SPHERE: TRANSFORMING SOCIAL MEDIA
By: Martin Muroria
Tags: Social Media, Blockchain, ICO, Advertising

There are ideas that have been accepted and some implemented that have completely changed the world. Einstein and his theories opened up new ways of thinking that helped scientists in so many ways. The work on electricity done by Nikola Tesla and Benjamin Franklin set up the world for what it is now Just think about where we would be without electricity or some of the inventions from the past. The ground work that was laid by past inventors paved way for the creation of better and more efficient inventions.

Computers are probably the best example to show where we have come from technologically. Their initial design and operating systems would seem so crude in this day and age. The foundations were laid in the 20th century, efficiency and effectiveness were products of the 21st century. Computers were a great idea as they opened up an avenue for other developments, the internet being arguably the greatest. A life without internet connectivity for a greater percentage of the world’s population seems kind of unbearable. The internet has brought convenience into the world that people have gotten so used to. Social media and e-commerce platforms are just some of the conveniences that came about as a result of the internet. They are heavily used daily around the world and living without them has actually become impossible for some.

The internet is a great platform with so many advantages but just like every rose, the internet has some potentially painful thorns that have been seen in systems like e-commerce and social media. However, what some of the users complain about often is the possibility of their data being collected without their consent. You have probably heard about this in social media platforms and other internet forums. People have also come up with theories on how companies collected data from you. Some have even claimed that smartphone cameras and microphones are used to record your conversations to gather information about you. This is yet to be proven but some of the claims of data collection are actually true and some experiences internet users have everyday confirmed these claims.

You have probably experienced one or two or many shocking moments online when ads pop up and they display exactly what you were thinking about. This is made possible by people known as data brokers in the internet. These are companies that collect your data, group you to a particular demographic and sell this data to the highest bidder. So many of your privacy rights are probably infringed during this process but legal loopholes allow such companies to benefit from your data. Advertisement companies are their target market as they need this data to improve their ad conversion rates. This data business is a booming one with data brokers earning millions of dollars each year. Mainstream companies like google and Facebook have also joined in. This shows you the monetary advantage the data collection business has. Facebook, Google and other internet companies that have large following collect their users’ data on their daily usage of those platforms. Things like the user search history and pages followed are some of the areas where data is gathered from. This data is then sold and these companies profit from it. Most social platforms are free because of the lucrative data deals they can get from advertising companies.

The data being sold belongs to you but the billions of dollars it gets is shared among a few companies. This will soon change. The foundation for creating a system that enables the common internet user has been laid. Blockchain has been tested and with the right application it can disrupt existing set ups in the internet. Sphere is using blockchain to disrupt the social media space by providing its own decentralized social media which will profit the members of the Sphere platform through redistributing the advertising proceeds such that it reaches the owner of the data.

Within Sphere social media are Social Activity Tokens (SAT). SAT is a utility token within the platform and can be used to make payments and settle other debts within Sphere. These tokens will form the basis of Sphere profitability. Sphere will house a user database which will include data that advertisers will find very useful. This data will be collected the same way as existing social media platforms with the only difference being that users will give their consent and they will be rewarded for giving this data. Depending on the value of the data provided, SAT will be rewarded. The more valuable your data is the more SAT you receive. This data will then be used to make advertising within Sphere pleasant for both the advertiser and the target market. Advertisers are probably going to spend less advertising on this platform compared to traditional internet advertising. They are also highly likely to get greater ad conversion rates.

An e-commerce space will also be available on Sphere. The SAT that users may have collected can be used in purchasing items being sold within Sphere. The e-commerce platform will provide a business opportunity for some of the Sphere members. Goods being sold by a particular user will be displayed to their followers and friends. Reaching more people will incur a fee for advertising to your target market. The data collected from Sphere users will be used in advertising within Sphere as well. Sphere will make all transactions and nay dealings within its platform as transparent as possible through blockchain to assure safety and to create trust within its network.

The social media scene is set to be revolutionized and this revolution begins with those who believe in it. Sphere will retain the everyday functionality of social media but will decentralize its database to further protect their users from data theft. To take part in this transformation, you can support Sphere through its public ICO via https://sphere.social/. The public ICO runs until 9th April 2018. After this, all unsold SAT will be destroyed and there are no plans to make new ones in future. The Sphere ecosystem can be understood in its entirety by going through the Sphere whitepaper via this link https://sphere.social/wp-content/uploads/2017/12/Sphere_Whitepaper_v1.7.4.pdf.