A new social network is paying users to post — as long as their content is verified.
OnG.Social, the social media platform of parent company OneName Global, Inc., allows users to create posts using a centralized dashboard that can then distribute those posts on a user’s other social networks — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. These posts are then authenticated by professionals.
In return for posting verified information, users will earn onG-Coins, an original cryptocurrency that rewards truth and seeks to block the spread of fake news. That idea caught on with Adrian Rosenbusch, a former UFC cutman who signed a sponsorship deal with onG.Social after meeting Chris Kramer, the CEO of OneName Global. After seeing what Kramer put into the company, Rosenbusch joined full-time in 2014 as Chief Visionary Officer.
“It’s a real passion project, which is really what drew me to it in the first place,” Rosenbusch told SportTechie. “We’re having people evangelize our messages because they really believe in it.” One such evangelist is Kenny Florian, a former UFC fighter.
On Monday, onG.Social offered its first shares of onG-Coin in an initial coin offering that was pre-valued at $25 million, according to the onG-Coin website. The ability of users to make money off their posts was intriguing to many in the professional fighting industry, Rosenbusch said, because it allows them to share content about their lives and monetize it. It also gives a platform to fighters who want to start businesses but don’t necessarily know where to start.
OnG.Social is backed by IBM after participating in the tech giant’s Global Entrepreneur program, Rosenbusch said. He added that IBM’s pursuit of blockchain technologies goes hand-in-hand with onG.Social’s mission. OnG.Social was live as a social platform before it entered the blockchain, but now uses the Ethereum and Waves blockchain platforms, which promotes extra security and reliability, according to a press release.
“IBM, they’re busy right now with their own projects in blockchain, so we’re all doing our thing together. We all see in the same direction,” Rosenbusch said.
In its move to the blockchain, onG.Social will also include the APIs to decentralized social networks such as Steemit, Akasha, Golem, and MaidSafe, among others.
The key to onG.Social’s core mission is the Gravity algorithm, which takes into account the validity and social impact of posts and awards cryptocurrency, according to the press release. Posts are validated by community experts — for example, a post on a medical procedure would be deemed true or not by a doctor, Rosenbusch said — and assigned a Gravity score that would make the post more or less visible.
The users whose posts have low or negative Gravity scores would not be silenced or shut down, as a low-performing channel might be by its corporate parent, but rather ignored by a majority of users.
“That alone takes away so many of the problems you have with status-quo networks, where if you’re just arguing for the sake of arguing, or posting negative content … you’ll get a low Gravity score, you won’t get shut down,” Rosenbusch explained. “It’s all up to the user. Nobody’s silencing your voice, but also nobody’s paying attention to you.”
Instead, Rosenbusch said, the company’s goal is to bring people together, allow for the largest multitude of voices, and to protect users’ content.
The initial coin offering is open until mid-September, and investors who buy onG-Coin can vote, in Reddit fashion, on posts made on onG.Social. The social network is entirely free to use.