Sapien is an Ethereum-based social network built for humans. Launched as an undergraduate project by Ankit Bhatia & Rob Giometti at UC Berkeley in 2017, Sapien is building a decentralized, private social network built on a foundation of independent, self-governing communities called Tribes which all participate in the SPN token economy.
The company is established on a principle of “Humans First,” which means Sapien will stand by these pledges:
- Data sovereignty: as a social network, Sapien knows that privacy is paramount and will never collect personal data without consent
- Self-governance: Sapien commits to give communities the tools they need to guide and protect their communities, so it will always be people who moderate and promote content, never an exploitable algorithm
- Humanity: Sapien is built by humans for humans, not trolls or bots, and the platform aims to make it incredibly hard for malicious users or content to spread across the network
Sapien aims to build the first Web3 social network for mainstream users by building a familiar social user interface and experience and abstracting away the complexities of blockchain by implementing instant, gasless transactions for the end-user and by reinventing the wallet experience to be simpler and more intuitive.
Sapien aligns its business model with the best interests of its users, so its primary source of revenue is the nominal fees it applies to Charges and Rewards.
While Sapien was originally founded in the United States by Ankit & Rob, the team itself has grown to a team of 20, globally distributed across 10 countries.