
ZapChain's payment platform is built using bitcoin and the blockchain. We've been working on this for a year and we are funded by Tim Draper & Boost VC.
p.s. Hip-hop artist Talib Kweli just launched a community and is selling his new album on ZapChain for bitcoin, check it out here: https://www.zapchain.com/buy/tal...#
@mattprd Looks amazing. Well done. What about other micropayments? Is it possible for a user to deposit regular currencies, even if the transaction is done in Bitcoin? Asking because not all communities are (yet) receptive to use a cryptocurrency. I created a community just to test this, and looks you just have the Coinbase integration. Any plans to add access to traditional currencies, or is this outside of your focus?
I believe that the first ten million people have got bitcoin by buying it, but the next hundred million people will get bitcoin by earning it. There's a lot less friction in doing a small task and earning bitcoin than there is in adding your bank account information and buying it. Earning bitcoin also makes bitcoin accessible to anyone in the world, while buying bitcoin is generally restricted to people with bank accounts.
Zapchain is one of the best places on the web right now to earn bitcoin. @rrhoover I agree that right now the best communities are incentivized by other things, but I think we will see some really new and interesting types of global communities emerge when money is involved.
@ntmoney Most people earn dollars, it will eventually be the same way with bitcoin. Bitcoin isn't SUPER easy to buy for EVERYONE in the world but it will ALWAYS be super easy for anyone to receive.
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