Decentralization, as a concept and ideal, goes beyond blockchain protocols and tokens that run on smart contracts. One network that is expanding the definition of what the Open Metaverse can be is Koii, a decentralized storage platform that envisions itself as “Web3, for everyone.”
Rather than paying dividends to miners and node-runners, as many blockchain networks do, Koii rewards its end users and content creators based on how popular their content is. In this way, they strive to redefine the creator economy for the decentralized era, removing the power from the Big Tech players who have weaponized our attention for their own gain.
Upending the Attention Economy
As NFTs continue to redefine the way that we think about the intersection of blockchain and culture, creators will naturally gravitate towards the networks that make it feasible and beneficial for them to publish their IP. Koii differentiates itself from other decentralized networks in that it is built with a focus on content, rather than currency.
One way that Koii has done this is by structuring their network using gradual consensus, meaning that one node establishes its truth before the rest of the network confirms it over the next day or two. This makes the network much more eco-friendly and allows it to perform large amounts of transactions simultaneously, drastically reducing costs for creators.
With the goal of making their platform as user-friendly as possible for content publishing, Koii has built a suite of services to enable the next wave of Web3 onboarding. Their Finnie wallet allows users to drag and drop in any file on their computer and mint it through Arweave, which can then be bridged onto Ethereum and other networks.
All of this NFT content is tracked by the network, which then rewards its creators for the attention they bring to it. This is a revolutionary approach for both the Web3 and social media spaces. Current centralized social media platforms gain all the benefit of their users’ creations, monetizing our attention without sharing in the rewards. While blockchain has enabled the NFT layer, creators are forced into learning complex techniques such as smart contract programming, or publishing on centralized marketplaces that charge high fees. Koii envisions itself as the missing link: decentralized content storage that cheaply and seamlessly integrates with our natural creative processes.
Atomic NFTs
Another innovation that the Koii team has advanced is called Atomic NFTs. With this technology, the smart contract code is embedded into the media itself. This means that the NFT holder always owns their file, no matter what happens to the platform that is storing the file.
What many Web3 users are not aware of is that most Ethereum NFTs are simply tokens that point to the image or other file. The hope is that the file being pointed to is stored on a decentralized platform; however, even in high-profile, expensive NFT collections, this is not always the case. This means that, if the centralized server hosting the files is taken down or modified, the contents of the NFT could be changed. With Atomic NFTs, however, Koii has encapsulated the entire stack into a single smart contract, giving the user true ownership and allowing the platform to track attention in an accurate manner–even across any subsequent iterations of its publication on the internet.
Koii’s Future
By creating this mining-through-creation paradigm, Koii has planted the seeds of a passionate user base that has been working to expand its adoption. It is gradually rolling out development tools that make it easy to build on the network, and has already enabled the rise of content collectives, a new iteration of DAOs that use Koii’s technology to reward a group of creatives equally for their collaborative creations.
With wallet, interface, settlement, storage, and application layers, Koii has built a full-service platform with endless possibilities. After a successful third round of funding, they are currently hiring and rolling out additional features over the course of the year. With their unique take on decentralized file storage that puts creators first, we believe that Koii has the potential to lead onboarding into the Open Metaverse for years to come, challenging the established paradigm of the attention of economy with every piece of content it hosts.
If you’re a founder building in the Open Metaverse, join our network and apply to Base Camp here!
Learn More about Koii
The Project > https://www.koii.network/
Twitter > https://twitter.com/KoiiNetwork
Discord > https://discord.com/invite/koii
Listen to the Podcast with Koii Founder Al Morris
About Outlier Ventures
Outlier Ventures has been backing Web 3 founders since 2014 and is the world’s leading Open Metaverse accelerator program, and was one of the first VC firms dedicated to investing in the emerging crypto ecosystem. Their portfolio includes notable projects across DeFi, NFTs and blockchain infrastructure with a focus on emergent Open Metaverse use cases such as NFT-based play-to-earn games, augmented reality and more. Outlier Ventures portfolio can be found.
Both Base Camp and Ascent are constantly looking for founders accelerating the open Metaverse thesis by launching token networks. We provide a proven framework for growth while weaving together a global network of over 1,000 of the world’s leading Web 3 founders, protocols, and VCs to form an ecosystem of mentorship and investment.
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